Due to its multidisciplinary structure, the proposed program would not easily fit within any given departmental unit, or even within any of the current colleges that contain academic units at USL.

The program will be instantiated through an Institute for Cognitive Science that will be physically housed on the third floor of Girard Hall. Administratively, the Institute will function as the equivalent of a department, with its own budget. Faculty centrally involved in the Cognitive Science program will be members of the Institute, in addition to holding appointments to an already-existing department at the University, or at USL’s New Iberia Research Center. In parallel with faculty appointed to a department on campus, faculty at USL-NIRC integral to the program will hold tenure-track appointments.

Within this structure, the program will be administered by a Director of Cognitive Science and a Cognitive Science Steering Committee that includes a representative from each of the major disciplines and/or concerned units. The Director will report to a Supervisory Council chaired by the Dean of Sciences, and consisting of the Dean of the Graduate School, the Dean of Liberal Arts, and the Dean of Sciences, or their delegates. The program will initially be administered by an interim director who has been a long-standing member of the Cognitive Science Group, and who is therefore familiar with the research competencies and foci of core faculty for this program. The Director with the advice of the Steering Committee will forward evaluations of faculty centrally involved in the program to the Supervisory Council.

Finally, we note that the major concerned academic departments and units enthusiastically support this program. USL’s New Iberia Research Center has hired two personnel (Povinelli; Preuss) whose research supports the focal area of comparative cognition, and will shortly be seeking to fill a third position in this area; the Center for Advanced Computer Studies has been a long-time supporter of the Cognitive Science Group and a program in cognitive science; the philosophy program continues to strengthen its focus on mind and cognition; and the psychology department has also enthusiastically supported the establishment of this program, and the participation of its current and prospective faculty in it. A major concern in any multidisciplinary program must be the potentially competing demands that faculty have from the program and their home departments. The commitments that have been made by the various departments and units at USL indicate a high degree of interdepartmental cooperation with and dedication to the area of cognitive science.