The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) has been referred to as the “Caltech of the UC system.” Engineering, biomedical science, physical science, information technology ” this is where it’s at.
So, how does the Arts and Humanities Division fare in the mix?
Surprisingly well. While UCSD lacks New York City’s reputation in theatre and dance, the department is ranked third in the nation, after New York University and Yale University. New Media Arts ranks sixth in the nation.
The university competes for the top graduate students in Asian history with Harvard University, the University of California, Berkley and the University of Chicago.
But in order to transfer those high rankings into solid reputations, the division needs to create its own signature strengths in each department, according to Dean Michael Bernstein.
“My core message is that I don’t want to be a second-rate UCLA,” Bernstein said. “I want to be a first-rate UCSD.”
Bernstein presented his strategic vision for the Division of Arts and Humanities before colleagues on June 8. The departments include history, literature, music, philosophy, theatre and dance, and visual arts.
Each department needs to identify its strengths and capitalize on those in order to create a division of elite programs, Bernstein said. In the same vein, departments will have to make strategic bets about which direction to pursue.
Chancellor Marye Anne Fox has identified Mexico and China as focal points for collaboration between scholars and artists, and has called for increasing student flows between the countries.
The university’s high profile in modern Chinese studies needs to extend to include areas of expertise on Korea, Indochina, Malaysia and India. A Korean historian or literary specialist is crucial to the division, Bernstein said.
“What’s happening in Asia stretches from south to east Asia and it’s transforming the world,” Bernstein said. “And we have to be part of that.”
UCSD is also beginning to concentrate on intensive growth versus extensive growth. As the campus rapidly expands, it will soon peak at 26,000 students and growth will have to turn inward.
Some colleagues are wary of focusing resources in one area at the expense of another. When departments begin to identify their strengths, the weaker, or less popular, areas are also exposed and there’s always an opportunity cost, Bernstein acknowledged in his speech.
“One colleague accused me of trying to construct a theme park in the Arts and Humanities,” Bernstein said. “It’s a nice choice of words because it’s got the wheels spinning in my mind.”
Key areas may be easier to pinpoint in certain departments than others, Bernstein continued.
The Department of Theatre &Dance specializes in training stage actors and designers ” not in film, TV or radio.
Historians, on the other hand, want a more traditional approach to the subject by spanning resources and emphasis across all areas. Everything is interrelated and relevant to a historian who wishes to cover the globe, time span, language and environment, Bernstein said.
Bernstein highlighted the Literature Department for already carving out its niche. The department seeks to create an integrative, global and comparative approach to its programs. For example, the department doesn’t divide into Romance, Slovak and Asian language programs; instead, it seeks to address the connections and conflicts between such societies. The programs are all incorporated into one happy family, he joked.
Success in one aspect of the department will lead to ultimate success in all areas, he said.
The dean envisions that such prestige will draw more resources, better faculty and students and create a more sustainable system.
“When I look at the most successful units, it seems that they are the units which have engaged in ongoing discussions like these and have made choices,” Bernstein said. “When they’re lucky, the choices pay off. And when they’re not lucky, they have to change course.”
In the local arena, Bernstein pointed to La Jolla Playhouse as an established venue for arts and theatre in San Diego. UCSD’s artists have also begun to sow seeds along the border and in Tijuana. Students collaborate in exhibition spaces in Chula Vista, San Ysidro and Tijuana.
Three such students ” Shannon Spanhake, Sergio de la Torre and Camilo Ontiveros ” founded an artist residency space in Tijuana, called Lui Veazquez, that aims to draw local and international writers, musicians, sound artists, performance artists and filmmakers to pursue their craft in the unique environment of Tijuana.
Filmmaker Patricia Montoya, an MFA student at UCSD, spent two months at Lui Veazquez rehearsing with an actor and actress from Tijuana, and working with crews from both sides of the border.
“Ultimately the space is about exactly what it relies on: relationships and exchange,” Spanhake said.
Spanhake finds Tijuana to be an incredibly inspiring and evocative city. The lack of institutional infrastructure has spawned artists who are tremendously energetic and resourceful, she said. Artists construct art out of recycled materials, imitating the makeshift business tactics of vendors who build their carts from such resources.
Spanhake is writing a documentary about a project to plant gardens in potholes in Tijuana. She is also working with Ontiveros to monitor border air pollution by using cell phones.
In line with Bernstein’s vision, the Visual Arts department strongly supports initiatives in Tijuana. Many of the faculty members are versed in Tijuana’s contemporary and historical art, Spanhake said.
UCSD will never be in the heart of the music or theatre world, like Los Angeles or New York, Bernstein concluded, but the artists exemplify the vision to tactically plant roots near and far.