At a research-based institution teaching and service are traditionally seen as lower priority to research and other scholarly/creative activities. If you take a dive through my blog you’ll see plenty of posts to argue for greater emphasis in these areas. Because of my feelings on their importance, I try to always push growth in these areas and to try and to find new ways help my students and colleagues.
Teaching
Teaching always has its challenges. If it doesn’t, you’re probably not paying enough attention to your students. Each year new students come into the classroom with different personalities creating new classroom dynamics and with that comes new challenges to communicate what they need to know and motivate them to reach course outcomes. Students rarely know what they need even though they think that they do. This means as educators we must find ways to hold them accountable, while also creating rigor and pushing them through the discomfort of growth. Some years students understand this and in other years they do not. As quoted once in the Chronicle of Education “it’s better to be driven by student success than student opinion.”
The results from 2022 were some of the greatest results in program history at USM which included several firsts. In January of that year 2 students were recognized as “Students to Watch” by GDUSA and would result later in March on the program being listed as a “Top Design School.” Along with those firsts the program had its greatest awards season resulting with nearly 100 awards or publications. This included first time publications such as GDUSA Packaging Annual, and GDUSA Graphic Design Annual and numerous winners and runner-ups in multiple Creative Quarterly volumes. At the end of 2022 USM was invited again to apply for Top Design School and Students to Watch by GDUSA Magazine. However, one of the most outstanding results was a near perfect employment rate of spring graduating students seeking jobs in the design field.
Every year I am in awe of the work that my students produce, and this year was not any different. The year started out at an all-time high with an exceptional group of students in my 441 Graphic Communication and 344 Illustration course. I was brought to tears when they surprised me with a “care package” of amazing truly unique “Cotton things” like my favorite soda (RC Cola), my favorite candy bar (Zero Bar), and even an illustration of my cat. They would go on to produce the best work I’ve ever had produced in those courses. To say that I’m excited about seeing what these young champions of design do in the industry would be an intense understatement.
Below is some of the awesome work from that class of students, including work they would later go on to complete in my fall graphic communication and motion graphics course.
I also got to teach a web design course for the first time in nearly 3 years. For this course along with my senior motion graphics course I created a series of tutorials to aid with development and software. Both courses struggled a little but whether they realize it or not the knowledge they gained and some of the work they completed is exceptional, will result in solid additions to their portfolios, and will likely lead to their future employment.
Service
The past year was an interesting year for my service contributions. In years past my service was loaded with chairing/membership on a handful of committees, Partners for the Arts, Revelry (our massive 40+ event, 2-week arts festival), student group advising, and our Design and Marketing Team. While much of these continued, new and more exciting things were added along the way that reinvigorated my desire for arts administration.
The Spring 2022 semester started per the usual, with Revelry. With the absence of the Design and Marketing Team (more on that later) the branding for this massive festival fell to me. For festival promotion swag was designed which included a few buttons and stickers, along with branding for 10 other headlining events. I also hosted an event during the Revelry Kick-off called “Mural Mania” where students created a large graffiti mural using laser cut stencils. In Fall of 2022 after being promoted to Associate Director I worked with my Director to help organize Revelry 2023 and have already begun branding for this year’s festival.
In Fall 2022 came the revival of the Design and Marketing Team. After a year off the team picked up firing on all cylinders designing graphics for our Open House Recruitment Day, upcoming ad campaigns and future exhibitions. This team also now runs the social media accounts for our Art and Design areas which requires that they take training on the Hootsuite social media platform. Because of this our accounts saw an incredible increase in engagement.
Committee membership is a part of nearly every academic service. This year was a little different than the usual “orientation, recruitment” committees that I enjoy serving on. In Spring 2022 the Art Education Ad Hoc Committee that I chair released its Mississippi High School Art Interest Survey. While the results of the survey are confidential, the data collected was extremely useful on gauging interest from in-state students and will work as a guiding document for years to come. Another fantastic committee for which I served was the Faculty Evaluation Committee. This committee gave me an exceptional opportunity to see and assess the terrific work from faculty in the different programs within the school. Understanding the amount of work that our faculty do and the interests and desires of Mississippi high school students has given me new fuel to find ways to better address the needs of my fellow faculty and to provide the education our students want and deserve.
