Editor’s Note: Several important Syracuse University officials are leaving their positions at the end of the academic year. Take a look at their stories in this four-part series.

Ann Clarke was the kid growing up who loved to draw and never stopped. Being an artist is who she is.

Clarke, the current dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University, will soon return to her passion, as she will be stepping down at the end of the 2015-16 academic year in order to take a year to do research and return to her studio practice. She fully intends to return to SU following the research year, when she will have a faculty seat in the School of Art.

Clarke will spend much of her year away retraining in Photoshop, textile design and software, as she said many things have changed since she last taught eight years ago. She is also excited to get back to her studio practice and figure out what her art means to her. As a fiber artist, Clarke creates one-of-a-kind wearable pieces including coats and hats, according to her website.

In addition, Clarke is looking forward to the opportunity to begin teaching again and to be “reenchanted with being in higher ed.”

She first fell in love with teaching when she was a graduate student at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she worked as a graduate assistant. Although she never anticipated a career in higher education, she said she feels honored to be in a career that not only allows her to teach, but to learn and continuously reinvent herself.

Jordana Rubin | Digital Design Editor

She described life as being like a fish: If you are not moving, you are not breathing. During her eight-year role as VPA dean, Clarke has been in charge of many moves for the college that have helped it flourish.

One of the major achievements of Clarke’s time as dean was splitting up the School of Art and Design into the School of Art and the School of Design. Clarke said this was a long process that had been in discussion prior to her leadership, but one that needed to be done, as she said it would be “wrong” for an institution to not change in response to how the world is changing.

In addition, during Clarke’s time as dean, the graduate program in ceramics, printmaking, sculpture and transmedia; the undergraduate programs in environmental and interior design and industrial and interaction design; the film program; the Department of Drama; the Bandier Program; and the Setnor School of Music have all received top national rankings, according to an SU News release. This has also led to the school seeing an increase in enrollment, particularly in the graduate programs.

Clarke credits many of VPA’s successes to being able to recruit the best faculty, who she said have been the top choices in all of the administration’s recent searches.

Arthur Jensen, the senior associate dean in SU’s Department of Communications and Rhetorical Studies, said in an email that Clarke has worked very closely with each of VPA’s academic units to identify excellent leaders, whether that meant conducting external searches for department chairs and directors or promoting faculty from within the units.

He quoted Clarke’s mantra of “we should hire better than we are, and then support them to tenure.”

Jensen described Clarke as a “comprehensive thinker,” who is not afraid to make the tough decisions, but is sure not to make them prematurely.

Jordana Rubin | Digital Design Editor

Jim Clark, a professor in the Department of Drama and an associate dean in VPA, echoed these sentiments. Clarke is the fourth dean he has worked with, and he said he believes she is the strongest one because she has brought a lot of strength to many of the programs.

And while she is often busy, he said Clarke is very open and accessible.

“She’s always willing to meet with faculty members and directors and students,” he said. “She can be very enthusiastic, particularly of the work of the students in the college.”

But Clarke said she felt as though it was particularly the right moment for her to step down because she felt herself wanting to teach again.

She said she knew what she wanted to do: work with faculty in order to create the best faculty possible and to work with the units of the college to get a very strong sense of identity and a control of their destiny.

But now, Clarke said she thinks she’s gotten to the point where she’s done what she could do.

Said Clarke: “To be in that environment (of teaching and learning), it has been an honor and I feel very fortunate to have had my time here.”

Published on May 1, 2016 at 11:03 pm

Contact Ali: Ali Linan