The decision to consolidate the School of Mass Communication and the College of Music and Fine Arts into one unit has been met with some resistance.

At a Sept. 11 meeting, the University Senate voted in support of a new, restructured college model involving five colleges and a library. This new model calls for the consolidation of the School of Mass Communication and the College of Music and Fine Arts into one unit — a College of Music, Media and the Arts.

However, a last minute amendment to stop the consolidation made its way to the floor and was rejected by 73 percent of Loyola’s University Senate members. Janna Saslaw, an associate professor in the College of Music and Fine Arts, put forth the amendment.

Sonya Duhé, director of the School of Mass Communication, said she believes that, as a stand-alone unit, the School of Mass Communication will be able to further improve the university’s enrollment.

“We already have a great School of Mass Communication,” Duhé said. “We believe that a stand-alone unit would assist the university in increased enrollment, national visibility, increased fundraising and student success.”

Duhé said that the top accredited schools of journalism and mass communication across the country are their own stand-alone units, and because of this, they have been able to double their enrollments and dramatically increase their fundraising.

The College of Music and Fine Arts is also the only Jesuit university with its own stand-alone college of music.

Robert Thomas, the director for the Center of Environmental Communication, said that he believes the faculty in the School of Mass Communication is doing everything they can to further improve the university, including following the 2012 strategic plan put forth by the Rev.Fr. Kevin Wildes, S.J.

“We just got two major accreditations. We’re doing everything in the new strategic plan that the provost shared at our college meeting. We’re on top of it,” Thomas said. “We’re always doing something new, renovating, giving talks at national meetings and we’re in the papers all of the time. So it doesn’t make any sense to us that we run the risk of being diminished.”

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Marc Manganaro said he wants to make it clear that the model voted on by the University Senate is only a proposal. That proposal, he said, still needs to be approved by the Board of Trustees and ultimately by the president.

Thomas said that the School of Mass Communication is not against the growth of other departments, but there is still cause for concern.

“In no way is this school anti-growth of other departments, but in a big way, we’re concerned about it when it diminishes our resources directly,” Thomas said. “We are very supportive of growing the student body of the university and the wellbeing of students. We do it everyday.”