Dear President Lori Stewart Gonzalez,
We write this letter today as proud alumni of the Ohio University School of Film, in support of our professor, Tom Hayes, who was unjustly removed from teaching this semester as a result of his participation in the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.
To master the art of filmmaking, every student must learn craftsmanship and artistry.
The art of editing is a foundational course in the film program, imparting both critical technical and storytelling skills of our art form, which is a reflection of the expert craftsman and artist who has been teaching the course for over two decades. In other words, the art of editing is Hayes.
As a filmmaker himself, Hayes has mastered his artistry, producing documentaries on Israel and Palestine for 40 years. People who have been killed were people he knew personally, whose stories he has told. The people under siege are people who have broken bread with him.
It’s only human for an artist and a storyteller to respond to the atrocity he’s spent most of his life documenting. He did all of this while still ensuring his students received the highest education in the Art of Editing.
Our beloved alma mater, OU, proudly states its mission and vision for its students:
“To hold the door open to higher education so that all those eager to solve humanity's most urgent challenges might enter to learn, connecting them with experiences and discovery that will help them think critically, care deeply, lead boldly and ultimately depart to serve.”
What is a better embodiment of that mission than to have a professor living this mission, one who risked his life to solve humanity’s most urgent challenge of the time in which we are living--to stop an ongoing genocide. What better way to teach students to think critically, care deeply and lead boldly than by example, and participating in a nonviolent action to serve those who are being forcibly starved to death.
To cut him off from students is a disgrace to the university and a disservice to the School of Film. The message it sends to future School of Film alumni that standing up for humanity, justice and freedom will be immediately punished is unacceptable.
The solution is self-evident: it’s time the university exhibits the same courage, resolve and moral integrity shown by Hayes, and lives up to the mission it claims to commit to.
We ask you to do the right thing and reinstate Hayes immediately as the instructor of the art of editing.
Signed,
Angela Vargos, HTC BFA 2006
Usame Tunagur, MFA 2009
Mariana Eva Quiroga, MFA 2007
Matthew Kraus, MFA 2007
Tony Buba, MFA 1976
Eric Eldridge, MFA 2020
Steven Ross, Professor Emeritus, former Director of the School of Film
John L. Butler, CAS; Manager of the Peterson Sound Studio
Jack Wright, Retired Professor at the School of Film
Shelley Delaney, Emerita Professor of Theater
Melissa Forte, MFA 2007
James Palmquist, MFA 2003
Ruth Gregory, MFA 2005
Max Kaplan, HTC BFA 2024
Semih Bedir, MFA 2017
Mark Benedetti, MA 2003
David Markey, BFA 2003
Brian Wiebe, BFA 2007
Amy Taylor, MFA 2011
Edit Jakab, MFA 2020
Jenny Roberts, MFA 2013
Jorge Samson, MFA, 2015
Rani Deighe Crowe, MFA 2014
Jillian Jacobs HTC BFA 2010
Shay Willard, 2013
Anita Gabrosek, MFA 1999
Susan Hilvert, HTC BFA 2009
Juan Sebastián Guerrero, MFA 2012
Daniel El García, MFA 2022
Kate Sosa, attended 2003-2005
Bryget Anderson, MFA 2020
Katy Carmichael, BFA 2003
Brian Leisring, MFA 2012
Sabrina Evans-Renkar, MFA 2015
Michael Greene, MFA 2014
Archana Mahalinga, MFA 2009
Brian Zahm, MFA 2011
Neha Belvalkar, MFA 2014
Jon Coy, MFA 2014
Josh Young, HTC BFA 2012
MacGregor Thomson, MFA 2008
Matt Fillmore, MFA 2014
Lucas Ostrowski, MFA 2009
Lauressa Nicholson, MFA 2019
Michael Gray, MFA Filmmaking 2012
Jacob Midkiff, MFA 2020
Luke Fisher, MFA 2016
Matthew Valdovinos, MFA 2024
Edward Loupe, MFA 2022
Iryna Zhygaliuk, MFA 2015
Leah Li, MFA 2014
Matthew Cook, MA 2015
Sam Stewart, MFA 2016
Matt Brunson-Cline, MFA 2012
Michael Gray, MFA 2012
Cody Vandenberg, HTC BFA 2012
Megan Griffiths, MFA 2000
Jordan Sommerlad, BFA 2013
Matthew Herbertz, MFA 2016
Patsie Varkados, MFA 2014
Ben Guenther, MFA, 2012
Riley Gibson, MFA 2012
Wenting Deng Fisher, MFA 2015
Kyle Kruse, MFA 2015
Brian MacNeel, MFA 2019
Josh Hyde, MFA 2010
Chris Lange, MFA 2012
Gavin Farnsworth, MFA 2014
Meredith Kelly, MFA 2017
Sarah Kadish, MFA 2017
Ryosuke Kawanaka, MFA 2007
Benjamin Pascoe, MFA 2010
Derrick A. Jones, MFA 2010
Chelsea Peters, HTC BFA 2007
Lorraine Wochna, MA Theater 2004, MA Film 2008. Retired librarian, Ohio U.
