Students relaxing after Meet the Dean<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nI wanted to include as much of my Meet the Dean talk in this blog, but of course a lot of what I do on stage is improvised in the moment. So I\u2019ve gone back and tried to capture what I said, and it came out like this:<\/p>\n
—–
\nWhy Arts Kicks A__<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll have to pardon me while I take this shot with my camera — I wish you could see you as I do now; what a great shot. I\u2019ll try to put it up on my blog tonight, so maybe you\u2019ll see yourself out there is a sea of excited faces. I expect I look pretty excited today too. This starts my second year, my sophomore year, as Dean of Arts at UBC and I can tell you that nothing in this job rivals the feeling of being with our first-year students on Imagine Day. So it\u2019s really a treat to say to you all: Welcome to the Faculty of Arts at UBC!<\/p>\n
Now, as you were filing into the Chan Centre the stage manager was playing some funk and disco, and I found myself wondering which of the various tunes you were relating to the most: was it \u201cStaying Alive\u201d? \u201cThat\u2019s the Way (un-huh, un-huh) I like it\u201d? Or was it, \u201cFreat Out! (Le Freak)\u201d? Yeah, I know, it was freak out!<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve chosen UBC\u2019s largest\u2014and I dare say best \u2013 faculty, with almost all of our departments rated in the top 20 or 30 in the world. Arts is an incredibly lively and diverse Faculty with 16 departments in the Humanities, Social Sciences and the Creative and Performing Arts. We also have four schools: Social Work, Journalism, Music and Library, Archival and Information Studies; one of the world\u2019s great museums of world arts and cultures at MOA; the Chan Centre; the Belkin Gallery; the Freddy Wood Theatre, the Old Auditorium and the Barnett Recital Hall in Music. And look at where we\u2019re located \u2013 on the edge of the Pacific amidst ocean, forests, and mountains in one of the world\u2019s most livable cities.<\/p>\n
As I was walking here across Main Mall, I heard one of our group leaders telling her group: \u201cIf you remember nothing else from the chant, remember \u201cArts kicks ass!\u201d Maybe that will be a theme in my talk today \u2013 just why \u201cArts kicks ass\u201d.<\/p>\n
Last year at this time, I knew I was in the right job when I was told that our opening day event was called \u201cImagine Day\u201d! I remember giving a welcoming speech to students in a previous job, and one of them came up to me and asked, \u201cDo you realize that you used the word \u201cimagine\u201d seven times in your speech?\u201d I suppose I did use it a lot, but that\u2019s because our ability to imagine is the necessary first step to change and innovation \u2013 our imagination is our bridge to the future. So if we\u2019re going to meet the challenges that lie ahead over the next four years, to say nothing about the rest of your lives, then we better fire up the old imagination.<\/p>\n
Speaking personally, I\u2019m most inspired when I imagine the contributions that our students will one day make to their communities, to Canada or their nation, and to the world, and it\u2019s heartening to know that UBC Arts will play a role in helping you to do that. That, in fact, is what I love most about my job: that we might help you to imagine a new future and create or do something amazing. \u00a0I imagine a great ripple effect passing out of this hall and into the future, making a difference in the world for the better, and it\u2019s a great feeling to be a part of that.<\/p>\n
Right now, in fact just last night, I\u2019ve been involved in a big act of imagination\u2014 crafting a 5 year plan for the Faculty of Arts. And guess what? I\u2019m going to give you a little taste of what\u2019s in it. And let me start with the ripple effect I just mentioned. We have a new reflecting pool in the Buchanan Courtyard, and in it are etched great sayings from the history of humankind in a ripple-like pattern, and we\u2019ve taken that pattern and made it our logo to signify the effect that we hope all of you will have on the world. Along with our new look, we hope we will communicate better with you through our new website, our blogs and social media, the new digital signage and wayfinding. You should be able to access all the information you need when and where you need it. And if you have to search for it, we want you to be able to quickly access it online rather than having to wait in line.<\/p>\n
I spend the first section of the plan talking about the kind of transformative education we hope you will experience here. What do I mean by transformative? The principal reason you\u2019re here is to learn and discover, and it\u2019s my deep hope that you\u2019ll be inspired by discoveries in and outside the classroom, that you\u2019ll open up to new ideas, that you\u2019ll interact with committed professors who will help you to grow and to find your unique path in the world, that you\u2019ll have profound encounters working or studying in the community or abroad, and that you\u2019ll discover new things about yourselves as well as about the world.
