Welcome to this space, and my quarterly dean\u2019s update from the Peabody Institute.\u00a0 As we reach the end of the 2016-17 academic year, there is much happening at Peabody which I hope you will find of interest.<\/p>\n
The Breakthrough Plan\u00a0began as a series of strategic objectives laid out two and a half years ago, built around the four pillars of Excellence, Interdisciplinary Experiences, Innovation, and Community Connection.\u00a0 Since that time, objectives have been built out through several faculty task force processes, institute-wide conversations, alumni input, and the work of the institute\u2019s executive administrative team.<\/p>\n
Over the last eight months, we have been translating the Breakthrough Plan into a detailed academic and business model encompassing all aspects of Peabody\u2019s programmatic and financial plans, creating a true roadmap going forward.\u00a0 Critical components include growth of existing high-potential programs in the Conservatory; calibrating enrollments appropriate to the reimagined ensembles program; a strategic tuition and credit consumption plan, supported by clear financial aid targets; implementation of the Breakthrough Curriculum across the entire Conservatory; development of high potential programs like Dance and Music for New Media; a carefully constructed ramping up of online activities; an enhanced summer program; fine tuning our admissions and recruitment processes including a new branding initiative that supports multi-year enrollment objectives; ambitious philanthropic plans; and a revamping of faculty governance.<\/p>\n
For decades, Peabody has operated with structural deficits that have been managed through special funding initiatives.\u00a0 This plan is designed to continue to strengthen our financial underpinning over the course of the plan.\u00a0 All elements of the academic programs are reflected in financial planning that supports academic excellence objectives and works towards eliminating structural deficits and builds sustainability in the years ahead.<\/p>\n
At this point, we are able to point to a very successful audition and selection process for the 2017-18 academic year.\u00a0 The total number of auditions for next year is 1565 compared with 1526 in 2016, representing a 3% increase, bringing the total increase over a two-year period to five percent.\u00a0 As of this time, we have an entering class of 271 new students – 88 new undergraduates and 183 new graduate students. \u00a0Yield for the incoming class is projected to be 32 to 33 percent, with total enrollment in FY2018 projected to be 559 full-time students.\u00a0 Our class comes from 30 states and 14 foreign countries. \u00a0Forty percent of our incoming class is international with China, Korea, and Taiwan continuing as our top countries of origin outside of the United States.<\/p>\n
We continue to make greater investments in scholarship in order to enroll top students. \u00a0The discount rate for the entering class is projected to total 41% up from 35% in 2016, resulting in enhanced yield and increased quality in a number of areas across the class as measured by faculty audition ratings.<\/p>\n
Our faculty form the true core of the experience for our students here at Peabody.\u00a0 Over the last several months we have announced an unprecedented series of new faculty appointments.\u00a0 These include three renowned singers who will join Peabody\u2019s faculty:\u00a0 Elizabeth Futral, Tony Arnold, and William Burden.\u00a0 We also will welcome Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet, who will chair our Woodwinds, Brass, Percussion and Harp Department, which also welcomes new faculty members BSO member Seth Horner, tuba, and National Symphony principal oboe Nicholas Stovall.\u00a0 We are thrilled to add to our renowned composition program with the appointments of Felipe Lara and Du Yun, who very recently won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize, adding a second Pulitzer winner to our very distinguished composition faculty.\u00a0 And speaking of composition, we will be building on two core strengths of Peabody \u2013 the composition area and the Recording Arts program \u2013 with the launch of our Music for New Media degree program, to be directed by the technical innovator Thomas Dolby.\u00a0 Most recently, we announced the appointment of Joseph Young, assistant conductor at the Atlanta Symphony, as Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Artistic Director of Peabody Ensembles, who will oversee our reimagined ensembles program.\u00a0 Finally, we look forward to Dr. Anicia Timberlake and Dr. David Gutkin joining our musicology area.<\/p>\n
We are excited about these appointments, and know that they will play a key role in Peabody\u2019s excelling for years to come.<\/p>\n
In February 2013, a final report of the External Review for the Peabody Institute was delivered to University Leadership. \u00a0Among a number of areas noted for consideration, the issue of \u201cGovernance and Leadership\u201d was highlighted as an important area in need of rethinking.\u00a0 After addressing other critical parts relating to institute\u2019s administrative structure over the last two years, first with the consolidation of the Director of the Institute and Dean of the Conservatory into one position, comprising the first Dean of the Institute; and following that, the restructuring of the administrative leadership team under this new model, as well as revamping the faculty contract system and initiating a long needed evaluation system (also noted in the External Review), attention was turned to the review and reform of the faculty assembly and committee system that had been in place for more than forty years.\u00a0 The goal was to ensure future faculty engagement and involvement in a way that would be substantive, meaningful, transparent, and accountable.<\/p>\n