Chris Luccy, MFA 2003
Nic Walli, HTC BFA 2021
Natalie Koking (nee Hulla), MFA 2016
Manny Fonseca, MFA 2008
Guiliana Zapata, MFA 2006
Nicholas Maistros, HTC BFA 2008
Sven Latzke, MFA 2009
Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, MFA 2006
Mladan Jurkovic, MFA 2014
Nian Liu, MFA 2004
Dylan Dyer, MFA 2017
Paul Peters, Film Studies MA 2020, Interdisciplinary Arts PhD in 2025
Mira Steuer, HTC BFA, 2025
Damiano Cinque, MFA 2011
Devin Chen, HTC BFA 2024
Carrie Love, MFA 2018
Ian LaBarge, MFA 2023
Erik Pepple, MA 2012
Nazgol Kashani, MFA 2019
Matt Love, MFA 2018
Megan Pease, MA 2019
Pradeep Edussuriya, MFA 2009
Jeremy Moss, MFA 2008
Darwin Mendoza, OUF MA 2009
Keisha Martin, MFA 2021
Michael Williamson, MFA 2022
Nisha Josson, MFA 2007
Priyanka Das, MFA & MA in film 2018
Cory Pratt, MFA 2017
Jeremy Zerechak, MFA 2016
School of Theater Alumni:
Mandi Tucker, class of 2004
Kat Primeau, class of 2008
Eva (Watson) Havens, BFA 2006
Kaya Mallick, class of 2020
Natalie Chapman, BFA 2012
Reginald Edmund, class of 2006
Briana Redmount, BFA 2012
Caitlyn Allison, BFA 2007
Georgia Mallory Guy, MFA 2010
Rachel Weekley, BFA 2014
Yuri Bartz, BFA 2006
Thomas Daniels, class of 2015
John Ray Sheline, MFA 2004
Jess Link, BFA 2013
John Stiens, class of '07
Justin Tatum, BFA 2004
Joel Redmount, BFA 1980
Julia Moncrief, class of 2015
Lea Leneskie-Kotte, BFA 2006
Aaron Kotte, BFA 2005
William Fulk, class of 2004
Sierra Nagay, class of 2011
Brennan Gallagher, class of 2021
Allie McCarthy-Platt, BFA 2011
Wendy-Marie Martin, 2022
Laura Ornella, BFA 2012
Janice Paxson Evans, MA 2022
Celeste Sexton, class of 2009
Ri Moodie, class of 2020
Erinn Ruth, BFA 2005
Katie Skelton, 2009
Gillian Abrams, BFA 2021
Steve Buckingham, BFA 2007
Annie J. Howell, Faculty 2009-15
Daryl Pauley, MFA 2011
Nathan Bigger, BFA 2005
Jesse Graham Galas, MFA 2010
Fayna Sanchez, 2006
Brayden Frascone, BFA 2018
KeShawn Mellon, BFA and Diversity Studies Certificate, 2021
Derek Keifer, MFA 2018
Leah Kistler, 2016
Caitlin Cotter, BFA 2014
Marissa Wolf, MFA 2012
ElynMarie Kazle, M.F.A. 1984
Elliott Wortley, Class of 2025
Emilio Tirri, 2015
Statements by Alumni:
“I am the Director of Film and Media Production at Capital University and an award-winning film editor. The skills and knowledge I learned from Tom Hayes has had an indelible impact on my professional career. Inspired by Tom’s brilliant the art of editing course, I designed and taught a similar course, soon to be required of all Capital production students.” Sabrina Evans-Renkar, MFA 2015.
“I have built a career in nonprofit storytelling, drawing the public’s focus to organizations that create social impact and enabling fundraisers to secure support for vulnerable communities. Tom Hayes and the art of editing course were foundational to my professional career. Nobody can possibly replace his perspective or the immeasurable value he provides to rising storytellers and change-makers.” Natalie Koking (nee Hulla), MFA 2016
“As a School of Theater Professor, our students and faculty worked on countless projects with the SOF. All of the film students spoke of their deep admiration for and dedication to Tom Hayes. The films that were made were incalculably better because of his strong support, talent and exacting eye.” Shelley Delaney, Emerita Professor of Theater
“I’m a film and TV editor in Argentina, and I still remember the day Professor Hayes introduced us to Avid Media Composer, the tool that has shaped my craft for the past 20 years.” Mariana Eva Quiroga, MFA 2007
“I still have my notes taken during art of editing, one of the most memorable and eye-opening courses I've ever taken. Only Tom can do it. It's only fair he gets reinstated ASAP.” Jorge Samson, MFA, 2015
“Universities should be places of enlightenment through accepting diversity of opinions, not places that foster cancel culture.” Damiano Cinque, MFA 2011
“Professor Hayes taught us that film is an act of witness — not just light on a screen, but conscience in motion. I sign to affirm his right to live what he teaches: truth with a camera, courage with a heart.” Michael Williamson, MFA 2022
“Professor Hayes is my biggest mentor and guide. My art of editing notes, furiously jotted (with journo shorthand) during Tom's legendary classes, still live among my passport and birth certificate, because it's testimony to some of the most precious words that came from a most precious person. It was better than the best Turkish coffee Tom generously gave us (or any coffee for that matter). As a video (content creation) tutor myself, simply having it around me is a touchstone for safety. I know with Tom's words close to me; I'll be OK. Tom Hayes forever!!” Nisha Josson, MFA 2007
“Tom gave me my first paid opportunity in our industry, and mentioning his name helped me earn my 2nd paid opportunity, which was the springboard to 20+ years in film/video with credits on Hollywood films, national TV shows, and commercials. In my current role, I lead the production team for a mission-driven healthcare organization, leveraging his lessons in documentary filmmaking and the ability of our craft to effect social change.” David Markey BFA 2003
