The Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) will know whether they are joining the Arts faculty or becoming part of a mega-art school by July, Provost Stephen Garton said at a town hall-style meeting last week.
Professor Garton addressed teachers, students and alumni, stating that the University is currently in negotiations to merge the school with the UNSW Art Design (formerly CoFA) and the National Art School in Darlinghurst, to create a “Centre for Excellence”.
If these negotiations fail, SCA will be assumed as part of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the end of the year.
Garton said they should have an answer “by June or July”, but he did not see a future for the SCA as a separate college on the Rozelle campus.
“You have been in significant decline for a long period of time,” Garton told attendees, adding that the SCA’s current existence in Rozelle’s Callan Park was “not sustainable”.
The SCA’s future has been unknown since a Sydney Morning Herald article published in November revealed the University would be moving away from its Rozelle campus.
SCA teachers voiced their upset at the decision being delayed for so long (claiming they had been promised a decision in April at a previous meeting), as it was disrupting curriculum development and student recruitment.
“There is an understandable frustration about a lack of ability to plan,” CPSU branch President Grant Wheeler told Honi, saying the University was “turning their back on their staff”.
If a mega-art school was created, Professor Garton conceded its operation was unlikely to begin by Semester One, 2017 due to the need to synthesise curriculums and seek out a viable location.