The following was a submitted opinion piece. As a news organization, The Bark remains unbiased but is happy to provide a space for the voices of UMD students.

For more information on the students in the images below, hover your curser over the pictures.

RIP SFA 1974-2020 
An opinionated editorial and photo essay

The past week has elicited a whirlwind of emotions for us as students enrolled in the School of Fine Arts (SFA). We’ve been experiencing a mixture of frustration, sadness, and confusion after receiving the abrupt news that our school was to be merged with the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) and with no background or even mention of the plan prior to cushion the impact.

We are writing this opinion article because we are confused by the merger and have grown frustrated with the mixed signals and lack of communication regarding this change. We understand growth does not come without change and we sincerely sympathize with the administration, faculty, and all those involved in this decision as we know this was not an easy situation to navigate and that they are doing the best they can to help everyone adapt. However, we wanted to express how the facts have been laid out to us as students and why we’re confused.

Our frustration began with the first Duluth News Tribune (DNT) article published in early Nov. stating facts and percentages of UMD’s $5.2 million budget cut and followed by their article published early Dec. outlining the specific monetary applications of these cuts. After repeated harsh budget cuts to the SFA in years past, they measured in this year with a nine percent  cut, the highest listed.

In the “University of Minnesota Duluth Budget and Budget Process November 2019” document, it is listed under “UMD 2019-20 Operating Budget” that tuition makes up 40 percent of our operating budget, the biggest chunk of any source. Using tuition alone for Fall 2019 as basis for our example, we will lay out the facts as we have understood them thus far:

Tuition and fees for Minnesota and reciprocity students Fall 2019 = $13,680

We realize that many factors were taken into consideration and understand that there was a rationale behind each percentage, however none have been brought to our attention, leaving a sensation of unfairness when presented with these numbers. 

Using the numbers from our Fall 2019 example, the total number of students enrolled in the combined SFA & CLA school would equal 1,914 and the combined amount extracted from cuts would equal $1,400,000. Comparably, the other two colleges that average a $26 million income from a student base only ten and eleven students less face only $550,000 in cuts.

One assumption provoked by this imbalance is that our main money-making colleges are adopting less cuts due to their provisions. If this assumption reigns any sense of truth, we encourage the colleges to avoid this “every man for himself” approach and to work together as a unified university system. We’ve heard a lot of blame being pointed at the main U campus about their lack of support and funding to our institution. While that may be equally true and frustrating, our UMD university system needs to support and unite with each other more than ever to navigate that.

To get into the nitty gritty of our concern and confusion, a couple questions we have are:

With the ‘retirement’ of our Dean Kase, we are under the authority of Dean Youde of the College of Liberal Arts. Has there been any discussion or bylaw created regarding the position of Dean? Will there be alternating terms providing equal representation of those both within the fine arts and liberal arts in our merged college? 

We have been provided with multiple layers of reassurance regarding the security of our programs and that the merger was used solely to lessen the impact of the cuts and to preserve our staff and faculty. We’ve also been assured that we would see no change in our day to day activities or department offices. However, if that is the case why did the merger happen? If the offices and programs are not changing, are all of our cuts being directed at our faculty and professors?

Are these cuts being applied to colleges before the merger or after? Is there a plan for the alleged $1.4 million being taken out of our merged school?

Please understand that we woke up to an email on Wednesday saying that our school was being terminated with no prior mention. We are concerned for the security of our professors. And, we are desperately trying to make sense of the information provided. We will stand SFA proud until the end. While our day to day will not change, we have lost our identity, and that is the greatest loss of all. 

This was not written to attack any college, faculty, or officials involved in this process, we’ve just recently been provided a confusing sum of numbers, facts, and variables. We acknowledge our speculative calculations, but these are the ideas the facts presented are leading us to believe. That said, we appreciate all that everyone is doing to make this transition seamless as possible. We are just seeking to understand the rationale behind it all. We as students are a lot more accepting to change when we understand the multiple facets of the change.

Sincerely,
Jada & Karli

In the wake of this, I (Karli), decided to do a photo essay comprised of students in SFA. I wanted these photos to portray our passion and capabilities, to lend an opportunity for others to voice their feelings about everything that is happening, and to pay tribute to the School of Fine Arts. 

These photos are portraits of students in SFA. Each image contains a piece of art they made and are proud of, their own statements on this issue, or a fact about the School of Fine Arts.