School of Education announces new name, effective fall 2020

LAWRENCE — The School of Education at the University of Kansas is now the School of Education and Human Sciences, effective fall 2020.

The new name was approved by the Council of Chief Academic Officers and the Kansas Board of Regents on April 17, 2019, and there has been a visual transition to the new name across a variety of facets at the university since then.

The School of Education and Human Sciences has been serving students at KU since 1909, and since then it has experienced a number of changes in different program areas. Years ago, the Department of Physical Education changed its name to the Department of Health, Sport & Exercise Sciences. Today, that department has thriving programs in exercise science, sport management, community health and physical education. In addition, the Department of Educational Psychology continues to offer programs in counseling, school and educational psychology.

“Our former name, School of Education, did not capture the broad range of academic programs that we house nor the scholarly research that our faculty produce,” said Rick Ginsberg, dean of the school. “We needed a name that reflects what we do, while still keeping the word ‘education’ prominent.”

Stakeholders and constituents will begin and continue to notice the new name on all of the school’s correspondence, including external communications materials.

How will the name change affect KU students, faculty & staff?

• Students graduating in December 2020 (summer and fall 2020 graduates) will show the new school designation; however, students who graduated in spring 2020 still showed the former school designation on their diplomas.
• In the workplace, the new name should be used in all instances beginning Oct 1.
• The school’s departmental e-mail address is now soehs@ku.edu.
• The web domain soe.ku.edu will now redirect to soehs.ku.edu.

“There has been a great amount of work put into the transition to the new name, and we are excited to begin a new chapter of our school’s long and glorious history,” Ginsberg said. “Due to COVID-19 and other circumstances, we were not able to host our in-person celebration events but are still planning to come together with our faculty, staff, students and alumni in the future.”

Interested parties are encouraged to learn more and to stay informed online here.

The KU School of Education and Human Sciences is a nationally ranked school, serving educators to prepare them as leaders.