After ten years at the California College of Arts where she served as chair of the graphic design department, in 2024 Rachel Berger (episode 151) moved south to become the Vice Provost at the California Institute of the Arts. Trained as a graphic designer who also worked across writing, strategy, and publishing, I was curious to catch up with Rachel to hear about both this new role but also get her perspective on the state of art and design education in this moment. We talk about the purview of a Vice Provost, how her design education informs her work, and the challenges (and opportunities) that lay ahead of higher education.
Congratulations on your new-ish role at CalArts! Let’s get the practical question out of the way first: what does a Vice Provost do? Tell me a little bit about what your days look like lately?
Ha, good question. It IS a somewhat mysterious job, and it means different things at different institutions. CalArts is not a huge school, so every member of the leadership team takes on a broad range of duties. As Vice Provost, I lead the curriculum lifecycle for all of our degree and non-degree programs. This means I help our faculty and deans develop new academic programs, and I help them assess and improve existing programs. Just this week, I worked on a final proposal for a new degree, met with our Music and Theater Deans to brainstorm ideas for a potential interdisciplinary minor, and started building a team to develop an exciting new certification program.
I work with colleagues across CalArts to improve our systems and processes, from registration to course scheduling to classroom management. I am very involved in initiatives to improve student retention, as well as review of and compliance with academic policies. I am also involved in a lot of strategic initiatives, where I get to explore questions like: What do our students need in order to be successful at school and beyond? How can we all work better together? What is the future of art and design education?
What was interesting to you about taking this role? Tell me about what was exciting to you about joining CalArts and stepping into a new institution?
In my previous role, as chair of graphic design at California College of the Arts, I gained deep experience leading an individual academic program. The opportunity at CalArts interested me because I was seeking a role where I could work all across an institution, and I was curious what it would be like to work at a different school. I had never worked with performing artists before, so that was a big draw. And I was intrigued by CalArts’ legacy of radical making and experimentation. I wanted to learn more about how that actually manifested in the curriculum and teaching.
I’m not sure I could name a graphic designer serving in a role like this a few years ago but in the last few years, along with your appointment, another former guest, Anne Burdick, was appointed Provost of ArtCenter College of Design. How do you think a background in graphic design prepared you or has influenced how you approach your work now?