Welcome to the Future

Please send any private comments to futureofartcenter at gmail.com. Note that comments were turned off last May. They are available now for the most recent post only.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

RECAP: Summary of Events So Far

1)  May 14, Wed – Nathan Cooke posted a blog post criticizing the status quo at Art Center. He emailed the post to Richard Kosalek, President of Art Center, some senior administration, some faculty and students of Ecocouncil. Read the post here.

2) May 15, Thur – Nate Young, Chief Academic Officer, turned in his resignation. (note: this was coincidental to the blog post)

3) May 15, Thur - Erica Clark (Senior VP, International Initiatives) and Iris Gelt  (Senior VP, Marketing and Communications) had a conference call with Nathan Cooke. They asked him to retract his statement. He did not. They claimed his facts were off, he asked them for the correct information. They did not provide it.

4) The blog post spread virally, among students, alumni, faculty, and administration.  People started commenting with their critiques on the current direction of Art Center. Post your concerns here.

5) May 28, Wed - ACSG (Art Center Student Government) held a town hall in the cafeteria at Art Center for students to voice their concerns. Rachel Tiede (Nate Young’s Assistant) spoke up at the student forum in defense of Nate Young, saying that he left because he did not agree with the direction the school was going. She was dismissed without options for further employment by HR after this (confirmed on June 5, Thursday, letter from Rachel). Videos available here.

6) May 30, Fri - ACSG met with Richard Koshalek and Senior VPs to discuss student concerns. Videos available here. Summary of videos here.

7) May 31, Sat - An online petition to the Board of Trustees was started, asking for the prioritization of education over all other projects. Read and sign it at www.accdpetition.com

8) June 1, Sun - Legacy Circle Photo is posted at Artcenter.edu with Nate Young (the dismissed VP Education/Chief Academic Officer) airbrushed out. When questioned about it, the older photo with Nate was reposted. Iris Gelt apologizes June 4, saying it was an inadvertent accident that happened while readjusting faculty lists. Read more here (has before and after photos) and here.

9) June 3, Tue - Alumni Potluck in Cafeteria started by Ophelia Chong (an alumni), for current students to connect with Alumni. Richard Koshalek was in attendance

10) June 10, Tue - ACSG hosts an open forum for students (and faculty?) to ask questions to Koshalek and Senior VPs directly. Questions people asked before the forum here. Video of the forum here.

11) June 19, Thur - Board of Trustees Meeting at South Campus, with concurrent Silent Protest by students organized by ACSG.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't forget to add:

June 1: Legacy Circle Photo is posted at Artcenter.edu with Nate Young (the dismissed Executive VP Education/ Chief Academic Officer) is airbrushed to remove Nate. When questions about it, the older photo with Nate was reposted. Stan Kong, Richard Holbrook, both in the photograph request an explanation from the administration. 3 days go by. Iris Gelt apologizes on June 4 saying it was an inadvertent accident that happened while readjusting faculty lists.

Anonymous said...

Is someone getting video at the next meeting w/ RK? I think it is helpful to have the questions and the given answers on tape so that they can be looked into/verified after the fact. Otherwise there is so much info that gets missed. Anyone attending that can do this?

Anonymous said...

Why didn't Nate make things better? As Exec VP and CAO he had a lot of power and was probably trusted by Richard to make the right decisions. Education and the students were Nate's responsibility. If the students aren't performing then that is a direct reflection on Nate's abilities to run education and academics. Why is he blaming anyone else? Something is fishy here.