Twice a year, FIT’s convocation brings together faculty and administrators to mark the start to the semester. At spring convocation on Thursday, Jan. 22, the excitement in the Katie Murphy Amphitheatre was palpable in anticipation of the first faculty- and staff-wide address by the college’s new president, Jason S. Schupbach, who took the reins earlier this month.
Schupbach was brimming with enthusiasm when he stepped to the microphone to a standing ovation.
“I know you have questions,” he said, “including: Who am I? How do I work? What’s my vision for FIT? And is his sock game always this strong?”
In answer to his first two questions, he said, “My passion in life is to help creative people succeed.” He talked about helping his first roommate after college, the fashion designer Ashish Gupta, to produce a fashion show for his master’s degree. “I felt such a high from contributing to an amazing creative’s first success.”
He also promised “to be a collaborative, transparent leader who listens and learns. One of my least favorite questions is, ‘What is your vision for FIT?” as opposed to ‘What is the vision for FIT?’”
He announced a strategic planning process called FIT Future//Forward, to position the college as “the laboratory for creative careers in the 21st century.” He added, “FIT will be at the epicenter of creativity, global design, and innovation.”
He was joined in the audience by Joan Shigekawa, the former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts who has been a mentor to Schupbach.
“Joan is, in short, a legend,” he said, “and I’m honored she has come to help me kick off my time here at FIT.”
Preceding his speech, Yasemin Jones, interim vice president for Academic Affairs; Tardis Johnson, vice president for Enrollment Management and Student Success; and Assistant Professor Jeffrey Riman, coordinator in the Center for Excellence in Teaching, and president of the Faculty Senate, also offered greetings and updates.
In her report of news and events from Academic Affairs, Jones mentioned that two groups at FIT are addressing the ways the college can respond to the way AI is transforming education. The AI Usage, Responsibility, and Adaptation committee (AURA) has developed best practices for the college’s use of these tools, and the AI in Instruction and Mentorship subcommittee (AIM) created eight working groups to look at AI’s role in student support, teaching, learning, and curriculum.
In his speech, Riman added that 131 faculty members volunteered for the AIM subcommittee, and that more than 800 students responded to a survey about their perceptions of AI use.
“Now, more than ever, shared governance, close collaboration, and mutual interdependence are essential in a world where artificial intelligence skills are absolutely necessary for our career students,” Riman said. “Yet the same tools that will help a student to succeed when they enter the professional world also can hinder learning.”
Lastly, Johnson spoke about how FIT is rising to the challenge of recruiting and supporting international students, attending to student mental and physical health, and increasing retention rates past FIT’s excellent 88% first-to-second-year retention, already “the envy of many colleges and universities,” he said.
“We are the best at what we do, and working together in partnership, we will continue to be the best at what we do.”