Drama professor Craig Brashears was recently named chair of the Art & Drama department following Michael “Kim” Frederick’s retirement last semester.

“I’m excited to be working with familiar people that I’ve worked with before,” Brashears said. “It’s exciting to move into a new role.”

With this role, he intends to promote the department’s productions further.

“I’m very interested in continuing to promote our productions in drama, our art gallery events,” Brashears said.

He also wishes to increase the number of majors as well, which has already been happening.

“We certainly want to increase our number of majors,” Brashears said.

“We are starting to see a trend up with our number of majors, not only in drama but in art.”

He noted being hopeful about a series of upward trends in his department, referring to them as “positive challenges.”

“We have very full classes in our department,” Brashears said. “We’re seeing an influx of enrollment.”

While the enrollment has increased, the department still has needs that the college is currently addressing.

“We have very specialized equipment in Art & Drama that is aging and needing to be replaced,” Brashears said.

“We have a physical facility, very specialized classrooms and theater facilities, that are needing some repair. The college is being attentive to those needs.”

The Art & Drama department has seen plenty of change in the past few months. An influx of new students, an influx of support from the college, and now a new chair to head the department further.