Theatre Arts majors and minors received an email on Friday from department chair John Lutterbie, announcing cutbacks, but the administration says no decisions have been finalized.
“No final decisions have been made on any program changes at this time,” Sacha Kopp, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said via email. “Should changes be made to programmatic offerings, the University ensures that all current students will be able to complete the course of study in which they are enrolled.”
Lutterbie’s email told students that the department will be scaled back to a service-only program to offer lower division courses. Lutterbie added that current majors and minors will graduate with theatre arts degrees and no changes have been made to course offerings for next semester.
Students are fighting back against the proposed cuts by starting petitions and speaking out in support of the department at the Student New Works Festival this past weekend. An online petition at change.org has signatures from 1,474 supporters.
“We’re theatre people,” Amanda Murphy, senior theatre arts major, said. “We’re very optimistic. We’re also uniquely attuned to protesting injustice because that’s what theatre is a lot of the time.”