Dean’s Message

HAPPY 2020 AND WELCOME TO THE SPRING ISSUE OF VOICES! It is hard to believe that we are crossing the threshold of a new decade, and I am delighted to convey to you with confidence that the University of Memphis and the College of Communication and Fine Arts (CCFA) are poised to embrace the challenges and opportunities of this emerging epoch, and to achieve even greater levels of renown and impact locally, nationally and globally.

Under the inspired leadership of President M. David Rudd and Provost Tom Nenon, the University of Memphis is “Driven by Doing” at a pace set to ensure that our students receive the kind of high-quality experience they will require to thrive in a rapidly shifting world — one that is at once challenging and brimming with unformulated potential.

CCFA is an increasingly highprofile contributor to the impressive achievements of our fine University. As a means of contextualizing this issue’s celebration of our wonderful faculty, staff, students, alumni and broader community, I would like to highlight some of the strategic priorities that are helping us both clarify and strive to realize our collective vision.

The grounding priority is, of course, our commitment to enhancing student success and ensuring that our talented, hard-working students receive their degrees and thrive in their pursuit of professional opportunities. Many of our students are the first in their families to undertake university study, and they often face considerable economic hardships as they work to complete their programs of study. With your help, the CCFA community is working to increase the number of scholarships and other forms of financial support for our students. We have also implemented measures to provide a stimulating and supportive academic landscape for them, including innovative curricular developments (see pg. 4) and expanded opportunities for internships and study abroad (see pg. 34).

I am thrilled to confirm that our recruitment, retention and graduation rates for the college have improved ssignificantly. In fact, recruitment, is up 6.6% for undergraduate studies and 4.4% at the graduate level. The features in this issue offer ample evidence of the excellent teaching and support offered by CCFA faculty and staff, and the high caliber of our students themselves.

A key aim of CCFA is to enrich the cultural life of our local and wider community, and one of the ways we do this is through top-quality performances,

concerts, exhibitions, public lectures and other events showcasing both our students and our faculty. CCFA welcomed more than 628,000 attendees to our events last year, and our students participated in over $1 million in pro-bono service learning projects for the local community.

Everyone in the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music, and indeed throughout our college, is excited about the forthcoming Scheidt Family Music Center, which will offer a visually stunning, acoustically outstanding concert hall, rehearsal rooms and teaching spaces that will give our students a cuttingedge facility and transform the look and appeal of our stretch of Central Avenue. Building upon the citywide interest in the new music center, we are promoting the Central Avenue Arts Corridor (which also includes

Harris Hall, the Mainstage Theatre, the Art Museum of the University of Memphis, the Fogelman Art Galleries and a number of large lecture halls), as “Central to the Arts” (see pg. 28).

We have also grown our already extensive array of community and professional sector partnerships, and these important collaborations not only enhance our engagement with the Memphis community, but also offer our students invaluable experience with the professions in which they aspire to contribute. We are excited, for instance, about our partnership with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra (which is housed on our campus), and about the new radio partnership with Crosstown Arts and The Daily Memphian (see pg. 16).

CCFA has taken active measures to nurture research, creative activity and professional practice. These include the appointment of a Dean’s Fellow for Research, the implementation of a Research Working Committee, and internal seed grants available for CCFA faculty research projects. We are also developing high-impact,

interdisciplinary projects within the college, across the University, and externally through collaborations with higher education and other partners. One exciting outcome of our interdisciplinary focus is the Arts and Health Initiative, a cross-institutional effort that was initiated by CCFA (see pg. 10).

CCFA is fully committed to cultivating an academic environment that is inclusive of cultural and individual differences, and our action-driven approach includes the implementation of professional development workshops for faculty and staff, featuring focused discussion topics such as unconscious bias, using the arts to bridge deep divides, and understanding and serving Gen Z students and their families. We kicked off this spring semester with a college-wide event focusing on how to best support our students with mental health concerns. Dr. Altha Stewart, who is (among other extraordinary accomplishments) the first African American to become president of the American Psychiatric Association, began the event with a keynote presentation that was as riveting as it was informative. Faculty and staff convened in smaller breakout groups, giving them the opportunity to discuss among colleagues’ best practices as well as the challenges related to this crucial issue. We have also reviewed and redrafted our Faculty Search Guidelines. These kind of efforts are helping us to attract and retain faculty and staff who represent both diversity and excellence.

I wish you health, happiness and peace for the year and for the decade ahead, and would like to thank you for your interest in, and generous support of, the College of Communication and Fine Arts. I hope you enjoy this spring issue of Voices, and I also welcome you to keep abreast of CCFA news and events as they unfold by subscribing to the online Voices blog (blogs.memphis.edu/ccfa).

Kindest regards,

Dr. Anne F. Hogan, Dean