PROVOST WELCOME

Dear Faculty,

Welcome to the new academic year and to our remodeled and unified San Francisco campus! This summer was literally an epic all hands on deck collaborative feat! So many staff members and academic leaders committed themselves to the remodeling of our SF campus buildings and to onboarding new spaces over the summer. I want to thank our program chairs, academic deans and directors, and program managers for all their excellent work. And I especially want to give a big shout out to our entire Facilities and Operations teams - including our amazing studio managers - as well as my leadership partners for all their expertise and dedication to the project of unifying the college - THANK YOU! 

Becoming a unified campus has been a working goal for decades and so many faculty, staff and students have helped envision and shape the pathways. In packing up my beloved Oakland office I found notes from a 1991 faculty retreat in which goals and discussions are thoroughly summarized. It was interesting to note that 30 years ago faculty articulated unifying the college on a single campus as a top priority--well before we even had the 1111 Eighth Street property and when we were dispersed throughout Oakland and other parts of San Francisco.

It is exciting to watch the college community return to in-person working, teaching, learning, and living after two and half years of either being fully remote or hybrid. I remain very proud of the good work we have accomplished in riding the turbulent waves of the pandemic and am so grateful that we get to return to the vibrant buzz of a community occupied, creative practice based campus. 

It is equally thrilling that we have begun the construction phase of building Double Ground (designed by Studio Gang) on the backlot with a planned occupancy date of August 2024! You can follow the Double Ground progress here, where regular updates will be shared. You can also find campus planning and unification news and updates on Portal.

An important component of the work of unifying includes saying goodbye and thank you to the Oakland campus which has been a primary home for many of us. Please join us for an honorary farewell on Saturday Sep 24 2022, 4PM - 7PM on the Oakland Campus which has been lovingly organized by the Oakland Legacy Committee.

Please participate in attending the new All Faculty Communication Meetings that will be scheduled regularly and have been designed to provide faculty access to timely college-wide information and updates. Invitations will be sent via email as scheduled and follow-up summaries will be shared.

Our work this academic year will include paying close attention to the opportunities and questions that will emerge as we settle into new working environments on a unified campus with residential students and on-going construction. There is much we don’t yet know about how things will flow and work. I hope that we can all approach the next few years with the same curious and creative problem solving mindset that we bring to our studios and practices, and pay extra special attention to meeting each other in both challenges and opportunities with generosity, kindness, and collaboration. 

I thank you in advance for all the great teaching and creating that will surely take place this year and I look forward to seeing you on campus and enjoying the work of our students!

Take good care,

Tammy Rae

EXPERIENCE OUR UNIFIED CAMPUS

Coming to campus will be a new experience for many of you as we celebrate our unification in San Francisco. Be sure to check out (and bookmark!) the new campus maps on Portal.

FACULTY LEADERSHIP & GOVERNANCE

Program Chair Leadership

We continue to support transitions in the leadership of our academic programs and welcome our chairs to return to a focus on teaching and for faculty to rotate into chairships and play a role in academic and college leadership. At the end of the 2021/2022 academic year, the following faculty stepped out of chair positions and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their collective outstanding contributions: Marilyn Da Silva, Carol Elkovich, Jordan Kantor, Leslie Roberts, Anne Shea, Owen Smith.

Please welcome the following incoming chairs:

• Modesto Covarrubias, Assistant Chair, First Year Core Studio Program
• Jasmin Darznik, Chair, Graduate Writing Program
• Justin Hall, Chair, Graduate Comics Program
• Taro Hattori, Chair, Individualized Major & Sculpture Programs
• Justin Lokitz, Interim Chair, Design Strategy MBA Program
• Matt Silady, Chair, Undergrad Comics Program
• Peter Simensky, Chair, Graduate Fine Arts Program
• Shannon Taylor, Assistant Chair, Illustration Program
• Victoria Wagner, Assistant Chair, First Year Core Studio Program
• Michael Wertz, Chair, Illustration Program

