Jacksonville University will formally dissolve its athletics department and transfer coaches and administrators into another office, officials at the Florida institution announced on Wednesday. The vice president for student life will oversee sports, and the athletics director will relinquish his role.

Hugh Durham, the athletics director, is also the university's head coach of men's basketball and will remain in that job.

The reorganization resembles a move made last year by Vanderbilt University. Catherine L. Morgan, Jacksonville's acting president, said that integrating athletics officials into the university's administration would keep athletes from being isolated from the rest of the student body.

"Almost always, there's a divide on campuses between athletes and the rest of campus, and it gets to be a problem," Ms. Morgan said on Wednesday, in only her second week on the job. "People don't really think of them as being part of the team the same way they are."

Jacksonville will not eliminate any sports or administrative positions as a result of the reorganization, she said. One of the smallest institutions in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Jacksonville sponsors eight men's teams, including I-AA football, and nine women's teams.

Mr. Durham said that he didn't think isolation was a problem for his athletes, but that he respected Ms. Morgan's decision.

"Most of our kids are student-athletes, there's no more athletic dorms, and they go to class like everybody else," said Mr. Durham, who coached at Florida State University and the University of Georgia before coming to Jacksonville in 1997. "And have you ever heard somebody say, 'The kids that have to work to go to school, what are we going to do to get them integrated in their campus community? They're always in their car, they work four hours a day and work on the weekend.' Nobody seems to be concerned about them."

Mr. Durham said he would remain at Jacksonville, where his Dolphins have 12 wins and 12 losses so far this season. He has three years remaining on his contract.