Dear Advisory Council Members,
I’m pleased to announce that Professor John Yancey, who has long served as the chair of the Fine Arts Diversity Committee, has accepted an executive appointment as the college’s first Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. In this position, he will lead efforts to advance diversity and inclusion in our student recruitment and admissions, in faculty and staff hiring and retention, and the college’s cultural climate.
Many of you met Associate Dean Yancey at the fall 2018 council meeting. He teaches painting and drawing in the Department of Art and Art History, which he joined in 1993. He’s held numerous leadership roles in the department and the college, including serving as department chair from 2005 to 2011.
He received his B.F.A. in painting and drawing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1980. Upon graduation, he pursued an independent art career for 11 years before receiving the prestigious Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowship, which enabled him to enroll in graduate school at Georgia Southern University, where he received his M.F.A. in 1993.
His most recent projects include permanent public artworks in the Stop Six community in the City of Fort Worth’s Rosedale Park, the Austin Convention Center, and the monumental history and culture art wall, “Rhapsody” that occupies the Charles Urdy Plaza in East Austin.
In the coming year, Yancey will be leading the charge as the college focuses on these goals:
- Create a college statement of diversity, equity and inclusion that aligns with the university’s statement and addresses the needs specific to an arts college
- Revisit and update the college’s 2015 Diversity Strategic Plan and action priorities
- Create an annual report on college demographics to provide transparency and accountability in the college’s recruitment and retention efforts
- Continue and enlarge anti-racism training opportunities for faculty, staff and students
- Collaborate with Admissions and academic departments to strengthen the college’s recruiting efforts to attract a diverse applicant pool and to yield a diverse class of incoming students
- Explore new, more effective strategies to recruit and retain a more diverse body of faculty and staff
- Collaborate across the college to ensure we are offering enough support to make transformative experiences, such as study abroad or professional development programs, equitable and accessible for all students in the college
I’m grateful to the hard work of the Fine Arts Diversity Committee members, and I look forward to working with Associate Dean Yancey in this new role as we work to make our college a more equitable, inclusive and welcoming environment for our students, faculty and staff.
Excelsior!
Doug Dempster
Dean
