One MICA

March 1, 2023 Campus Gathering Overview

March 1 Gathering Campus Memo Open Letter to Faculty & Staff
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One MICA
March 1, 2023 Campus Gathering Overview

As a follow-up to President Hoi’s State of MICA address held in Falvey Hall on March 1, 2023,  this website has been setup to provide additional information and resources to help support our community. 

Organizational restructuring impacting jobs and people is always difficult and circumstances are inherently imperfect. We understand the uncertainty and anxiety this creates for the entire MICA community and we acknowledge the stress endured as a result. 

MICA has evolved and adapted multiple times since its inception and in doing so proven its resilience and ability to innovate. As MICA will soon reach its bicentennial milestone in 2026, there is a unique responsibility to pivot towards a sustainable and even more relevant MICA for its third century. By rescaling our operation and reframing our educational approach while we have the fundamental strengths and assets as an institution, we are making tough but strategic moves to overcome a time-limited crisis and reposition the College for long-term success. 

 

 Upcoming Information Sessions

The administration is committed to hearing your concerns and questions through listening sessions and roundtables. 

Staff Roundtable: Friday, March 3, 2023  |  2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Invitations for staff will be sent from PB&C  

Faculty Roundtable:  Friday, March 3, 2023  |  3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Invitations for full-time faculty will be sent from the provost office

Staff are approved to attend as paid release time. Staff with essential duties will work with their leadership teams for coverage and attendance. 

 


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

General

MICA’s Faculty Handbook defines changed enrollment circumstances “to include sudden or unplanned decline in student enrollment, the detrimental financial effects of which are too great or too rapid to be offset by normal procedures outlined in the Handbook”

Changed Enrollment Circumstances was declared to address pandemic-related enrollment declines compounded by an overall contraction in the higher education sector. CEC allows for more rapid response actions within the academic enterprise than is otherwise possible.

No. The higher education landscape is due for contraction; the 2026 enrollment cliff—a well forecasted and lasting demographic decline in U.S. college entrants—and the public questioning of a traditional degree credential are two key factors driving the volatile and changing landscape of higher education. Joining other sectors such as technology and retail, colleges and universities across the country are downsizing.

Every college has its own unique circumstances but this is a national challenge driven, in large measure, by demographic changes. According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, total U.S. college enrollment has fallen by 10% since 2012.  Here in Maryland, the decrease has been even sharper at 16%.  COVID and alternatives to private four-year institutions have accelerated this pre-existing generational shift since 2019.  According to NBC News, more than 50 public and nonprofit institutions have closed or merged since 2016

No. MICA has evolved and adapted multiple times since its inception and in doing so proven its resilience and ability to innovate. As MICA will soon reach its bicentennial milestone in 2026, there is a unique responsibility to pivot towards a sustainable and even more relevant MICA for its third century. By rescaling our operation and reframing our educational approach while we have the fundamental strengths and assets as an institution, we are making tough but strategic moves to overcome a time-limited crisis and reposition the College for long-term success.


Academics

The academic restructure in its initial phase is a largely a management restructure in the undergraduate residential college that is focused on creating more equitable and efficient operations. In the next phase, the academic restructure will focus on creating more interdisciplinary pedagogy and curricular choices for students while making applied practical curriculum such as business, professional practices, internship, and other hands-on studies a required choice-based part of our undergraduate curriculum.

The Interim Provost and Interim Vice Provost of UGS have, through multiple sharing and listening session, incorporated faculty feedback throughout the process of iterating on the original restructuring proposal delivered in November of 2022. The current restructuring proposal is a direct result of this important feedback.

There is much work ahead of us; the reimagination and reframing of MICA’s education for students of today and tomorrow will be a partnership effort of administration, faculty, staff, and alums. We trust that you will want to contribute the benefit of your personal experience and thoughts to help us move forward.

 

By clustering smaller studio programs with larger ones, the Undergraduate Studies restructure will move from 18 departments, each hosting a single degree program, to approximately seven areas of study some hosting several degree programs.

The General Fine Arts (GFA) area of study, will soon be home to the majority of our smaller major programs like Painting and Drawing, Printmaking, Photography, Film and Video, Interactive Arts, Fiber, Interdisciplinary Sculpture, Ceramics, Architectural Design, and Product Design.

A task force will be assembled from faculty within GFA and the associated programs to work next fall on a new integrated curricular program to allow for greater sharing and fluidity between all of the studio programs linked with GFA and those outside of GFA.