\nI mentioned travel and work in the community. These are two of the many kinds of experiences we\u2019re calling Enriched Educational Experiences, and these include experiences in community, global travel, student governance, small-class experiences, and directed research, all of which we think can enhance leadership, interpersonal skills, teamwork, real-world problem-solving experience, career preparation and responsible global citizenship, helping to make you just the kinds of people that graduate schools and employers are looking for. Of course, an Arts education at UBC still helps to foster critical thinking, communication, reasoning, and intellectual curiosity \u2013 we want you to be aware individuals, capable of making sense of the world and ready for a lifetime of learning \u2014 but we also want to provide you with additional experiences to help you emerge from here \u201clife-ready\u201d. In our strategic plan, I make it clear that we start with the students and plan from there to create a great student experience.
\nDid anyone perk up when I mentioned employers? Unlike vocational diplomas or even something like chemical engineering which has an obvious career track, the Arts degree can generate some anxiety among students and especially their parents. Okay, level with me \u2013 can I see hands of anyone who has had a discussion with his or her parents that started with a question like \u201cWhat will you ever do with an Arts degree?? \u201c<\/p>\n
Yeah, I know \u2013 you\u2019re wondering that too! You just won\u2019t let-on your parents. ! In my experience, an Arts degree is the degree for the new economy. Let me tell you a family anecdote \u2013 my Cousin Bobby, who lives in Pennsylvania in the U.S., came back from service in the Army and landed an office job with a manufacturer and has worked his entire life in that job and for the same employer. This must sound quaint these days \u2013 statistics show that you\u2019re likely to change jobs an average of 7-10 times over your careers and that many of you will change careers as well. The information age and the economy that accompanies it render ideas, knowledge, practices and methods obsolete at a frightening rate. If you are trained for a specific skill, there\u2019s a high likelihood that your skill will no longer be useful or relevant in 10 years or that if you memorize enough information to land a certain job, that that information too will be obsolete in a decade or less.<\/p>\n
Increasingly, employers are saying in the media \u2013 and I hear this directly from them all the time \u2013 that they want smart, flexible workers who will continually evolve with the times. They want good and literate communicators, people who can read reports, write and speak persuasively in public. They want inquisitive and critical employees who can analyze problems come up with new and creative solutions. And they want people who can work in teams, cope with cultural diversity, and deal with the extraordinary flow of new information that informs every field in the world today. The people they describe are Arts students \u2013 they\u2019re you in four or five years.<\/p>\n
To give you an example, Damon Horowirtz, Director of Engineering for Google, the leading tech company in the world, recently spoke about why Google hires mostly humanities and other Liberal Arts students. Out of the 6,000 that they hire this year, 4-5000 of them will be Arts students. As he said, they\u2019re looking for people who are \u201csmart and get things done.\u201d It will still be important to avail yourself of the career counseling that we provide, and to try to make use of tools such as our Co-op program, internships, community research courses and other means by which you can expand your horizons in AND OUT of the classroom.<\/p>\n
I met recently with a group of recent Arts grads who were from an amazing variety of professions \u2013 some were entrepreneurs, one was an actress (working actress), one was a publicist, one helped run a Creative arts organization and so on. All were very successful, however, and all of them stressed the importance of the co-op experience.<\/p>\n
I talk to our graduates as they cross the stage to get their degree, and I often ask them a quick question, sometimes \u201cWhat\u2019s up next for you?\u201d or \u201cWhat are your plans now.\u201d Of course I do get the occasional answer of \u201cdude, unemployment\u201d or \u201cI don\u2019t know \u2013 take a year off I guess and travel,\u201d \u2013 not a bad thing to do after university if you can afford it — but a stunning number are off fascinating careers. Some are starting businesses, some go off to graduate school, some are going into Law school or Medical School; some, especially the economics students, are going into banking, finance, or accounting; the film and theatre students are often headed into careers as actors, directors, cinematographers; many go into communications; some go to work in the government at places like StatsCan, and many go into education. Along with those more obvious choices, a few last year were training for the Olympics, one was becoming an air traffic controller, and one was going into politics, working for a party. It\u2019s incredibly varied, but the most impressive part is that they have choices and that they\u2019re headed off into careers in which they can progress and meet new challenges.<\/p>\n
