LSU faculty from all units are participating in the leadership of LSU’s Creative Initiatives project, and working closely with the Office of Research and Economic Development to develop new, trans-disciplinary and “non-routine” ideas that will elevate creativity among students and faculty across the university, and support new kinds of engagement projects both within LSU and between LSU and the broader Baton Rouge community.

Baton Rouge is a city with a rich, textured history and an array of human, economic and geo-physical assets. It is also a city facing multiple compelling challenges related to water, jobs, education, poverty and land use, among other issues. Similarly, LSU is a great educational institution with remarkable assets that faces significant challenges as a result of recent funding cuts and rapid changes in the higher education system, in and
outside of Louisiana.

The Creative Initiatives was established to support the strategic plan of the LSU Office of Research and Economic Development for the annual year 2013-14. Its primary goals are to:

Provide a definition of creativity that will support the strategic goals of the Office of Research and Economic Development
bring a broader appreciation for the creative contributions of all disciplines to the research plan of LSU
develop communication mechanisms to promote scholarship both internally and externally
identify funding sources that will support creative engagement and thinking, both in and beyond the arts area at LSU

This website is maintained to post current information about creativity in general, but primarily in higher education.

Click the button below to view the entire task force roster.

Creative Initiatives Task Force
Steven J. Tepper's Core Creative Competencies*

Improvisation
Analogical and metaphorical thinking and remote associations
Idea generation
Conditional thinking and counter-factuals
Expressive agility
Radical revision and critical feedback
Creative collaboration and nexus work
Flexibility and tolerance for ambiguity
Empathic reasoning
Epistemic curiosity
Problem Finding
Pattern recognition and deep observation
Abstraction
Risk taking and learning from failure
Ability to consider the ethical, social and policy consequences of innovation

*http://www.vanderbilt.edu/curbcenter/?p=3204

From Elizabeth Long Lingo: Two radical departures from our existing
conceptions and approaches to creativity in higher education are needed:

First, we need to expand our definition of creativity beyond idea generation, to the more expansive set of capacities required to advance and implement novel ideas and solutions.

Second, while creativity techniques can be taught, we need to move away from
simply offering exposure to creative techniques and tools, towards fostering creative fluency.