 

We know from market research and our own experience with our students, that the art and design students of today are fluid and experimental in creativity and they expect similar flexibility in their education. They want to freely access tools, mediums, and disciplines to give shape to their ideas and the freedom and choice in mixing and matching courses to achieve their professional goals.

The undergraduate restructure planned to unfold over the next several years will expand interdisciplinary pedagogy and curricular choices for students while creating more equitable and efficient operations in the classroom and throughout the College.

Additionally, it fosters new ways in which students--and faculty--can learn and grow intellectually together through a more collaborative pedagogical approach; which is what our incoming students are telling us they want

 

Very little. The major courses of study for all students will be honored and will not change significantly next year despite the new clustering of majors described above.


Workforce

There will be no involuntary workforce reductions for faculty or staff in FY23, which goes through May. There will be no change to the terms of the adjunct faculty’s Collective Bargaining Agreement that is in its first year of a three-year duration.

The union negotiation of the voluntary retirement program, the offering of the program, and the acceptance process will likely take the rest of the FY23; this program for unionized and non-unionized faculty and staff will be offered at the same time.

If needed, the development and implementation involuntary separation program will take place during the first half of the summer.

We have no “target” ratio or reduction number, but rather, we are working to achieve sustainable operation while limiting involuntary position eliminations as much as possible.

We are hopeful that the voluntary separation program will offset much or all of the need for an involuntary separation program

Details on the voluntary separation package and eligibility will be provided by PB&C once they are finalized.

Yes. We have worked collaboratively and successfully with the SEIU in the past to negotiate our adjunct faculty contracts and we worked transparently and collaboratively with them during the staff and full-time faculty unionization campaigns.  We continue to cultivate a mutually respectful and collaborative relationship with SEIU representatives and we are optimistic that our negotiations with them on a voluntary early retirement program will be equally collaborative and successful

We are not considering pay reductions for any employee of the College at this time. A lesson we learned from the pandemic is that pay reductions may provide some short-term benefit but their lasting negative effects on morale, motivation, and retention outweigh that benefit.


Financial

No. The plans, processes, and actions we have implemented, and will continue into the future, represent the necessary fiscal control and discipline needed to be responsible stewards of one of America’s premier arts education institutions.

This is evident in overall ratings upgrades from both Fitch and Moody’s ratings agency in 2022.

In their own words, Moody’s, their most recent upgrade of MICA’s outlook to from negative to stable is “driven by its demonstration of strong fiscal stewardship through improved operating performance in fiscal 2022… even amid student market challenges. Governance is a key driver for this rating action, evidenced by management's disciplined financial strategy and credibility. The college made critical expense adjustments to manage through this period of increased volatility.

Divesting is a last resort we don’t plan to tap. Our ongoing investment in Baltimore and our community where we are currently located is a significant benefit to us and to our community with whom we share Baltimore. Rather than selling off assets we want to protect what we know will be appreciating assets that also ensure the future of our neighborhood as well as MICA.

Where appropriate we will explore possible partnerships for mutually beneficial alternative use options of our resources.

Most of MICA’s endowment is restricted by the intent of the donor. Changes to these funds can’t be made without donor input. We do not anticipate any changes to endowment spending at this time.

MICA has an enormous need for scholarship aid for students. More than 90 percent of our students require financial aid to attend the College.

MICA’s endowment is managed by the Investment Committee, which is part of the Board of Trustees. This group has extensive experience in financial management

That is not now an option, and like the other options discussed above one that we don’t think will be necessary.

The data is mixed but we are not alone in arts education or in higher education in general. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/02/07/art-schools-show-signs-stress-what-can-liberal-arts-colleges-learn

What does distinguish us is our willingness to be proactive and take current conditions to rethink the way we create a MICA for the next 200 years which reflects changes in students; in pedagogy; in the ways in which students and artists work; and in ensuring that our graduates leave us with the ability to support themselves in careers that value the creative and collaborative approaches they learn while at MICA.


Miscellaneous

No. The community has always been and will continue to be an important partner to MICA and our presence and engagement with it enhances the value of what we do. It also ensures and offers value to the neighborhoods where we are located and work.

No. Fine arts and a robust residential undergraduate program will always be an essential element of MICA’s DNA and will not be going away.

MICA’s evolutionary journey forward will be informed—but not dictated — by evolving student needs and changing market realities — this means MICA’s business model, by design, will likely become less dependent on our historical levels of residential undergraduate students and will provide additional flexible degree pathways such as online courses and micro-credentialling.

We are seeing new students who are pushing traditional creative boundaries while still recognizing the role that fine arts and MICA's classical curriculum have played in the past and will play in the future.

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