VPA Facts
- The College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) is the second largest academic unit at Syracuse University and the largest professional college on campus. We are home to approximately 1,950 undergraduate students and 200 graduate students.
- VPA contains the School of Art and Design, Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, Department of Drama, Setnor School of Music, and Department of Transmedia. Together, these five areas offer a total of 36 undergraduate programs and 23 graduate programs.
- Our faculty are all active creative professionals and scholars. Full-time faculty number 115, with approximately the same number of adjuncts.
- The college is located in 10 different University buildings, ranging from those on Main Campus to those in downtown Syracuse.
- Origins of the college date to 1873, when the College of Fine Arts opened at SU. The college was the first degree-conferring institution of its kind in the United States. Its first alumnus graduated in 1875 with a bachelor of painting degree.
- And speaking of alumni, the college is proud to have approximately 22,000 active graduates. Some notable names include writer/producer Aaron Sorkin ’83, producer Arielle Tepper Madover ’94, model/author Emme Aronson ’85, artists Bill Viola '73, H'95 and Warren Kimble ’57, actors Jerry Stiller ’50 and Taye Diggs ’93, designers Betsey Johnson ’64 and Thom Filicia ’93, and football pro Donovan McNabb ’98.
