After hearing news that a committee recommended their department "be disbanded," students and faculty in advertising are searching for answers about the fate of their program.

Provost Richard Herman said reactions to the report from his Committee on the Review of the College of Communications, which was presented Tuesday, have been mixed.

"I would say that when it came to issues regarding advertising there was a greater understanding that this is a real issue that the college has to address as a whole," he said.

The report said that the advertising department "has imploded" and stated the committee discovered that walls exist between the academic units in the college.

"This is something that the committee perceived over the course of two months by interviewing most of the faculty and following the students," Herman said.

However. U.S. News and World Report ranked the University as the No. 2 undergraduate advertising school in the nation and some disagree with the committee's harsh criticism of the advertising curriculum.

"The advertising department has always been a standard for other departments in the country," said Kim Rotzoll, the recently retired former dean of the college and former head of the advertising department. "It continues to be a pioneer with a brave new curriculum, which is working out very, very well and which is preparing the advertising majors at the University of Illinois for the complex and ever-changing field of persuasion better, in my judgment, than they've ever been prepared."

But Rotzoll, who resigned as dean of the college in August during the committee's evaluation process, said in an e-mail sent to faculty, and obtained by The Daily Illini, that he was asked to step down by the provost amid ongoing problems in the college, "some of which are associated with my deanship."

Several advertising students said they plan to request a student hearing with the college administration to discuss the fate of their department. Both students and faculty are concerned that student viewpoints were not effectively listened to by the committee.

Herman conceded that "the weakness of the process is that it took place over the summer and did not afford the opportunity for that many students to be met with."

Students also voiced concerns about the status of their degrees, and what they will be worth in the future if the department does disband, as the report recommends.

"It's clear to me that they are concerned about that," said Patrick Vargas, an assistant professor in advertising. "Right now we try to move forward and give them them their education as best we can."

Still, the provost assures current students that they will graduate with advertising degrees.

"We have a contract ... with students who come on campus to offer that degree," Herman said.

But some students, like Linda Park, senior in advertising, are just happy to be leaving before any changes take affect.

"But honestly, I'm graduating so that won't even effect me," she said.

Faculty in the advertising department do not have the luxury of a graduation date to let them escape the turmoil facing the college.

Vargas, who is a non-tenured lecturer, said that he hadn't even considered the possibility of staff cutbacks with the changes the report suggests. Herman said that he would seek to place tenured and tenure-track faculty throughout the University if the college disbanded. He said that firing tenured professors "is out of the question."

The report suggested that the main problem facing the advertising department is leadership, or lack thereof. A number of faculty have recently left and transferred to the business administration program, and the department has seen four different heads in the past four years.

"There is some leadership, but there could be better leadership still within the college," said Jasmine Artis, junior in advertising.

"When I spoke (at Tuesday's meeting) I said there are aspects of the report which really caused a lot of concern to me," Herman said. "But I said this report is advisory and it is now for the college ensemble to comment on."

College of Communications interim dean Ronald Yates is currently assembling a "task force" that will be made up of members of all of the college's departments. The college must present the provost with its plan of action by Jan. 1.

"I think the most immediate issue is to take care of our young people, the faculty, but the bigger issue, I think, is to get a response to this report," Herman said.