D E A N ’ S M E S SAG E
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T IS MY GREAT PLEASURE TO WELCOME YOU TO THE 2021 ISSUE OF VOICES. I hope you will enjoy reading about the exciting projects that the College of Communications and Fine Arts (CCFA) community is engaged in, and about the achievements of our talented students, faculty, staff, alumni, community partners and friends. Every academic discipline within CCFA and, indeed, our collective sociocultural habitat, have been profoundly transfigured by both the ravages of the Coronavirus pandemic and a national reckoning with racial and other inequities. Looking back to the beginning of our spring 2020 semester, surely no one could have fully envisioned the scale of the public health, economic and civic disruptions that were about to transpire. The challenges posed by the turbulence of the times are acute, and my heart goes out to CCFA colleagues and students, and to their family and friends, who have suffered loss and hardship. Yet in the midst of much uncertainty, our CCFA community has demonstrated an extraordinary level of creativity, resilience and commitment to ensuring an inclusive and inspiring learning environment for our students. I am deeply impressed by the compassion and support that CCFA’s faculty and staff have offered to our students and to each other,
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and by the college's determination to innovate and thrive amid a global pandemic (see page 8). This issue of Voices highlights some, but hardly all, of CCFA’s recent endeavors. It also showcases the college’s indefatigably creative spirit and empathetic ethos. The impactful outputs of that creative spirit serve not only as examples of best practice in higher education, but also as conduits of hope and inspiration for the local and broader creative and cultural sectors. I am thrilled that CCFA has implemented a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee comprised of faculty, staff, students, part-time instructors and community partners. This committee aims, as its mission statement reads, “to cultivate and support diversity, equity and inclusion through creative expression and communication.” CCFA is united in affirming the urgency of our civic responsibility as educators, scholars and practitioners to accelerate our efforts to foster an inclusive and collaborative academic culture. This new committee will inform and support other evolving high priority strategies designed to expedite our efforts to promote a more equitable society. The recent progress taking place on the construction of the new Scheidt Family Music Center is quite an amazing sight for anyone passing
down Central Avenue. It was an honor for me to know Rudi and Honey Scheidt, and we have all been deeply saddened by their passing. CCFA colleagues and friends will never forget their passion for the arts and their dedication to our students (see page 4). I am most sincerely grateful to the Scheidt family and to so many others who have generously enabled the vision of a state-of-the art music center to become a reality. The Scheidt Family Music Center will bestow upon the Rudi E. Scheidt School a stunning educational environment and venue for music of many genres. This beautiful music center will also serve to enhance the renown of every CCFA department by facilitating greater visibility and access to the emerging Central Avenue Arts Corridor; and to CCFA performances, concerts, exhibitions, events and public lectures.
