Just before Thanksgiving break, the students in the College of Fine Arts were informed of a plan to move the Division of Film from CoFA to the Scripps College of Communication for financial reasons.
Margaret Kennedy-Dygas, dean of CoFA, said she doesn’t know the details of the change yet, but the desire is to move the program in order to protect it and the other CoFA departments from drastic “Draconian kinds of (budget) cuts.”
A decrease in the number of undergraduates enrolled in CoFA has caused a loss in the college’s revenues, Kennedy-Dygas said. The number of undergraduates decreased 8 percent from 2007 to 2013, according to university records.
“If we were to continue with our present structure, necessary budget cuts would approach 10 percent of our expenses, and that level of budget cut would cripple all of our programs equally,” she said in an email to CoFA students. “It would equal the elimination of all operating budgets throughout the College, the elimination of all new hires for next year, and job abolishment for several of our professional staff or faculty. Such measures would decimate our programs.”
Joe Cox, a sophomore studying integrated media in the Honors Tutorial College, said the plan is logical but he isn’t fully sold on the reasoning behind it.
“It sort of seems weird that the motivation for integrating is just a monetary need because that makes it seem a little more forced than something that was voluntarily discussed,” he said.
Administrators’ decisions regarding the Monomoy Theater and now Division of Film are understandable, but Ryan Holihan, a third-year graduate director, said he doesn’t think officials understand the long-term ramifications on the school and its prestige.
“The administration has done a horrible job at communicating what is about to happen and why, making people feel good about their decisions and being a leader,” he added. “All (Kennedy-Dygas) is doing is sending out emails and taking everybody off guard. … I wish they would come talk to us more.”
Steven Ross, artistic director of the Division of Film, and Scott Titsworth, dean of the Scripps College of Communication, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Luke Szabados, a junior studying film in HTC, said that Ross said in an email that many of the program’s aspects would stay the same when it moves colleges.
Szabados said he doesn’t believe connections between divisions will be affected but it might be harder to access some of the resources, such as costumes from the Division of Theater, if they aren’t in the same college.
If the Division of Film does move to the Scripps College, it would be included in the School of Media Arts and Studies, which Kennedy-Dygas said has a population of 650 undergraduates.
Colin Trubee, a sophomore studying integrated media, said many in his track already take film classes. Integrating the film program into the Scripps’ Media Arts and Studies program could help to cut any repetitiveness in the course material, he said.
Trubee said the integration might lessen the confusion for undergraduates because there is no film major for undergraduates. The Division of Film is largely a graduate program though there are film classes for undergraduates to take.
“People do the media school because it’s an alternative to the lack of a film undergraduate degree,” he said. “It’s the closest thing you get to video production. I’m sure that funnels people into the program.”
Holihan said he is largely concerned that moving the program will change the way film is defined, from a fine art to something less esteemed.
Cox, on the other hand, said the location of the program is irrelevant.
“I don’t think it will take anything away from what film is,” he said. “When it comes down to it, the college is just a name. It doesn’t necessarily have to be indicative of what’s within it … There is definitely art going on in the media school.”
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