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Starting July 1, the College of Health Sciences will be integrated into the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health to create the new School of Health Professions and Global Medicine, and the College of Applied Science and Technology will be integrated with the College of Information Science.

Interim Provost Ron Marx said in a written statement that the integration will “enhance opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration that drives innovation and addresses real-world challenges.�

UA spokesperson Mitch Zak said, in addition to the academic and research benefits, the university does anticipate realizing “efficiencies in administrative costs,� but didn’t specify how much money might be saved through the integration.

When asked how the integration will affect the UA’s fiscal year 2026 budget, and if this was already worked into it, Zak said the budget process is still underway and hasn’t been completed. He emphasized that the reason for the integration is to “better serve our students.�

The School of Health Professions and Global Medicine will have all the current academic programs of the College of Health Sciences with no changes to student classes or course offerings, the UA’s announcement said.

Senior Vice President for Health Sciences Michael D. Dake, Public Health Dean Iman Hakim and Interim Health Sciences Dean Kevin Lohenry said in a joint message:

“This integration builds on the colleges’ complementary missions and their many synergies, most notably greater incorporation of population health into clinical training, helping to develop professionals who are even stronger advocates for public health in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.â€�

The College of Health Sciences’ budget for fiscal year 2025, according to UA Chief Financial Officer John Arnold’s finances report, is $7.1 million. The College of Public Health’s is $15.7 million.

The College of Health Sciences, established in 2023 as the sixth college part of UA Health Sciences, focuses on training students and developing a workforce of health professionals to serve the needs of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ communities.

The Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, established in 2000 by the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Board of Regents, ranks among the top five in American Indian and Hispanic graduates and students enrolled among 64 accredited schools of public health, according to recent data from the . The college is focused on promoting public health in the Southwest as well as globally through education, research and service.

As for the other integration plan, all academic programs, faculty and staff from the science and technology college will “fully transition� into the information science college, the UA announcement said. “Programs such as Cyber, Intelligence and Information Operations, Applied Computing, and Applied Sciences will continue without interruption,� it stated.

Gary Packard, interim senior vice provost for online initiatives, Information Science Dean Catherine Brooks and Science and Technology Dean Nicol Rae said in a joint statement:

“Together, we will build an even stronger, more interdisciplinary College of Information Science, one that serves students across a broad spectrum of disciplines including cybersecurity, data science, library science, game design and development, justice and global security, and much more.�

The College of Information Science’s FY25 budget is $10.3 million, while the College of Applied Science and Technology’s budget is $13.5 million.

The College of Information Science, formerly known as the School of Information, focuses on training students in the fields of artificial intelligence, information security and management, library science, data science and visualization, game design and development, games and behavior, e-sports, immersive technologies, computational arts and extended and virtual reality.

The College of Applied Science and Technology offers courses on applied computing, cyber operations, human services, intelligence and information operations, justice and global security, organizational leadership and regional commerce, and more.

According to Zak, the science and technology college contributes “notable success in undergraduate programming and transfer student pathways,� while the information science college brings “established strength in graduate education.� All academic programs, faculty and staff from science and technology will fully transition into information science, and programs such as “Cyber, Intelligence and Information Operations, Applied Computing, and Applied Sciences will continue without interruption,� he said.

In order to “support successful integration, all academic programs for the affected colleges will run as they are currently designed, and there will be no program changes for students,� Zak said.

Asked how the integration will occur in the span of less than three months by July 1, the end of FY25, Zak said, “Leadership from the university and the colleges will work closely with faculty, staff and students to ensure a smooth and thoughtful transition.“

Jeff Michler, a UA associate professor of agriculture-resource economics, said faculty like himself who aren’t directly affected are trying to figure out what the merger impacts will be for their colleagues in those colleges.

“Additionally, a lot of faculty are trying to determine if this move is the first in a large consolidation effort to reduce the number of colleges, schools and departments,â€� Michler told the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ on Wednesday.

Arnold, the UA’s chief financial officer, told the Faculty Senate earlier this month that the university has to reduce expenditures and certain units will have to take cuts.

“There’s just been a significant attack on higher education across the country that we’re dealing with, and that has created some financial risks and uncertainty around budgets in fiscal (year) ’26,� Arnold said then, as the Trump administration has pulled or threatened to pull universities’ federal funding over various ideological and financial issues.

The UA has also been dealing with a budget deficit, dating to fall 2023, that was brought down from $177 million to $65 million in fiscal 2024 and will be eliminated by July 1, 2025, officials have said.

In total, the unrestricted funds operating budget for the university — one of Southern ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s largest employers and an economic engine for the region — is nearly $1.3 billion this fiscal year.