The College of Media and other smaller academic units will not be merging or consolidating, for now.

A committee charged with looking at the economic viability of smaller academic units at the University found the risks of consolidating or merging these units outweigh the benefits, according to the committee’s report released Thursday.

The 24-page report is the result of the Academic Unit Reviews committee of Stewarding Excellence, a University-wide budget review program.

They were charged with examining academic units with less than 40 faculty members, including the College of Media, the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, the School of Labor and Employment Relations and the School of Social Work.

The report noted there were both financial and academic reasons for looking at these smaller units.

“Healthy institutions of higher learning are ones in which academic goals and administrative structures co-evolve,” the report said. “Making the connection between academic and administrative functions creates not just a leaner institution, it also creates a distinctly different institution ­— one flexible, most able to focus investments, and simpler in its organization.”

The committee approached their study of smaller academic units by looking at the risk versus the reward of possible consolidation.

They started by gathering a clear background of how each of the units was established and evolved by looking through minutes and documents from the University of Illinois archives.

One question facing the committee, especially with concern to the College of Media, was if the college could forge intellectual alignment with another college or school, and with input from several faculty members and administrators, a few potential scenarios for mergers were proposed.

One scenario would have created a larger college of media, arts and information that would draw in Media, GSLIS, FAA and the department of Communication and possibly computer science from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Another would have been to merge Media and GSLIS.

A third possibility would move the existing units in the College of Media to other colleges.

Although none of these options are being pursued in the immediate future, the report made it clear that changes to the College of Media and other smaller academic units are not off the table down the road.

“In the current and anticipated climate of declining state funding, we are concerned that the status quo (that is, lack of unified planning within the College of Media) could hasten a forced reorganization,” the committee wrote. “But we are optimistic that with some assistance, the College of media could chart a positive course for its future.”

In looking into the School of Labor and Employment Relations, the report said the program “would not fit comfortable in any of the other units considered, resulting in an inability to maintain the integrity of LER’s professional and academic mission and identity.”

GSLIS, as well as the School of Social work, also expressed that a merger may jeopardize their missions toward professional education.

The University’s master’s program in Library and Information Science is ranked No. 1 in the country, and the Social Work program is in the top 10 programs in the nation, both ranked by US News and World Report and the Social. The committee’s review stated that consolidation or mergers with other units could negatively impact the national reputation of the program.

Much of the information taken into consideration by the committee came from two analyses prepared for the committee which compared costs and productivity — one by Eric Meyer, associate professor of journalism in the College of Media and the other by Craig Olson, professor of labor and employment relations.

“There simply is not any strong evidence that the potential savings are significant, yet the risks in terms of intellectual vigor and professional standing appear quite significant,” the report stated.

Although the committee’s report has been completed, they wrote that there is much more to be said about possible consolidation within the University, but that a clear process and goals need to be outlined before this can be achieved.

The report cautioned against letting the short-term, budget concerns overshadow the longer-term, strategic concerns of supporting the core mission of the University.

Public comments are allowed online until July 1.