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

Dear Colleagues,

Another creative & academic year has passed. As always, I am so proud of the faculty attainment, professional development of our staff, and success of our students—on so many levels. Thanks to all for exceptional efforts.

1. Progress has been made on the job description for a Director of Video Game Art & Design. Jeff Merkel continues to advance this important hire, by traveling to other campuses, and national conferences. He is getting the word out through networking.

2. Numerous searches for staff and faculty are continuing, and hopefully, there may be several announcements before Commencement.

    

3. Gregory Walker, David Bondelevitch, and Paul Musso return this fall from sabbaticals, and this Fall, Bryan Leister, and Hans Rosenwinkel go out on their sabbaticals.

    

4. I am very pleased to announce that a national search resulted in identifying Cynthia Canzañas-Garín as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Film & Television. Welcome to CAM, Cynthia—this is very exciting to have you on the tenure track.

    

5. The Study Abroad programs and Semester Abroad programs continue to offer our students and faculty opportunities for essential experiential research, study, and creative work. In the coming months Sam McGuire is leading a group to Prague, Michelle Carpenter and Travis Vermilye to Denmark, Roma Sur and Thomas Kolicko to Mumbai (Bollywood), Michelle Carpenter and Jeremy Brown to the UAE, Carol Golemboski to Florence, various faculty to ArtsHub Asia Singapore Semester Abroad, and an ArtsHub Asia Semester Abroad program to Malaysia (Greater Kuala Lumpur) will be in the Spring/Winter Term 2023.

    

6. Prolific CAM alum, Tenzing Rigdol, will receive an honorary doctorate from the CU Board of Regents this week. At 3:30 pm on Wednesday, he will be speaking at Emmanuel Gallery. Please make every effort to attend a panel discussion with an alum whom we can all be proud of. Aside from his art, he is a courageous activist, who (according to Rossi & Rossi, “often capture(s) the ongoing issues of human conflicts; and have strong political undertones – for him, politics is an unavoidable element in his art. Indeed, in recent years Rigdol has become a focus for young Tibetan diaspora precisely because of the political nature of his art.

    

7. With May upon us, I am reminded of the many hundreds of hours of leadership and services provided by faculty and staff to the departments, college, university, and profession. In meetings across campus, among the most frequent comments I hear are those praising CAM’s role in leading initiatives that advance the University’s vision and mission, including those directly in support of the Strategic Plan. Although it is impossible to list them all here, please allow me to highlight just a few.

    

   Congratulations Beth Pugliano, who has been elected President of UCDALI! We are ever grateful to Maria Buszek, Catalin Grigoras, and Nate Thompson, who have served with integrity on the Dean’s Advisory Council for Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion. Thank you, Jeffrey Schrader for representing CAM on Faculty Senate. Sara Walpole, your tireless fight to make CAM a more equitable, inclusive, and welcoming community as exemplified by your leadership on the EDI Task Force is seen and celebrated. And to everyone engaged in the important work of leading and serving, thank you.

8. Many end of year events are coming up. I look forward to seeing you there!