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Faculty of Arts

ARTSbuzz

December 12, 2011 | Year-End Reflections, Arts Direction

As we begin to wade through exams, grading, and end-of-semester activities and celebrations, this is a good opportunity to pause and reflect on the past four months and provide a snapshot of our progress and new directions

Life in the Corner Office | Since today marks the 134th day in my new role as Dean of Arts, I’d like to begin with a few personal observations. The lively goings-on outside my “fishbowl” office windows keeps things interesting day and night, the growing stacks of paper on my desk keep me humble, and my Groupwise phone app helps keep the non-stop appointments and meetings straight. There are some rituals: AC every Monday at 3; APG every Tuesday at 10; DC every Wednesday at 2; CHILD every Friday at noon (yes, an abbreviations footnote will follow). Besides a few meetings and events in Atlanta, New York, and Ottawa, the Dean’s life revolves around work in the tower. One of my favorite activities has been engaging with faculty and staff: meeting one-on-one, in staff or department meetings, and in the hallways on my weekly “walk-throughs”. Needless to say, I am learning a lot! I am energized and inspired by my work and collaborations with you all.

Staffing Support | Committed to strengthening and updating our support and administrative structures, we commissioned an HR review of our operations (we have already shared a preliminary report with all staff and chairs) that will include a process-mapping activity of administrative positions. My goal remains simple and straightforward: to build excellence and ensure that we support the academic, research, and student development mission of the Faculty of Arts. This mission is made possible by our highly engaged administrative support team across all levels. While I continue to make the case for additional funds for support (more on this below), we are also pursuing pilot projects that involve students as paid assistants.

Student Celebrations | Over the Fall semester we celebrated our students in Arts & Contemporary Studies, Criminal Justice, Economics, Geography, Politics & Governance, and Sociology at four awards events. From POD 250 to the Arts & Letters Club, we honoured 122 Dean’s List recipients, 89 course-based awards, 32 specialty awards, and 28 scholarships for a total of 271 awards! With family members, faculty, and staff beaming with pride, our students shone bright on the awards stage. As we anticipate new award programs for BAs in English, Environment & Urban Sustainability, History, and Philosophy, the Dean’s Council (Associate Deans, Chairs, and Directors) has discussed how best to celebrate our students and coordinate awards events. We are deploying a seven-person Staff-Faculty Arts Awards Committee to examine best practices and help support awards adjudication.

Academic Leaders | Over the past two months we have launched three Academic Leaders search committees charged with recruiting the next Associate Dean of Arts, Chair of Criminal Justice, and Chair of Sociology. Before the year is out, we will begin the search to recruit the next Chair of English. While these committees work quietly in the background due to confidentiality, they hold enormous responsibility and are dedicated to building support for departments and faculty. Talented and inspiring leaders make us a stronger institution and I want to thank the many faculty, students, and staff who serve and/or support these committees. Stay tuned for announcements in 2012 as these committees complete their work.

Arts Development | Ever since Jill Witherspoon (our Development Director) and I returned from a CASE workshop in Atlanta on fundraising last month, I have been rolling up my sleeves to begin work on the challenging task of fundraising. Jill and I have started to map a new process strategy for how we might connect our Arts initiatives with potential outside funding interest. We are also discussing with Chairs ways of enhancing our complement of donor awards for Arts students. We have established research chair/centre priorities with the “now group” (Indigenous Governance; Stress & Wellbeing) and the “emerging group” (Digital Humanities; Spatial Analysis) and are working closely with departments to fulfill these initiatives. For example, we are searching for top corporate leaders in the GTA with BAs to come talk with faculty and students about their success; we are establishing an informal Dean’s advisory group of community/business/government leaders so we can gain from their counsel in a planned series of “one-on-ones”; and we are keen to announce some new donor awards in 2012. Last but not least, I can’t wait to go on my first “ask,” as it’s called in the industry!

Bridging Social Sciences & Humanities | Last week Academic Standards approved an innovative Arts-Chang School initiative: a new Certificate in Social Sciences & Humanities. The curriculum for this certificate is based on the Arts’ common first-year platform. Students who are seeking some post-secondary education and who either have a secondary school diploma or satisfy the criteria for mature student status would complete this certificate in order to strengthen a future application to one of the full-time undergraduate degrees offered by the Faculty of Arts. This certificate consists of six courses in total: two required and four electives. Academic governance of this certificate will reside in the Dean of Arts office with support from all Chairs and Directors. The certificate improves student choice at Ryerson, bridges the Humanities and Social Sciences, supports program recruitment efforts, and proudly brings ALL of our programs together for the first time in a continuing education offering. Many have worked on this effort, but special thanks is owed to Dagmar Rajagopal and Anne-Marie Brinsmead for their extraordinary efforts on the proposal over many months; to Maurice Roche and Kathleen Kellett-Betsos for their support on the Arts-Advisory Committee; to Dean Gervan Fearon and Mark Lovewell for their leadership; and to Marcia Moshé for her steady and confident hand in shepherding the effort through the Arts Dean’s Council and Standards. Final approval goes to Senate in the new year.