To accomplish this, eighteen months ago we convened the Governance Task Force comprised of faculty and administration. \u00a0The task force identified a set of changes that included a new Dean\u2019s Advisory Committee representing our faculty, an enhanced Chair\u2019s role in academic leadership at Peabody, a Promotion and Evaluation Committee to help develop and oversee a system of multi-year contracts and non-tenured promotion, academic committees that include a Curriculum and Assessment Committee and Doctoral Committee, all funneling to the Academic Council which acts as an advisory trust to the dean of the institute.<\/p>\n
This process and the work that followed from it culminated in late April in a vote of endorsement by the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory, with 96% of those voting to endorse the new bylaws.\u00a0 This is testament to the foresight of our faculty, and a recognition that with all the changes and forging ahead in new directions at Peabody, it was important to have a faculty governance system in sync with that direction, and a functioning, flexible apparatus to meet our future needs as an institution<\/p>\n
Even as our task forces on the curriculum, ensembles, and faculty governance wind down after many months of very productive and fruitful work, the Peabody Diversity Pathway Task Force is ramping up its agenda.\u00a0 Three sub-committees of the task force, including Pipeline to Student Recruitment, Curriculum & Programming, and Climate\/Inclusion & Cultural Competency, all co-chaired by trios of administrative, faculty, and student leadership, have been meeting and developing plans in these key areas.\u00a0 On a parallel track, we have begun the process to design and implement an updated climate survey in order to set benchmarks against which we can measure future progress.\u00a0 In addition, all faculty searches now being conducted follow protocols laid out in our Faculty Diversity Plan implemented last year, while a scheduled, one-day faculty kick-off to the next academic year will have as its focus, diversity and inclusion. \u00a0In order to keep everyone in the loop and up to speed on these initiatives, we have just gone live with a diversity page on the Peabody website which you can find here:\u00a0peabody.jhu.edu\/diversity<\/a>.<\/p>\n I cannot stress enough how important this is for Peabody. \u00a0When we consider historic challenges of this field and the continued challenges that our society faces around inclusion, it is essential that Peabody as an institution fosters an environment that grows a diverse and inclusive group of artists.<\/p>\n The buzz of activity surrounding Peabody can be seen on any given day during the academic year.\u00a0 But sometimes that buzz takes on a significantly heightened intensity as, for example, when over just a two-day period this past April, we had master classes given by Midori, Frederica von Stade, the Juilliard Quartet, and Ensemble Klang (whose weeklong residency also culminated in a performance featuring works of our composition faculty).\u00a0 And only a week before this line-up, we had the remarkable Peter Sellars for a fabulous Dean\u2019s Symposium.\u00a0 This is, by any measure or standard, an extraordinary line-up of visiting artists in such a concentrated period of time.\u00a0 And speaking of extraordinary, we also welcome Hilary Hahn, another very distinguished artist and a Preparatory alum, as our graduation speaker for 2017.<\/p>\n It has been a fast paced and remarkable year for Peabody.\u00a0 A year of new initiatives, making plans, and truly paving the way for what it means to be a 21st<\/sup>\u00a0century musician.\u00a0 This all takes on even more energy as we launch the Breakthrough Curriculum with our new class in September, and continue to forge new directions and provide training for our students in a way that plants the critical and traditional elements of training top flight musicians, within a context of change, evolution, curiosity, and community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" May 10, 2017: Quarterly Update Welcome to this space, and my quarterly dean\u2019s update from the Peabody Institute.\u00a0 As we reach the end of the 2016-17 academic year, there is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":1389,"menu_order":58,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1506","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peabody.jhu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peabody.jhu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peabody.jhu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peabody.jhu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peabody.jhu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1506"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/peabody.jhu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92226,"href":"https:\/\/peabody.jhu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1506\/revisions\/92226"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peabody.jhu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peabody.jhu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Other Highlights to Note<\/h3>\n
Summing Up<\/h3>\n