Human Ecology units are often combined or somehow reorganized with Education or Health. Either combination has the potential to work, depending on the cultures of the units involved and the leadership's commitment to making the new configuration work. Often it makes no practical difference at all. Different dean, same programs, life goes on.
As we talk about how we fit into health focused colleges, which I am not in principle opposed to (and which I think is consistent with the overall philosophy of our discipline), we need to be actively engaged in the process. If we are to fit into some new transdisciplinary concept of health, it helps to have a good definition of health to guide our leadership as they determine what fits with what. I suggest WHO's definition:
WHO definition of Health
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
The correct bibliographic citation for the definition is:
Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June, 1946; signed on 22 July 1946 by the representatives of 61 States (Official Records of the World Health Organization, no. 2, p. 100) and entered into force on 7 April 1948.
The Definition has not been amended since 1948.
http://www.who.int/about/definition/en/print.html.
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