September 3, 2014
APDesign names Keane director of the college's research, scholarship and creative activities
Tim Keane, professor of landscape architecture and regional & community planning, has been appointed director of research, scholarship and creative activities, or RSCA, for the College of Architecture, Planning & Design. As director, Keane will seek to facilitate the advancement of the college toward the research, scholarship, and creative activities and discovery goals set by K-State 2025.
The goal of Kean's position is to represent the college at the university, state and federal levels on its research, scholarship and creative activities.
"I'll be attending monthly meetings with associate deans of research from across the university, as well as meeting with representatives of federal agencies, nonprofits and other entities that can support the advancement of the college's RSCA endeavors," Keane said. "It is important to have a healthy relationship with these organizations to better understand how they work."
In order to receive funding and other forms of support that the college, known as APDesign, will need to advance toward the K-State 2025 goals, proposals will need to be developed specifically within the guidelines of these organizations.
As this is a new position, one of Keane's first tasks will include meeting with department heads in the college to better understand the skills and interests of both faculty and doctoral students within all disciplines of APDesign.
"The first challenge will be coordination," Keane said. "State funding for our work is continually decreasing, which means we must not only be looking for outside opportunities, but also recruiting the best candidates to apply for our job openings."
Keane plans to use the connections built throughout the K-State campus to expand APDesign faculty and student involvement in multidisciplinary research teams.
"There is almost always room for cross-cutting, where we can take a doctoral student or faculty member from our college and put them together with someone from another college," Keane said. "This type of working relationship outside of APDesign will benefit K-State as a whole, furthering our progress toward the K-State 2025 vision."
Among his goals is to develop more consistency and accessibility with profiles of faculty members on the college's website.
"Already, most professors have their CVs on the APDesign website," Keane said. "What I would like to see moving forward is the inclusion of their research interests, projects they're currently working on and specific skills that may be relevant to future endeavors."
"In the future, I would like to see myself as more of a mentor than anything; a resource for the application or proposal processes, helping to build stronger proposals," he said. "Before that can happen, we first need to build the confidence of our faculty. Additionally, to help our younger faculty pursue their interests, we need to foster a small cultural shift. There has to be comfort within the idea of sharing ideas and opportunities. Communication is essential for this to work at a high capacity, and without knowing what they're currently involved in, it's hard to point them toward upcoming projects or funding opportunities."