Due to financial reasons, talks have begun about moving the Division of Film from the College of Fine Arts to the Scripps College of Communication, said Margaret Kennedy-Dygas, dean of the College of Fine Arts.
After a decline in the undergraduate population to the point where CoFA revenues have been affected, Kennedy-Dygas said moving the school could, in theory, alleviate some budgeting problems.
“We would love to be able to find more funds to support all of our programs at an adequate level and keep film in CoFA,” Kennedy-Dygas said. “Of course, that would be our first choice, but if we can’t do that, we want to protect them.”
The School of Media Arts and Studies has a large population of undergraduates, totaling about 650. The Division of Film is largely a graduate program. Kennedy-Dygas said the plans are for the large undergraduate population in the Media Arts and Studies program to support the film program.
“At this point, we have a budget gap … with no funding source on campus to really fill that gap or for the next couple of years as we climb out of our enrollment trough,” she said.
She said the goal is to move forward in a way that won’t mean drastic cuts to the programs. She said if CoFA kept the Division of Film, then it, along with all the other programs, would experience severe budget cuts going into next year.
She added cuts to all of the CoFA programs would mean a significant cut to the entire campus’s arts experience as CoFA serves to create many opportunities with art, theater and more.
The move is currently in the early discussion stages.
“No formal steps have yet been taken,” said Madeleine Scott, director of the School of Dance, Film and Theater. “We have a shared governance component that must be followed.”
Shared governance means a dialogue has to go through Faculty Senate. All steps of the program relocation process set up by the University Curriculum Council must be followed.
Kennedy-Dygas said if in the course of that process, faculty determines the plan to move the program doesn’t make sense, then they will have to talk with the Provost and other academic leaders on campus to determine where funding would come from to continue supporting the Division of Film.
The Schools of Dance, Film and Theater all merged in fall of 2013 after two years of planning. If the film program moves out, Kennedy-Dygas said the school will be affected but isn’t yet sure how. However, she said it is her desire to make sure the connections developed as a result of the merger remain intact.
“It would be my desire — and I’m thinking the desire of the faculty — to maintain collaborations they’ve already built,” she said. “We would want to try to protect that as much as we could even if the film program is moved to the Scripps College for fiscal reasons.”
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