Dean's Message

Leadership – it’s what we do.

One of the things I have spent the last several years doing is changing the conversation about what we “administrators” do - department heads, directors of schools, deans and vice presidents.  I have purposefully attempted to redefine our roles away from mere administrators but to academic leaders.  Ideally, each of these “administrators” lead the way for their programs, faculty and students.  The initial way we have tried to do this in the COA is to simply use the term LEADER a lot more.  For instance, several years ago we retitled our weekly Director/Department Head Meetings to Leadership Team Meetings.  We try to begin or end each meeting with a round robin shout out from each person about ways we have been or our faculty teams have provided leadership.  I honestly believe that using the proper word to describe what we do has the power to transform what we actually do – to change the outcomes.  It is our Judeo-Christian heritage to believe that in naming something, we have dominion over it.  So the exact use of words has power.

You have heard me say before that it is not enough for us just to educate designers, performers, and artists of all kinds to enter the professional world.  We want our graduates to dominate their professions!  We want them to be leaders in their professions!  So, I hope you are using the word leader in your classes or will begin to use that word liberally to inspire and propel your student to lead the way.  In doing so, you will help them fulfill their destiny. 

 all the best - Gordon