Committee Report | December 2011

Cultural Education Committee

December 13, 2011

Time:  9:25 a.m. – 10:10 a.m.

Location:  Room 146 EB

REGENTS COMMITTEE ON CULTURAL EDUCATION

Regent Roger Tilles, Chair of the Cultural Education Committee, submitted the following written report.

Your Committee on Cultural Education Committee had its scheduled meeting on December 13, 2011.

In attendance were committee members: Regents Tilles, Dawson, Bendit, Rosa, Cea, Jackson, Cottrell

In addition to CE Committee Members, in attendance were:  Chancellor Tisch, Vice Chancellor Cofield, Regents Cashin, Norwood, Chapey and Phillips; Commissioner King and Executive Deputy Commissioner Grey.

ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION

Chair’s Remarks: Regent Tilles welcomed everyone and opened the meeting and turned the agenda over to Deputy Commissioner Cannell.

Deputy Commissioner Jeffrey Cannell began the meeting by acknowledging the retirement of Clifford Siegfried, Director of the State Museum.  Deputy Commissioner Cannell also introduced OCE’s leadership team to the committee.  Deputy Cannell then introduced the only item on the committee’s agenda.

CE (D) 1 – Office of Cultural Education Three Year Program Plan

As agreed at the October 2011 CE Committee meeting, OCE staff charted a plan that demonstrates how OCE’s program priorities will be implemented over the next three years and presented it to the Committee for discussion.

Deputy Cannell noted that this is a high-level plan for 2012-2014 and not a specific or comprehensive description of all of the activities of OCE.  The plan is organized along two axes. One identifies the major program themes for the next three years.  The other axis is organized along the strategic goals for OCE: as a statewide institution; as a partner with other USNY institutions; as a collections stewardship and research facility and to increase and expand public access to collections and programs.

There was extensive discussion of the plan that ranged from how OCE can increase revenue through fund-raising and monetization of programs and service to how OCE can partner more with other institutions across the state to align programs on a statewide level.

The committee stressed the importance of aligning OCE’s programs, especially exhibits, with the common core and stressed the value of OCE’s collections in enhancing and improving education at all levels. 

The committee agreed that there is a need to continue to educate board members on the extent of OCE’s collections, programs and activities; that there is a need to seek guidance and input from outside experts in improving the operations and statewide reach of OCE programs; and that OCE should continue to develop a program agenda that can be used to support funding and fund-raising opportunities.