Higher education is the subject of many debates these days over what our country values.
You and I may have different ideas about what that should be. But as a Media School community, we all know our organization has value. What can we do to demonstrate our value as these debates ensue? To me, it’s a combination of innovation and preserving strategic, long-held principles and priorities.
Innovation is at the heart of our strategic plan, which I shared with you last month. We strive to continuously improve our teaching, research, and service, but also to teach students to be innovative in the ways they create and study media — preparing them to learn for life and lead in the media industry. To leave the profession better than they found it.
Bringing future plans to life
This summer, we’ll cut the ribbon on the Kinetic Imagery and Extended Reality Lab, a seven-school collaboration that will allow us to extend our research, creative activity, and teaching into virtual and augmented reality using a 24-foot LED immersive soundstage. It’s innovative in its technology, in its interdisciplinary function, and the way it has us thinking about media production, research, and education.
We’ve launched the search for our inaugural assistant dean of external partnerships, who will oversee initiatives that will diversify our revenue streams, raise the profile of the school, and create new opportunities for research, student experience, and service to the state. We’re thinking about all these activities in new ways.
But as the world changes by the minute and we evolve as well, we must take stock of the core, unchanging values we hold as an organization. Ours are clearly defined in our strategic plan:
- Bridging history, theory, and practice
- Creativity and innovation
- Collaboration and interdisciplinarity
- Future-ready and adaptable
Diversity of community and ideas, and freedom of inquiry and expression are underpinnings of these values.
As we face new uncertainties in the higher education landscape, The Media School is in the fortunate position of having just completed our strategic plan. We know our values and we know our vision, and we will face these challenges with a clear sense of direction.
In my own work, I have studied the way film and TV can advance the conversation around mental health/illness. And that’s why I love being the dean of our school even during these fraught times. We study and create media (whether journalism, film, TV, or other forms of media represented by our school) which inspire, entertain, educate, speak to our shared concerns, identify issues, and sometimes propose solutions. That is what we can do and must do as a school.
But media can’t solve everything. I know many of our international students are feeling anxious about visa uncertainties. The Office of International Services is available to provide individualized guidance, and IU Global is posting immigration and visa updates to its website. We care deeply about the health and well-being of our community.
Best,
David Tolchinsky
Dean, The Media School at Indiana University
