By Anne Baker, News Staff

‘ The ad-hoc committee charged with examining the possibility of restructuring the colleges of Arts and Sciences and Criminal Justice met for the first time last week, those familiar with the committee said.
The committee’s undergraduate representative, Nicole Jackson, said the committee held its first meeting Tuesday, but she declined to comment further on the committee or the meeting because she said she believed chair Mary Loeffelholz would be publicly commenting on the proceedings. Loffelholz declined to comment for this story through university spokesperson Mike Armini.
As deliberations about the possible restructuring of the colleges of Arts and Sciences and Criminal Justice begin, some members of the university called out Northeastern officials for keeping the process largely under wraps.
‘I think that the way [President Joseph] Aoun and Director are steering the ship these days is certainly not as transparent [towards students especially] as it was under Freeland, and it’s really rubbing the entire Northeastern community the wrong way,’ said College of Arts and Sciences Student Advisory Council chairman George Gottschalk.
Gottschalk’s comments come in response to statements to The News from Armini that university officials have made recent moves to keep information and dialogue about the committee open.
Armini said one of those moves included an open letter from College of Criminal Justice interim Dean Chester Britt to the college’s students about the committee. In the letter, Britt reassured students that their educations would not be impacted by the possible reorganization.
‘I want to assure you that the discussion regarding the possible restructuring of the College of Criminal Justice will in no way impact the academic programs in the college,’ the letter read. ‘If CJ is moved into another college, it will primarily be an administrative/organizational move within the broader university.’
The Northeastern Voice published an article about the formation of the committee and its charge to examine the pros and cons to restructuring the colleges. Armini added that university officials are creating a website, likely to launch this week, to inform the community directly about the committee.
In an interview with The News last month, Director said the process of exploring the possibility of restructuring the colleges would be transparent.
‘I think there’s different phases of this process, some of which will be open and some of which won’t, but the process itself will be transparent,’ Director said.
Enzo Yaksic, a College of Criminal Justice alumnus and founder of the Facebook group, ‘Prevent the Dissolution of Northeastern’s College of Criminal Justice,’ echoed Gottshalk’s sentiments.
‘It seems like it’s a foregone conclusion that the colleges will be merged together and everything that happens after that is for show,’ he said.
However, Jackson said she entered the committee unbiased about the future of the colleges of Criminal Justice and Arts and Sciences.
The junior criminal justice and human services major, who has a stake in each college, was selected to serve as the undergraduate representative on the committee by Loeffelholz, said Student Government Association (SGA) President Rob Ranley.’ A number of students were submitted to Loeffelholz by SGA for consideration, Ranley said, but he strongly recommended her because she was the most qualified.
‘I just really love the criminal justice program and as a dual major, I think I could have a good input for both sides of it,’ Jackson said.