Jacqueline Leary-Warsaw Named New Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences
Image Courtesy of The Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art
By Anthony Curioso and Katherine Plunkett
Upon the announcement of a significant restructuring undertaken by the CUA administration, in which the Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art will have its departments absorbed by the School of Architecture and the School of Arts and Sciences, students have been wondering what this restructuring meant for the leadership of the current Rome School and School of Arts and Sciences.
During the week of April 21-25, both schools’ students and faculty members received a series of emails informing them that as of May 1, Jacqueline Leary-Warsaw, the current Rome School Dean and doctor of musical arts, assumes the position of interim Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. Additionally, she will remain interim Dean of the Rome School as the restructuring awaits approval from the Board of Trustees.
Per an April 25 email from Leary-Warsaw to the students of the current Rome School, the University will remove her interim designation and name her as the permanent Dean of the soon-to-be revamped and renamed College of Arts and Sciences once the restructuring proposal receives approval from the University Board of Trustees.
In the interim, Leary-Warsaw succeeds Thomas Smith as Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, a position in which he first began service on July 1, 2020. On Wednesday, April 29, the news broke that Smith leaves CUA to take up the position of Provost at Providence College.
Leary-Warsaw has served as the Dean of the Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art since its inception in 2018 and has also hosted the In Concert television series, which typically includes an annual broadcast of the Rome School’s Christmas Concert for Charity, on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) for many years.
Within the new College of Arts and Sciences, the music and drama departments included in the soon-to-be-dissolved Rome School format will make up a new “Benjamin T. Rome School of the Performing Arts.” Per a Rome School student town hall with Dean Leary-Warsaw on April 11, Jay Brock, the Rome School’s current Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Chair of the Department of Music Performance, will chair the new Rome School’s drama department as of May 1. Meanwhile, Andrew Simpson, the current interim head of the Rome School’s composition department, will take over the new Department of Music after the restructuring.
These appointments are welcome news for Rome School students, who have also grown concerned after hearing about several faculty members they have studied under or otherwise worked with – nine per multiple sources – have resigned from their positions. While the university has reassured students that their degree programs will remain as is for the time being, just under Arts and Sciences or Architecture and Planning, students are still concerned about the future of the arts at CUA.
Students shared that they worry their degree programs will be cut later on or that with professors and instructors leaving after the restructuring, the quality of their education won’t be the same. One such student is Katherine Mackenzine, senior Bachelor of Arts in music with a focus in vocal performance and history double major. Mackenzie discussed that she is grateful she will get to graduate with the Rome School, but concerned for her fellow underclassmen classmates.
“After [the seniors] graduate though, they said that they will ‘preserve the programs that upheld the core strengths of the university,’ which I took to mean: make them the most money,” Mackenzie said.
“It’s not that they’re out to get us, we are just the most financially easy to eliminate,” she added.
Current Masters of Science in Business and 2024 graduate from the Rome School with a Bachelors of Music in vocal performance Ethan Nott shared his thoughts on the changes as well.
“As a graduate of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art, it saddens me to know that future students within the fine arts at CUA won’t be receiving the high level of education that has been present since 1965,” Not said.
Mackenzie also discussed both her positive experiences with both the Rome School and Dean Leary-Warsaw.
“The Rome School, because it’s small, because it’s arts-driven, I feel like it’s a lot more tight-knit than any other school at Catholic University, and so we know who our dean is,” Mackenzie commented. “She shows up to all our events – every show she’s there with her husband.”
Mackenzie, like many other students, values the experiences she has had with the Rome School, and waits to see what will be the next step for the arts at CUA.
“Don’t give up on us. We know changes are going to happen, but support from the administration would make people feel not abandoned,” Mackenzie concluded.
