The College of Architecture and Planning prides itself on the identity it holds for students and faculty.
During former CAP Dean Guillermo Vasquez de Velasco's eight-year tenure as dean of the college, he built on this identity so everyone in the college had ownership within it.
With that mission completed, Vasquez de Velasco stepped down as dean of CAP to be the vice provost.
“There are three planets that get aligned. One is kind of a sense of mission accomplished — you’ve done what you came to do," Vasquez de Velasco said. "I came to establish that higher level of identify and buy in by all stake holds."
Phil Repp will be the interim dean of CAP for the time being. Before accepting this position, he worked closely with CAP, teaching design in the school of art.
“I’ve had that teaching and support relationship over the years,” Repp said.
CAP has a family atmosphere, Vasquez de Velasco said, and Repp said he will continue to support that concept within the college.
“I think the most important thing about being a family is listening to your family members,” Repp said.
Until a new dean is chosen, Repp said he considers himself to be a caregiver of the college. He'll listen to the CAP family, and ensure the college is doing things that fit the vision.
“To me, a caregiver is a person that watches over things," Repp said. "I’m going through budgets, I’m going through procedures, process, policies. My job is to look for alignments and misalignments and communicate those gaps to the new dean.”
When Vasquez de Velasco began his time as dean, he recruited his department chairs and team.
As a team, they created "This I believe" statements, and, based on that, identified four areas of strength for the college.
“It is a ... very simple but also very strong identity,” Vasquez de Velasco said.
His goal for CAP was that it would think beyond the college. He said CAP tends to be perceived as different, even "introverted," so he wants to work on building more connections across campus and beyond it. He said he still aims to keep the identity of the college, even as it networks throughout the campus.
“This building is home," Vasquez de Velasco said. "You become part of a collective for life.”
As his new position as vice provost, Vasquez de Velasco will work to bring design thinking to the university. Because the position is new to the university, there aren't any specific terms of service.
“My first target is to develop what was that initial course on design thinking to develop that as a design thinking minor that may be nested in all majors in campus,” Vasquez de Velasco said.
The design thinking minor will be available only as an online course. He said he hopes to make it one of the most popular minors at the university, and dreams to take it global for universities that need design thinking.
“Our college of CAP has always been a strong college with strong programs,” Vasquez de Velasco said. “In that regard, my tenure of eight years has been very much on the high side.”
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