Howard University names actress and alumna Phylicia Rashad as dean of College of Fine Arts - The Washington Post

Howard University on Wednesday named multi-award winning TV, stage and film actress and director Phylicia Rashad as dean of its College of Fine Arts.

I would like to see students engaged in the disciplines of fine arts as they participate and engage in the university at large.

I would like to see the College of Fine Arts not only re-established, but see it exulted.”.

Rashad’s hiring also marks the return of Howard’s College of Fine Arts as an independent school within the university.

In 1998, as part of a cost-cutting move by previous administrators, the university merged the College of Fine Arts within its College of Arts and Sciences.

Howard had 307 students enrolled in its fine arts program this spring, according to the university.

Frederick said Rashad will focus primarily on four areas: teaching, modernizing the school’s curriculum, expanding enrollment among fine arts majors and designing a more modern, fine arts building.

As a winner of multiple performing art awards including the Tony and Drama Desk for her theater work, as well as multiple Emmy nominations, Rashad becomes a rare selection as a dean at the university.

While she is the recipient of 13 honorary doctorate degrees from such schools as Howard, Carnegie Mellon, Brown and Spelman College, Rashad becomes one of only a handful of Howard deans who did not graduate from college with an advanced degree.