Michael S. Tick, who has served as dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) since 2016, will continue in the role for another year until his planned retirement at the end of the 2026-27 academic year. The contract extension was announced by Vice Chancellor, Provost and Chief Academic Officer Lois Agnew.

“I am enormously grateful that Michael Tick has agreed to stay on as dean after a decade of dedicated service and leadership,” Provost Agnew says. “He has been a force for artistic excellence at Syracuse University and has elevated VPA’s profile as a dynamic creative community. The college has greatly benefited from his deep commitment to our students and faculty, and his ability to forge meaningful connections between the academy and the professional arts world.”

Tick came to Syracuse after six years as dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Kentucky. Before that, he spent 11 years as chair of Louisiana State University’s Department of Theatre and artistic director of Swine Palace, Louisiana’s premier professional theatre company.

Early in his tenure, he improved VPA’s financial outlook, taking steps to eliminate the accumulated deficit and set the college up for 10 consecutive years of a balanced budget. In 2019, he secured a $15 million gift from VPA council members Marylyn Turner ’56, G’57 and her husband, Chuck Klaus G’05, to support the education of emerging visual artists through scholarships and immersive experiences, including the Turner Semester and Art in LA programs.

Tick expanded VPA’s presence in Los Angeles by hiring its founding director and recently appointed a new director to broaden college-wide offerings at New York City’s Fisher Center. A major capital renovation of the Nancy Cantor Warehouse, home to VPA’s School of Design, was completed under his leadership. In addition, he established a new art gallery to support the School of Art, School of Design and Department of Film and Media Arts.

Tick established a dedicated career services division and expanded professional academic advising within the VPA Office of Academic and Career Advising. He also played a pivotal role in the development of the Department of Creative Arts Therapy.

“Serving as dean for the past decade has been the honor of a lifetime,” Tick says. “Whatever we have achieved, it has been made possible by the extraordinary talent, creativity and unwavering commitment of our faculty and staff. Their belief in our mission, their care for our students and their willingness to imagine what could be—and then make it real—have defined this college far more than any one leader ever could. I am deeply grateful to have been part of such a remarkable community.”