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Arts & Sciences planner looks
forward to more esprit de corps
“We had scientists, humanists and people in the arts
together — chemists talking about peace and conflict, anthropologists
talking about global economic issues, like hunger,” said
Joseph Grasso, associate dean for Arts
& Sciences planning and operations.
“We’re
creating a new climate.”
Coinciding
with its strategic planning process, Arts & Sciences held
two Envision meetings with Vice
President and Provost Gene Block and Senior Vice President
for Development
and Public Affairs Robert Sweeney. Participants from the College
and Graduate School included undergraduate and graduate students,
a College Foundation board member, senior and junior faculty,
plus deans.
“It
was another step in building community,” said Grasso.
“We
found a great esprit de corps growing among deans and the provost’s
office. Having the offices of the provost and development team
with deans sends a strong message about the concerted effort to
get clear ideas of programmatic needs,” he said.
Moreover,
with other deans and school representatives attending the Arts
& Sciences meetings, “we found new ideas for cooperating
on interdisciplinary proposals and leveraging our strengths –
with the School of
Medicine, with Architecture,
Engineering, Commerce
and Curry,” Grasso said.
Among
already established programs is the environmental sciences department’s
Global Environmental Change Program in Africa. It’s the successful
result of a concerted faculty effort to set up exchanges in teaching
and conducting research.
The University’s strengths are not packaged together, however,
in a way that shows how multiple programs create the whole.
“Arts
& Sciences would like to develop ways to provide an overarching
structure to enable cooperation and integration, at the same time
preserving each school’s individuality, sort of like the
new European Union,” Grasso said.
“We
want to marry the recently completed strategic plan with a fund-raising
plan — to create a clearly articulated document so others
can understand and support our goals.”
See
‘Envision’ sessions bring goals into focus
See Architecture looks to create
new ties to U.Va. community
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