Faculty Governance Leadership

Thank you to the following faculty for their leadership and service to the college in faculty governance committees this year. Please visit the committee links on the Academic Affairs section of Portal for complete membership lists. Please welcome the following new committee chairs: 

     Faculty Senate President and Chair of the Executive Committee
     Rachel Berger, Associate Professor, Graphic Design Program

     Faculty Senate Vice President and Assistant Chair of the Executive Committee
     Janette Kim, Assistant Professor, Architecture Program

     Co-Chair of the Curriculum Committee
     Christina La Sala, Associate Professor, Individualized Studies Program

I would also like to extend special gratitude to the outgoing EC President, Catherine Veikos; EC Vice President, Graham Plumb; and Curriculum Committee Co-Chair, Angela Hennessy

FACULTY PROMOTIONS

Unranked Promotion ReviewsIn the Spring 2022 semester 15 unranked promotion reviews took place. Seven faculty were promoted to Adjunct II and 8 faculty were promoted to Senior Adjunct. 

The 2022-23 reviews will kick off later this month.

Ranked Faculty Promotion  Congratulations to the following faculty who received milestone promotions last year:
Tenure

• Nil Bayraktar, Associate Professor, History of Art and Visual Culture
• Meg Bisineer, Associate Professor, Animation
• Thomas Haakenson, Associate Professor, History of Art and Visual Culture
• Nathan Lynch, Associate Professor, Ceramics
• Graham Plumb, Associate Professor, Interaction Design
• Peter Simensky, Associate Professor, Sculpture
• Clark Thenhaus, Associate Professor, Architecture
• Christine Wang, Associate Professor, Painting and Drawing

Tenure and Promotion to Full Professor

• Jacqueline Francis, Professor, History of Art and Visual Culture
• Ranu Mukherjee, Professor, Film

Full Professor

• Susanne Cockrell, Professor, Graduate Fine Arts
• Kota Ezawa, Professor, Film
• Eric Heiman, Professor, Graphic Design
• Jason Johnson, Professor, Architecture
• Adam McCauley, Professor, Illustration
• Jeremy Mende, Professor, Graphic Design
• Scott Minneman, Professor, Graduate Design
• Sunny Smith, Professor, Sculpture and Dean of Fine Arts

FACULTY RESOURCES

• Campus Unification Updates: stay on top of the latest updates and changes during our once-in-a-century move to unify our campuses in San Francisco
• Teaching Lab: a "virtual center" (for now) that provides support to faculty by providing access to libraries services, teaching-related information and events, and resources for faculty development.
• Moodle Foundations: a self-paced, asynchronous Moodle course to teach you how to use Moodle as an Instructor.
• Faculty Orientation & How-Tos: basic introductory information that will help you get ready to walk into your classroom and start teaching 
• Student Policies for Faculty: Links to various student policies that faculty should be aware of.
• Syllabus Format Information: A syllabus is required for every course. This guide will help your create your own.
• Academic Affairs, Faculty Handbook, & Collective Bargaining Agreement

ANNOUNCEMENTS

CCA Pass (Muni pass) for students has launched! 

Making the City our Campus

CCA is excited to announce the new CCA Pass, a transit pass that provides students with unlimited access to SFMTA bus, streetcar, and Muni Metro (excluding cable car) rides throughout the city of San Francisco! CCA Pass connects our unified San Francisco campus with the entire city. CCA Pass costs 50% less than a privately purchased SFMTA pass and provides students with unlimited access to world-class museums, galleries, cultural events, jobs, internships, and volunteer opportunities, as well as endless opportunities to explore San Francisco’s iconic neighborhoods. CCA Pass affirms our commitment to an environmentally sustainable campus culture by encouraging low-emission transportation options. 

Faculty, please direct students to the CCA Pass portal page to learn more about the program and how to activate their pass with their CCA email address.