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Sweet Celebrations

Good morning everyone. February always feels like just the right time to share with you some of the good news we’ve been celebrating. Spring is on the horizon, commencement is only 85 days away according to the D&P faculty countdown, and the future looks bright for our students, our alumni and the University itself. Today I am pleased to share with you some of our sweetest celebrations, in my 2018 edition of Valentines from Lindsay.

Admission inquiries have more than doubled, applications have increased 29 percent and deposits are up a whopping 60% year over year.

This hasn’t happened by accident. Audiences on the website we launched a few years ago continue to grow, which opened the door to a recruitment marketing strategy that included search engine optimization to boost organic rankings, a diverse digital advertising campaign that leverages our unique value proposition across a multitude of platforms, and a highly selective (and award-winning) print and outdoor placements that have fostered brand awareness and affinity. All of this activity is designed to drive traffic to our site which has attracted 39% more off-campus visitors year over year which translates to increased admissions inquiries.

This year for the first time we’ve implemented an integrated system of strategic contacts with prospective students throughout the admissions process. With automated digital acknowledgements, emails, conservatory-specific landing pages to capture leads generated by digital ads and a calibrated cadence of printed collaterals designed to nurture and engage, we’ve choreographed an intricate dance with prospective students that keeps ��������Ƶ top of mind and consideration during the enrollment lifecycle. Quite simply, we are pursuing the best and brightest as never before.

This strategy is important for several reasons. First, it has taken some of the heavy lifting off our faculty members and leant much-needed support to the efforts of our admissions staff. Because our system is more efficient, our personal interactions can be more meaningful and productive. Here’s where a faculty member’s personalized email to a top prospect can make the difference in a decision to enroll. Otherwise, their considerable energies should be focused on fostering creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship in their current students rather than feeling immense pressure to facilitate multiple touches during recruitment.

Second, by increasing our applicant pool, we can be more selective. If we only need one tuba player next year, then let’s be sure we have our pick of several qualified applicants. Let’s populate our new graduate program in Production and Project Management with young professionals who have both the credentials and the vision to transform the industries they will lead. Let’s reach and recruit the gamers and animators who will define how and what we view on augmented reality platforms we can’t even imagine, but they will create.

The third reason why recruitment is so important is the performance agreement that we negotiated as part of the UNC System’s Higher Expectations Strategic Plan. We agreed and will be held accountable for increasing our enrollment of students from rural counties in North Carolina, and for ensuring their graduation. You are likely aware that we have committed to a 6.5 percent increase in rural enrollment by Fall 2021 and a 31 percent increase in rural completions by the end of that academic year.

This does not mean we will admit less qualified students just because they reside in rural counties. Rather, it challenges us to address the asymmetry that exists between rural and urban counties in North Carolina when it comes to what high school students know about getting into college. We need to make sure that we are on the radar—or in the browser history—of every talented young artist from Cherokee County in the west to Dare County in the east. Perhaps our new tuba player will hail from Transylvania County, or a future Sugar Plum Fairy is practicing on pointe in Scotland County. The digital marketing campaign is carefully micro-targeting these prospects and their parents with messaging that highlights our unique value proposition.

Of course, none of this matters if we can’t offer competitive financial aid packages to the most talented and sought after prospects. My next valentine to you is terrific news on the fundraising front.

I’m thrilled to announce a planned estate gift of $3 million by an anonymous donor for merit-based scholarships in our School of Music. This is one of the largest single gifts in the history of the School of Music and it will strengthen our competitive advantage in recruiting young artists who demonstrate the talent, discipline, and grit it takes to perform at the very highest levels. This extraordinary gift from a donor who just passed away will have a significant and immediate impact, and we’re profoundly grateful to the benefactor, thankful to Ed Lewis and his team, and elated for Brian Cole and his faculty.

