UNDERSTANDING AND IMPLEMENTING MANDATED REORGANIZATIONS 119 Leadership at the state and university levels publically announced the success of the merger less than six months after the campuses were joined. Although the dean’s efforts helped gain buy-in from faculty, much work remains to be done. The dean and faculty expect it to take 5-7 years to transition to the “new normal.” Additional cases The two foregoing cases illustrate how merging campuses can be driven by proximity and/or anticipated saving on administrative costs. Merging campuses can also be driven by other factors (see Table 7.2.C at end of the chapter). Better than the sum of its parts. With no foreshadowing, a state system announced the pending merger of a public research university (graduate medical programs only) with a public master’s university (no graduate medical programs). Being public institu- tions located in the same city seemed to be all they had in common, yet by moving to a common administration, financial efficiencies were possible (redundant presidential and VP offices were eliminated) and a comprehensive research university would result. However, salary and workloads were highly polarized, and the interim president and all merger committees and processes were led by faculty or administrators from the research institution, garnering little trust of the process at the master’s university. The dean of the liberal arts college took on the time-intensive role of “explaining up” to the provost and president topics such as why their tenure and promotion stan- dards did not have the same research standards as the research university faculty; how to recruit non-science undergraduate majors; and what non-science research is and why it is important. This conversation was similar to the type of communication deans use with legislators, but it was not expected this would be necessary internally at the institution. And then there was this. In the popular press and on social media, a press release wrote of the pending merger of the University of Florida and Florida State University with the goal of creating the largest research university in the nation. This included video footage of interviews with the two presidents discussing the merger. The release was picked up widely and led to much hand-wringing by students and alumni—until everyone realized the date of the press-release was April 1st . It seems even university presidents can occasionally make the time for April Fools shenanigans! Additional Considerations for Intercampus Mergers Here is advice and action items suggested by deans who have been through inter- campus consolidations. We are not advocating for any particular point of view, but these recommendations served these individual deans well (or would have served them well in hindsight) in the context of their specific intercampus merger.