In an effort to engage students in deliberations, planners for the College of the Arts held a forum to talk about the progress of a recent proposal for the development of a new college for the arts at the University of Wisconsin.
According to Andrew Taylor, director for the Bolz Center for Arts Administration, the proposal process has been through many long stages but has finally reached a stage he considers “the first big vote.”
“We have prepared a cross-campus group of faculty and staff, and they have prepared the proposal,” Taylor said. “That proposal is being reviewed now by the effective departments, and they will make the decision about whether to take part or not.”
He added the College of the Arts proposal will bring the various independent art programs, including theatre and drama, design, art and dance, art history and the School of Music together into one school, which could benefit students and the university as a whole.
The students and faculty who attended the forum brought up issues they face without a solid unity between the art departments achieved in other universities with a College of the Arts.
A main issue students brought up was how some art opportunities and degrees offered at UW are not very visible.
Taylor said because visibility is an issue, a College of the Arts would make the university more marketable to art students applying to college and more fully express the significance of the arts to those outside the university.
“There is no real, essential view from the outside world of what art is here because it is spread out into a few different colleges,” Taylor said. “A College of Arts would improve the visibility of the arts on campus.”
Norma Saldivar, executive director of the UW Arts Institute and theatre professor, said another issue she sees with the current divisions of the art departments is the difficulty students and faculty face in performing interdisciplinary work between the departments.
“We have faculty in each of the departments that are willing to do interdisciplinary work with students who are interested in other departments, but there is a division in academics between the different art departments,” Saldivar said.
She added the success of this proposal in forming a College of the Arts at UW would make the interdisciplinary work much easier and more successful.
Saldivar added by bringing the different units together, a College of the Arts could be a place to address issues of efficiency and affectivity to ensure preparedness in meeting challenges together.
Taylor said the issues brought up by the students at the event and the positive feedback they gave for the proposal as it reaches the voting stage are really encouraging.
“Students see the need so fast because they are living it,” Taylor said. “They are having trouble with the same things we think they are having trouble with, and it is exciting to see students take hold of the issue.”