More hearts and flowers for Music: A week ago, on opening night of the opera, I was pleased to announce the $1 million gift from the estate of Jenny Semans Koortbojian, a daughter of beloved school founders Jim and Mary Semans. Like her parents, Jenny was passionate about the arts and about life-long learning. Since its founding, the School of the Arts has been fortunate to have the support and friendship of the Semans family, and we are deeply grateful for this transformative gift for our School of Music. Brian Cole reports that several students—some of whom performed in the opera—have already benefitted from the gift, enabling them to continue studies they otherwise could not have pursued. Together, this $4 million will double the scholarship dollars the School of Music is able to award in the 2018-19 recruitment cycle.

It’s also been a banner year for scholarship money from the Nutcracker. Despite a snowed-out opening night, the annual production generated more than $563,000 in net revenue, augmented by the $25,000 sponsorship from Wells Fargo. We’re still waiting for the final accounting, but suffice it to say Music, Dance and Design and Production will share in a worthy sum for scholarships.

You will remember that a little over a year ago I announced a $10 million gift to establish the Institute for Performance Innovation, which would support cutting edge programs in Film and Design and Production. Today, I am happy to announce progress on that front. After a lot of discussion and soul searching, we came to realize that housing two distinct programs under one umbrella did not serve either one of them. So we’ve separated them. The Center for Performance Innovation will focus on the animatronics program in D&P, and Film’s augmented reality and gaming programs will be housed in what we call the Media and Emerging Technologies Lab, or METL, an edgy name for a very edgy segment of the digital entertainment industry.

METL will serve as both an instructional unit and a public service, acting as a hub to bring enabling technology companies and immersive content producers together with, civic leaders, faculty, students and venture capitalists to explore, test and develop new opportunities for economic growth in North Carolina.

Susan Ruskin has hired Ryan Schmaltz to direct METL. Ryan has 12 years of experience providing strategic leadership for product and operations of both start-ups and established companies like Uber Technologies, Adobe and Microsoft. We’re thrilled  to have his expertise.

You’re probably aware that it’s awards season, and our alumni continue to shine on their industry’s most exalted platforms. I’d like to share a few of them with you as my third valentine offering:

With about a month to go before the Academy Awards, alumni from the School of Drama and the School of Filmmaking worked on three of the nominees for Best Picture and a nominee for Best Animated Feature Film. The much-heralded films include “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri,” “Lady Bird,”“ Dunkirk,” and “Coco,” and you can see the list of alumni involved. Our alumni have also been recognized in recent wins at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards.

Lucas Hedges picked up a Screen Actors Guild Award as a member of the best ensemble cast of “Three Billboards,” and Tiffany Little Canfield, casting director for NBC’s megahit “This is Us,” was recognized by one of the stars of the show when he accepted the Best Ensemble Award on behalf of his castmates. “This is Us” is also shaped by Filmmaking alumna Vera Herbert, who is a writer/ producer on the show.

A member of our Music faculty, saxophonist Robert Young, performed on a recording that won a Grammy for Best Choral Performance, and Puerto Rican graduate composition student Luis Sanz performed at the Latin Grammys, and also contributed to a recording that was nominated for Best Tropical Song.

��������Ƶ had connections to at least 10 films that screened at Sundance, including “Hearts Beat Loud,” written and directed by Brett Haley, which won the coveted spot of closing night film, and “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” starring Jennifer Ehle, which won a Grand Jury Prize.Also at Sundance was Danny McBride and Jody Hill’s latest film “Arizona.”

Fifteen-year-old dancer Daniela Thorne has just returned from the Prix de Lausanne ballet competition in Switzerland, where she was one of just seven Americans invited to compete. While sixteen-year-old dancer Andrew Robare won first place in Contemporary Dance and second place in Classical Ballet at the first-ever Winston-Salem Semi-finals of the Youth America Grand Prix last weekend. He was one of six dancers from the college, high school and preparatory dance programs who were recognized at YAGP.

