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# VCUarts dean to step down after tenure filled with achievements, controversies
- URL: https://www.richmonder.org/vcuarts-dean-to-step-down-after-tenure-filled-with-achievements-controversies/
- Published: 2026-09-16T10:02:32.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-16T10:02:32.000Z
- Description: Carmenita Higginbotham, who took the role in 2020, will continue working at the school as a professor.
- Author: Andrew Kerley
- Tags: Education, #the-bridge

Carmenita Higginbotham, the dean of the internationally recognized VCUarts program, will step down at the end of the 2026-27 academic year, the university announced on Friday.

VCU lauded Higginbotham’s tenure, during which U.S. News & World Report recently had VCUarts tied for the No. 1 public fine arts graduate program in the country, and in second place for its overall program.

Higginbotham also helped secure funding for the upcoming [CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation](https://www.styleweekly.com/centerstaged/), and oversaw the early years of the Institute for Contemporary Art, both located at Broad and Belvidere streets.

But Higginbotham’s tenure was not without discontent, according to [multiple reports](https://commonwealthtimes.org/?s=higginbotham&id=84085) from The Commonwealth Times, VCU’s student newspaper.

In June, employees of the Institute for Contemporary Art [spoke out against](https://commonwealthtimes.org/2026/06/28/some-ica-staff-describe-ethics-violations-toxic-work-culture/) a “deteriorating work environment marked by ethics complaints, restrictions on expression, a fear of retaliation among staff and a high turnover rate.”

Earlier this year, a student said [“VCUarts Fashion has made my work into a minstrelsy”](https://commonwealthtimes.org/2026/04/29/student-calls-out-fashion-department-for-denying-request-for-black-model/) after the department denied her request for a Black model to wear an outfit she designed depicting an “angry Black woman” stereotype for the annual fashion show. 

One current VCUarts employee, who was granted anonymity to speak about their employer, said the school’s last six years have been less about innovation or retaining talented staff, and more about “maintaining administrative salaries.”

“Building a building doesn’t create innovation,” the current employee said, referring to the upcoming CoStar center and the eight-years-young Institute for Contemporary Art. “What you do in the building creates innovation.”

They suggested Higginbotham was potentially pushed toward her decision to step down.

“I don’t know too many people that would leave a job that pays over $300,000 on their own,” the employee added.

Higginbotham earned nearly $340,000 in tax year 2025, according to a [payroll published by The Commonwealth Times](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QKy6J5R1itXlScoFJclv6Ne-3u2zSVnF4quHCAebUGU/edit?pli=1&gid=1485308845#gid=1485308845). Shawn Brixey — her predecessor who [stepped down in 2019](https://commonwealthtimes.org/2019/08/05/vcuarts-dean-shawn-brixey-steps-down/) after a VCUarts professor was accused of racial discrimination — earns a nearly $300,000 salary while still working as a professor. 

VCU’s Friday press release announcing the decision came after The Richmonder reached out to ask about Higginbotham’s job status.

Higginbotham will take a leave before returning to the faculty to focus on her research and scholarship, the release said.

“Leading this school alongside our faculty, staff and students has been one of the great privileges of my career,” she wrote. “Together, we’ve positioned VCUarts as a global leader in arts education, and I leave this role more confident than ever in where the school is headed.”

The Office of the Provost declined to elaborate on Higginbotham’s stepping down, due to it being a “personnel matter.” Higginbotham herself did not respond to a request for comment by The Richmonder. 

“She has established transformative initiatives that will positively impact this university for many years to come,” wrote [VCU Provost Arturo Saavedra](https://commonwealthtimes.org/2026/04/29/vcus-new-provost-on-tenure-policies-research-academic-freedom/), who became the new chief academic officer himself last April. “Thank you to Dean Higginbotham for her service to the institution and for her willingness to continue in this role until a successor is named.”

### **Decision comes after departmental changes, job security concerns** 

Students and faculty spoke out throughout the 2025-26 academic year against the results of a university-wide “academic repositioning” that saw [arts departments consolidated](https://commonwealthtimes.org/2026/02/05/vcu-consolidates-arts-departments-despite-dean-initially-saying-otherwise/) and some faculty let go of. Higginbotham reportedly initially assured faculty the repositioning would only bring changes on the administrative level, and that nobody would lose their job.

Through the initiative, the dance and theatre departments were merged into one. The craft and material studies, painting and printmaking and sculpture departments were joined into a single Department of Fine Arts. 

VCUarts [paused accepting students into its furniture design graduate program](https://commonwealthtimes.org/2026/01/21/vcu-quietly-axes-furniture-design-program-amid-consolidation/) for the 2026-27 academic year after not renewing the contract for the only full-time woodworking professor in the fine arts program.

In February, [faculty held a lecture in protest](https://commonwealthtimes.org/2026/03/04/vcuarts-faculty-call-out-job-cuts-low-morale/) of their colleagues losing their jobs amid the rollout of a new post-tenure review policy — piling on to years-long concerns over dwindling job security in higher education as a whole.

### **Students weigh in** 

Zora Weir-Gertzog, a recent graduate and former president of the Communication Arts Student Advisory Board, said her five years at VCUarts were “frustrating” at first. The scientific illustration program she came to the university for was shuttered in 2022\. 

“For the first two years I was in communication arts there weren’t any guest talks, there were no art shows. Everything that was organized was entirely student-run. There were no scholarships. There was nothing,” Weir-Gertzog said.

But after her department within the arts school got a new chair, Weir-Gertzog came out of VCU with a more positive outlook — mostly due to the “incredible” faculty, many of whom work as adjuncts with low pay, she said. 

“Some of my best professors are adjuncts who make less than, like, $12,000 a year from VCU,” Weir-Gertzog said.

Leigh Johnston, president of the Concept Design Club at VCU, said her experience has mostly lived up to VCU’s claim of being one of the top art schools in the country, despite some early frustrations with how long it took to get through the prerequisite course load required for all art students.

“I know that there were issues before I was a student,” Johnston said. “One of my professors was a student here, and he was talking about how it used to be a lot more of a mess. My time has been relatively OK.”

*VCU and CoStar are sponsors of The Richmonder, but were not allowed to influence or review this report.*