ORANGE : New School Created at Chapman College

Over the objections of some faculty, Chapman College this week will combine three academic departments into a new School of Communication Arts, College President Allen E. Koenig announced Sunday.

Koenig said he has decided to combine the art, English and communications departments in one school to strengthen academic programs such as drama, journalism and advertising. Such a reorganization will help market the college and attract more students in years to come, he said.

English department chairman Paul Frizler will be dean of the newly created school, which opens formally on Friday.

The decision comes after a recent forum at which faculty members voted 26 to 21 to ask Koenig to delay the reorganization decision to study further whether the art and English departments should be included.

Koenig noted, however, that all three departments voted to join the new school under an agreement that allows each the right to withdraw if the new organization doesn’t work. A withdrawing department would have to give a year’s notice.

Noting that it is his responsibility to organize the college, Koenig said he decided on the reorganization plan because he was “persuaded that the three academic departments fit together, offer exciting interdisciplinary possibilities and strengthen certain . . . programs.”

The college is projecting 1,000 students for the new school over the next four or five years, he told faculty.

“If this goal is realized, it will produce tuition dollars that can be shared throughout the college or university for the greater benefit of academic and faculty programs,” Koenig said in a letter distributed to the college’s faculty.