So I think you\u2019ve made a great choice and you\u2019re in the right place\u2013 I\u2019m very optimistic about the success of our graduates.<\/p>\n
Let me get on my soapbox: The Arts are essential to human survival. Take any of the headlines from the media on a given day, and it is likely that our arts professors are involved in some related angle. If you\u2019re concerned about poverty, the water supply, national elections or the civil war in Somalia, it\u2019s likely you can find scholars, graduate students, and undergraduates who are researching the topic and applying the knowledge gained\u2014often through cutting edge interdisciplinary teamwork. In Arts at UBC, we provide a foundation for responsible global citizenship that let\u2019s our students make a difference in the world.
\nI\u2019m not going to give you a lot of advice on your first day. You\u2019re overwhelmed, maybe a little scared, and probably not processing half of what you\u2019re hearing! But I will say this about your time at UBC: Make the most of it \u2013 attend concerts and plays, visit MOA, stroll the Nitobe Japanese Garden and hike the canopy walk in the Botanical Gardens. Get involved in sports, clubs, or societies. One of our new international students asked last week how he might stand out at UBC. I said: meet your professors, attend office hours and ask questions in class; join in activities that you enjoy and you may find yourself called upon to lead; make the most of our advisors in CASS to make sure you\u2019re being smart about your choices for study. Take advantage of those enriched opportunities for study and make sure you get a small class and some research experience, community experiences and if possible, study abroad. Learn good time management skills so that you can plan your reading and assignments and not find yourself scrambling. Seek out advising, yes, but take charge of your program here at UBC. You are the authors of the rest of your lives, and I want you to start writing a very interesting story for yourselves.<\/p>\n
And most of all follow your interests and passions. If you\u2019ve chosen something you love and for which you have a real passion, your chances of excelling are that much greater, as are your chances for finding a meaningful career and life path. I\u2019m not telling you to avoid practicalities, but I am saying that this is a good time to explore and to follow your curiousity. You\u2019re life will be immeasurably richer for not having been afraid to do so.<\/p>\n
Thanks for choosing Arts at UBC \u2013 we\u2019re honoured to have you here and we\u2019ll do our best to make this an extraordinary academic experience for you. I encourage all of our students to stop by at the Meet the Dean sessions I\u2019ll schedule throughout the year with the Arts Undergraduate Society, and feel free to let me know how it\u2019s going. And remember: Arts kicks ass!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This was a banner week for Arts \u2013 on Monday we welcomed over 2000 new students from over 100 countries, with the largest number of international students in our history. We also admitted nearly 900 transfer students. We are now using broad-based admissions (a holistic approach to looking at the qualifications of our applicants) on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4461,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/artsandminds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/artsandminds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/artsandminds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/artsandminds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4461"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/artsandminds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/artsandminds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/artsandminds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions\/52"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/artsandminds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/artsandminds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/artsandminds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/artsandminds\/files\/2011\/09\/DSC_0003.jpg\" "\\"Arts")
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