ORGANIZING THE FACULTY WITHIN A COLLEGE 89 system level. The degree program itself runs on a small core of ES courses and ba- sically builds the rest of the curriculum on what exists within the other disciplines. Within an environment of financial contraction, these students are filling seats that otherwise might be empty. “Creating this center has pulled faculty together on the research side,” says the dean. Faculty self-identified to be in the Center; then as they codified operational rules among themselves, they defined who would qualify as a member. It did not make organizational sense to form a department because the center is comprised of a small core of joint appointments and 25-30 faculty members in other departments who wanted to be involved. The dean attributes the success of the Center to the faculty’s ability to self-organize around a common interest. “They naturally wanted to come together; their passion for the issue has taken this a long way down the road. Many faculty care about this and want to be involved.” Now the Center has a director, a cost center, a budget, protocols, and some control over its faculty. “It’s almost a department. The director is virtually indistinguishable from a chair at this point,” according to the dean. b) A dean of A&S at a research institution perceived considerable dissatisfaction among various departments who were contributing faculty and other resources to a major in International Area Studies and to minors in Africana Studies, Women and Gender Studies, and Judaic Studies. The dean also was concerned about ineffi- ciency and inconsistency across these programs that included: each of the minors in a different department, with differing expectations of support from office staff; often the number of students enrolled in a course was the minimum required; there was no course sharing among the minors; and sponsored events often con- flicted with each other. Believing in the importance of these programs for the students and community members, the dean decided to establish the infrastructure to create a Center for Interdisciplinary Programs under which these programs would be housed. She provided funding for two new positions: one in outreach and event planning; the other in finance and budget support. An advisor position transferred from the International Area Studies program, and the directors of the program would take turns rotating the responsibilities of the Center director. An office suite was iden- tified to house the director and three staff positions. As hoped, this move allowed the directors to coordinate their activities on several fronts: • Course offerings were reviewed for overlap and compatibility, resulting in a single research methods course for all students and acceptance of electives across the programs • Student advising could be handled by one person across all programs