By Becca Clemons

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A proposal to split the integrated strategic communication program from the School of Journalism and Telecommunications and form a separate department passed the College of Communication and Information’s College Assembly on Wednesday by a 26-7 vote.

The proposal goes next to the University Senate. Voting were assistant, associate and full professors in the college.

Beth Barnes, the director of the School of Journalism and Telecommunications, said in a presentation to the assembly that growth was one of the reasons the move was needed. The school went from 14 full-time faculty in 2003 to 27 this year. The three degree programs offered — journalism, media arts and studies (formerly telecommunications), and ISC — all have separate curricula, she added.

Some journalism faculty have expressed concern over uncertainty about the university’s new budget model, and over the potential loss of cohesion among the three programs, especially when it comes to JAT students taking courses under all three. One argument, Barnes said, was that “so many other things are changing right now; why change another?”

ISC is the biggest degree program in the school, and a majority of its faculty members voted recently in favor of creating the new, separate department. Three media arts and studies faculty voted in favor, and the journalism faculty voted 5-4 against the proposal.

Communication faculty worried that the change would lead to confusion between the communication and ISC departments, since ISC has “communication” in its name. Elisia Cohen, the communication department chair, proposed an amendment that would allow the structure change but make the college vote on the department’s name at a later meeting. It did not pass.

Barnes said that ISC has been a degree program at UK since 1999, and that if there were potential for confusion, it would already have been realized.

“This is our brand that we’ve had since 1999,” Barnes said.

If the proposal continues to be approved at each level, the earliest the changes could go into effect would be July 1, 2015.