Fletcher Opera Fellow Kathleen Felty, who performed the title role in “La Cenerentola,” was one of three equal winners in the NC District auditions of the Metropolitan Opera National Council. She heads to Atlanta this weekend for the Southeast Regional auditions. 

Our high school students continue to excel here in North Carolina and across the country. Visual Artists earned 11 awards from Scholastic Arts, including seven gold keys. We have four National Merit Semifinalists and two YoungArts winners, a dancer and a vocalist, one of whom is a candidate for both Presidential Scholar and Presidential Scholar in the Arts.

And you have to love this: we have an Olympian amongst our alumni. Kimani Griffin, who studied classical guitar in our high school program and is the son of retired long-time Visual Arts faculty member Pam Griffin, will compete this year in 500 meter speedskating, with competition scheduled for Feb. 19.

If I haven’t showered you with enough valentines, consider my list of best bets for your next date night. If you happen to be in New York, check out nine-time Tony Award-winning “The Book of Mormon,” with Dave Thomas Brown taking over the lead beginning Feb. 20, or go see to the Broadway production of “Once on This Island” featuring Class of 2017 Drama alumnus Isaac Powell and Dance alumna Camille A. Brown’s choreography or “A Bronx Tale,” or one of the spring premieres including “Escape to Margaritaville,” “Mean Girls” or “Moulin Rouge.” Or if you are in the mood for dance, check out Chop Shop Contemporary Dance Festival or New York Live Arts. All of them feature ��������Ƶ alums.

Head out to Chicago to see “Hamilton,” featuring high school drama alum JJ Jeter who alternates between the roles of Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and King George.

Or you might like to visit our nation’s Capital to see “Chess,” “The Great Society” or “The Raid,” which Colin Hovde directs for Theatre Alliance running through March 18.

Of course you can visit your local cinema wherever you are to check out some of the great films I mentioned earlier, or you homebodies can stay in and stream movies and television shows featuring ��������Ƶ alums including “This is Us,” “Vice Principals,” “Grown-ish,” “Nashville” or “Stranger Things.”

Amidst all of this good news generated from our campus, I’m happy to report a few items from the UNC System. Notice I said UNC System and not UNC General Administration. President Margaret Spelling and her team have recently launched a rebrand which includes doing away with the moniker G.A. I hear there’s a jar to collect fines if you mention “GA” in front of Margaret, her chief of staff or her marketing team. They’ve adopted a new logo which celebrates the storied history of the state with the breadth and depth of the System by drawing on the colors and images of the state flag and using 17 lines to create the state’s silhouette. And the new tag line—Individually remarkable, collectively extraordinary—honors the successes of our students, faculty, staff and alumni.

The University of North Carolina System is known nationally and internationally as a world-class teaching and research enterprise.“ Our 17 institutions are empowering students, driving innovation, and enriching the communities around them,” said President Spellings unveiling the new logo. “We have long delivered transformative results for our state and its citizens, but we can do more to harness our institutions’ individual voices and strengths to speak and work together in pursuit of our shared goals.”

Later this month, we have the opportunity to share our voice, and our strengths with the new members of the Board of Governors. Their half-day visit to our campus—postponed from November—will be Tuesday, Feb. 27. We will lead them on an informative tour of the Stevens Center as well as the Schools of Filmmaking and Design and Production. I look forward to building alliances with the new members, and I can’t wait to showcase just a few things that make ��������Ƶ the sparkling jewel of the System. I wish that we could keep them all day to show them everything we do.

In closing, I’d like you to see a video produced by School of Filmmaking alumnus and current MFA candidate Neil Soffer that will premiere during the Board of Governors visit and then be available on our website. Once we get it online, please share it profusely on every platform you have to help build awareness of ��������Ƶ as the nation’s foremost arts conservatory for the next century and the leading cultural institution of the American south. 

��������Ƶ Board of Trustees address

February 9, 2018