Dean Laurence Kaptain | College of Arts & Media
June 2, 2022 

To:      CAM Faculty and Staff 
From:  Larry Kaptain, Dean 
Re:      Dean’s Message 

Dear Colleagues,

It’s the beginning of June already, and things are continuing to move ahead. 

1. As far as faculty hires, it’s very exciting to announce the following processes that have been completed: 

a) Dr. Dan Hodges, DBA ,will join MEIS as Associate Professor of Music Business this fall. He is currently on the faculty of Belmont College in Nashville, has over 30 years of experience in the music publishing field, and will be teaching the essential classes in licensing, copyright, intellectual property, and other areas. 
b) Lynn Mandziuk, MFA is joining the Digital Design faculty as an Instructor. She is teaching at RMCAD  and has over 15 years’ experience. Her MFA is from SCAD. 

These new faculty have been selected by faculty and from some of our largest applicant pools. In the past we have struggled with getting nominations, and we seem to have found a balance with an outside firm that vets for diversity and excellence in the quality of the pool. 

2. There seems to be some inaccurate information about the video game art and design program being “pushed from CU Denver’s administration.” CU Denver has a very aggressive plan that includes raising enrollments. When due diligence was taken in the required procedure of making inquiries about the fiscal viabilities of any new program—we went to the Office of Finance and Administration and they suggested two things: a) Commission a research study and environmental analysis (we did), b) And assign a faculty member to coordinate the formation of the degree and guide the process (we did—Jeff Merkel). The three Chairs and several other faculty have been linked into the process every step of the way. I believe CAM has considered and discussed several new programs. There are also several programs that have been closed (for lack of enrollment), and several that have dangerously low enrollments. Faculty have been involved at every step-in writing, improving, organizing, and collecting information for both a degree plan, and the JD for a director. Here are some of the faculty who have been involved: Michelle Carpenter, Sean McGowan, Brian DeLevie, Nate Thompson, Richard Strasser, Bryan Leister, Jeff Merkel, and Howard Cook.  

3. HR UPDATES: 

HR Director 

As you may recall, we announced that Teri Wilson would be leaving the College of Arts & Media. She was gracious enough to stay on and help as much as she was able to help us stay afloat while we recruited for and trained a replacement. We conducted a full national search (led by Central HR) and did not identify a suitable candidate (particularly due to university salary constraints and private sector competition). Since that time, we’ve worked with central HR leadership to identify pathways for retention. I’m happy to announce that Teri is staying with CAM and will be your point of contact for all things HR!   


HR Coordinator 

As you also may recall, Kristen Barrett accepted a position outside of CU Denver, and was also gracious enough to help us out at night (primarily with transactional processing- payroll, hiring, etc.) as much as her new schedule allowed. We conducted a full national search (also led by Central HR), and did identify a preferred candidate, but unfortunately due to delays with central processing, by the time we were able to make her an offer (earlier this week), she had accepted another position and declined ours. So- we will be restarting that search as soon as possible.