Space Matters | Under the leadership of Stephan Tang, Student Life Coordinator and member of the Arts Student Engagement Team, our student societies have developed and won a Ryerson Project-Funds Allocation Committee for Students (P-FACS) grant in the amount of $65,888 to renovate and update our Arts Student Lounge (POD 349) with new flooring, cork/white boards, power upgrades for projector systems, study tables, soft seating, and storage. This is an impressive achievement for the Faculty of Arts and will go a long way in improving our very limited student space (shared by seven programs) while adding impetus to community- and identity-building initiatives. Congratulations to Stephan, our student societies (Arts & Contemporary Studies, Criminal Justice, International Economics, Politics & Governance, Psychology, and Sociology), and the entire the Student Engagement Team led by Marcia.

Building on this success and recognizing the importance of providing our students with high-quality work and study space, the Dean’s Office is working on a proposal to add additional high-quality space for our full-time students who will soon number over 3,500 as we anticipate three new BA programs. Space matters and we are making student space a #1 priority in Arts.

As you know, we have recently acquired and renovated an additional floor in Jorgenson Hall. With the addition of the 9th floor, we now expand our “Faculty footprint” in what some like to call Arts Tower (as Arts occupies 77% of the assigned space). Working from the “Coppack Plan” (Summer 2011) that allows departments new homes and large departments to stay proximal within two floors, we are making the following Rubik’s cube-like moves between December 15 – 22: Criminal Justice from its current 6th floor location to its new (and permanent!) home on the 8th; Psychology from the 8th to the 9th; Politics overflow up from 7th to 8th; and Psychology overflow down from 9th to 8th. Cascading implications involve English, Geography, and Philosophy. In light of remaining space challenges in Economics, History, and French-Spanish, I am asking all departments with additional space to welcome full-time and part-time faculty from other departments. Moves always need to happen at the end of semesters and we appreciate your patience and good humour during such moves. Final adjustments and fine-tuning will take place in January. This is a good time to remind everyone of the value of space and to encourage its clean and tidy usage, especially in communal areas. As I’m sure we can all testify, the relationship between space and workplace happiness is a vital one.

Research Support | In addition to launching our new AD (RGS) search, I have been in discussions with our new VPRI this Fall to provide direct and on-site research administration support for our internal and external grant holders in Arts. I am pleased to report success! Some of you at the Ryerson Chairs/Directors meeting on Thursday might not have decoded what Dr. Wendy Cukier meant when she announced “…and Jean-Paul will get his RASO”. This means we will be hiring (with significant funding support from the VPRI) a Research Administration Support Officer (RASO) dedicated to the Faculty and based in the Dean’s Office. On Friday we met with the first RASO hired at Ryerson (in FEAS) who provided some very important insights into the position that we will incorporate into the posting, being prepared for early January release. Recruitment and interviews will follow in the new year with every effort made to have the support in place as soon as possible.

Extending Our Reach | With our staff colleagues in the AC group and our faculty leaders in the DC group, we have discussed the importance of reaching beyond our Faculty borders to expand the Faculty of Arts involvement on campus, in the region, and beyond. We have generated some preliminary ideas around a “BIG ideas initiatives” to include such things as cross-discipline research partnerships, international colloquia, conference hosting, and undergraduate student research development. We want to think big, but we also want to do big at home. For example, we have raised the flag of ACS this semester calling on all disciplines to re-energize their commitment in our flagship program; we have reached out to the Faculty of Communication and Design in order to strengthen our linkages; and we have established some exciting and innovative links with community partners such as PEN Canada, St. Stephen Community Seniors Program, Métis Nation of Ontario, St. Christopher House, and St. Michael’s Hospital to support both research and service-learning opportunities.

Of course, there is much more on our Faculty radar, but I hope this issue of ARTSbuzz gives you a sense of the pulse of Arts as we direct our energy and focus towards consolidation and new directions in 2012. Finally, I hope to see you all on Thursday afternoon for the Dean’s Holiday Party – a gesture of thanks for all that you do for the Faculty of Arts.