Final
September 28, 2023
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- Academic units will engage in the re-evaluation of long-standing curricula and teaching practices.
Diversity and inclusion must infuse each program's course of study. There are ample opportunities to decolonize course content, to consider global pedagogies, and to increase accessibility.
Further, curriculum review should maintain an awareness of the amount of time a student will have away from their studies to explore other interests outside of their academic obligations. - VPA will incentivize faculty and student creative work across boundaries of space and discipline.
The college aspires to be a community that values and supports the research and creative work of its students and faculty and celebrates the diversity of inquiries, disciplines, and practice-informed work. Through a structure built on meaningful resource allocation to support research and creative activities, VPA will facilitate an environment where highly productive artists, designers, creative arts therapists, scholars, and performers engage in socially just and collaborative initiatives that impact local and global communities. To this end, it may be necessary to adjust teaching loads and research leaves to allow faculty the time to create. Class scheduling must be more flexible to create unique opportunities for students and faculty to engage in research or creative work outside normal campus activities.
Curriculum flexibility and interdisciplinary collaboration require a re-examination of our current offerings. It will be necessary to shift from the current emphasis on skill development to nurturing critical thinking, creativity, and problem- solving. To engage in this work, the college will promote a structure that supports meaningful curriculum redesign and workshop events throughout the academic year. Moreover, each unit should reexamine faculty service requirements to identify more efficient methods of completing necessary administrative tasks.
The numerous adjunct faculty members should also be supported in their teaching activities to ensure they have the resources needed.
The multi-faceted industries the college programs, schools, and departments serve are collaborative in nature. As such, students should have more opportunities to experience interdisciplinary, practice-based learning. Although there are geographical barriers to this work that must be confronted, programs must be less territorial in protecting departmental/school resources and share more broadly and strategically. For instance, film students seek actors, composers, and costume and set designers. The goal should be to provide opportunities for students to connect with other students while stillgiving them the guidance and skills they need to thrive academically and professionally. - Academic units will reconsider the daily schedule of classes to allow:
A. Students to take more classes in other disciplines.
B. Students to focus on their well-being through socialization and fostering healthy habits such as eating healthy and exercising.
C. Students to access health services, disability services, and counseling services with greater ease, especially for those students in the School of Design and the Department of Drama.
The college will work in collaboration with the appropriate University offices to identify solutions for the existing transportation concerns of our students whose academic work takes place off Main Campus. Enhanced transportation and coordinated schedules will allow for greater interdisciplinary collaboration. As stated throughout this document, access to healthy and nutritious food has been challenging, especially for students who spend most of their time at the Nancy Cantor Warehouse, the Syracuse Stage/Drama Complex, and ComArt, for whom sufficient food resources are not available. The college would also like to explore with our University partners the possibility of traveling resources such as counseling and health services at our facilities off campus. The Barnes Center is a remarkable facility, but students on South Campus, at the Warehouse, ComArt, and Syracuse Stage/Drama Complex have limited access to it. The college DEIA committee will work with the Office of Disability Services to find appropriate accommodations for all VPA students. Some standards of accommodation (extra time onwritten exams, for example) do not translate well to studio or performance settings. - VPA will reach larger audiences locally, nationally, and globally for the creative and scholarly work of faculty and students.
The college must continue to leverage its many local community partners such as the Everson Museum, Syracuse Stage, Symphoria, La Casita, Point of Contact, and the National Veterans Resource Center. This can be done through reconsidering where and when performances are held to increase their local and global impact. VPA’s communication structure and processes to better publicize events, shows, performances, and successes can continue to be enhanced. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed opportunities for sharing art and scholarship electronically, which revealed the need to continue to evolve our use of virtual platforms to expand audiences. - VPA will focus on increasing fundraising and external grants to support the college's academic strategic initiatives.
The dean will continue working with the VPA Office of Advancement and the Office of Advancement and External Relations to increase funding for named professorships, scholarships, and capital projects. Further, the associate dean for research, graduate studies, and internationalization will continue working with the faculty and the University’s Office of Research. The faculty will be incentivized to seek external grants where appropriate to their academic specialty, for it is recognized that grants have an important and long-lasting positive impact on faculty, students, and the institution itself. - Academic units will formalize a process for regular student input and ideas.
College leadership must devote more time and space for recurring dialogue. VPA students were eager to be heard in this strategic planning process, and their input was constructive. Student feedback will assist in promoting a more welcoming, inclusive, and responsive environment. It may be important to support undergraduate and graduate students to develop a college-wide student group that interfaces regularly with the department and schools in the college. This process should also support a mechanism for feedback and accountability to program commitments. - VPA will better support faculty, staff, and students who feel marginalized, including our international students.
The college must engage in equity audits at all levels to better understand current practices. Faculty, staff, and students should participate in conversations about diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in a meaningful and productive way, beyond the mandatory training workshops. The college will need to identify ways to enhance support for marginalized students, provide them with the appropriate support, and connect them with appropriate resources.
VPA will develop a program of student mentors to directly support international students. The Office of Academic and Career Advising will coordinate this effort and develop specialist advisors for international students. In coordination with the Office of Advancement and External Relations, the college will seek opportunities to leverage international alumni groups in various countries to better support current students. - VPA will pursue a shared responsibility with Academic Affairs and the Office of Admissions so that the incoming undergraduate enrollment aligns with faculty staffing and college infrastructure.
VPA’s recruiting office will continue to collaborate with the Office of Admissions to better recruit and admit VPA students, to minimize over-enrollment, and to maximize resource allocation where appropriate. Working to enroll students in alignment with academic unit capacity will greatly impact the student experience as it allows for adequate class sizes, instructional spaces, equipment needs, and teaching capabilities. - VPA will continue to review program offerings.
Faculty and college administration will use program review as an opportunity to consider program consolidations and new program offerings (both online and residential) to ensure the college is meeting the needs of market and student demands.
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VPA’s strategic planning process began in August 2022, when Dean Michael Tick appointed a diverse college-wide committee of faculty, staff, and students. The committee included faculty representatives from each of the academic units, one adjunct faculty alumnus, one graduate student, one undergraduate student, and three staff members (associate dean of research, graduate studies, and internationalization; director of budget, operations, and strategic initiatives; and a professional academic advisor who is also an alumna of the college). Dr. John Warren, professor of music, chaired the committee. In addition to meeting weekly, the committee solicited feedback from the entire college by launching a survey that yielded more than 500 responses with representation from every unit of thecollege. During Spring 2023, committee members held seven listening sessions with faculty, staff, and students of each individual unit. Not only were these conversations constructive and informative for the immediate task of drafting this plan, but they allowed for open dialogue and community-building. In these sessions, faculty, staff, and students identified areas of excellence, opportunities for growth, and acknowledged the challenges VPA faces as an academic community. In the process of listening, the committee realized that opportunities for more frequent collaborative thinking and dialogue within our departments and schools is critical.