Since my last letter, written in October 2008, much has happened both locally and globally. The RCAH and Michigan State University as a whole are part of a rapidly changing global political economy, with all of its ups, downs, bumps, and bruises.
How does a program such as ours prepare students and faculty for these challenges? What should we be studying now? What does the RCAH prepare us to do tomorrow?
The current economic crisis has hit Michigan especially hard. This is no secret. We must respond candidly to it, but also with imagination. In Chinese, I’m told, there are two characters for the word "crisis." One means danger, but the other means opportunity. Opportunities, however, don’t just happen. One has to be prepared to see and shape them. In the RCAH we are doing just that.
For example, one opportunity that Michigan now has is in the film industry. Companies that previously had flown their crews from coast to coast are now looking more closely at sites in Michigan. MSU is interested in taking advantage of this opportunity. RCAH students who are learning to write, design, and promote for a wide range of visual and digital media, including film, are well equipped to be part of this exciting new economy. In addition to our two-course sequence in writing and research that all RCAH students take in their first year, there will be a new course next fall on film and a new Filmmaker-in-Residence program in the RCAH. These initiatives, in collaboration with MSU’s new Film Studies specializations in the Departments of Telecommunication and English, will enable RCAH students who may wish to pursue this line of work to study along an elective pathway tailored to their own special interests and the foundational skills they develop in the RCAH.
Another example is the next installment of the 21st Century Chautauqua program that we launched in spring 2008. Beginning in fall 2009, a special seminar series for students and faculty will be devoted to the topic of "Creativity, Economic Development, and Ethics." We will travel to sites in Lansing, Detroit, and other Michigan cities where a new entrepreneurial spirit is emerging. A weeklong series on National Public Radio in April has highlighted some of these initiatives across the state, initiatives that author Richard Florida has said can be anchored by the strong university system that already exists. RCAH students will meet with these entrepreneurs, talk with them about their challenges, and learn how to imagine a new world of work that they can step into. One way in which this spark is already appearing is in the form of a multi-college proposal that includes the RCAH to the Kellogg Foundation to fund neighborhood urban gardens and innovative social networking technologies for new immigrant populations educated in Michigan but often drawn away to higher paying jobs in other regions of the country. Students in the RCAH civic engagement courses may have the opportunity to participate in these exciting new initiatives. Another initiative is a product design competition, sponsored by the global tool-making company Bosch, for teams of students from the RCAH, Engineering, and Packaging that will run alongside the new Chautauqua.
So, what should we be studying now? There is no one right answer to this question. However, for students interested in the arts and humanities, it seems clearer now more than ever that we should be studying how to hone our skills in visual, hands-on literacy for the new world in which these skills are absolutely essential. This kind of work requires more than a technical skill. It depends on what author Richard Sennett calls "the rhythm between eye and hand," something that takes time to develop in the company of others. The RCAH’s residential- and community-oriented curriculum is organized with this goal in mind.
Without these composing skills, broadly defined, that RCAH students have, the work of others will not find an audience. Without the ethical sensibilities of our students and faculty working together, others will not know how to reach out to that audience. This is not just about having a passion for our work. It is also being able to imagine what the current state of affairs looks like to those who now are struggling with the same loan payments, tight job markets, and uncertainties we are. It is this kind of humane tomorrow for which the RCAH prepares students, faculty, and our community partners.
