EJ JACOBS
Life & Arts Editor
Of the 13 programs that are potentially getting cut, photography is one of them. Photography is something that is used in many different aspects of SUNY Fredonia. From The Leader to campus marketing, promotional content photography helps Fredonia succeed.
Students are what keeps SUNY Fredonia running and populated. With various majors, students feel a sense of possibility and potential on campus.
Students, staff and faculty alike have been outraged by the proposal to cut programs. This proposal came as a shock to many due to its abrupt announcement. The programs being considered for discontinuation are primarily arts-related.
Overall, the program cuts affect more than just the programs they are directed toward. The cuts will also affect campus life as a whole.
Activities Night, which took place on Jan. 31 at 7:30 p.m. in Steele Hall, is an event that brings together clubs of all majors. Every semester, like clockwork, on the second Wednesday of the semester, you know where most of the student body will be. Since clubs offer so many different majors, they will also be affected by program cuts.
Drew Paluch, a junior majoring in photography, touches on this by saying, “I just recently was put on the [e] board for Fredonia Feminists as a historian… that position is meant to document events on campus and stuff that [those] groups do. So that will be impacted, as well as The Leader… you’re going to be losing a lot of photographers who do a decent amount of work at the newspaper.”
This will have a significant impact on campus life and its longevity.
Some college students pick which school they go to based on the programs they wish to pursue. Paluch said, “I initially picked Fredonia because it is one of the only SUNY schools that offers a photography program.”
Paluch’s photography program is one of the majors that has been proposed to be cut. This decision was made based on the number of students enrolled in the program. With these discussions, students have been rethinking whether the higher education university they chose is right for them.
“With the cuts, it has made me feel as though my program, as well as the arts [in general], are not seen as an important career…[It] feels as though [they are] being overlooked,” said Paluch.
SUNY Fredonia has a rich history of being a school primarily focusing on the arts and education. While the university does offer a wide variety of other programs, what sets it apart from other SUNY schools is its dedication to housing organized and populated arts and education programs.
“Fredonia is known for its music, art and its education department…and it’s a little disheartening that they are the first ones to go [as that’s what] the school has always been known for,” said Paluch.
The way that the program cuts work is that they are proposed and if that proposal gets approved, then the University will graduate everyone out of the program and then proceed not to offer it in the future.
Paluch expressed worry about her career post-undergraduate studies. “I will be graduating in a year and a half,” said Paluch, “and in four years, my program isn’t even going to exist. I do worry that potential jobs will look at my resume and be like ‘that doesn’t exist when I google it.’ So, I think future credibility will be questioned.”
When potential employers look at where a student got their degree from, whether or not the degree program continues to exist can have lasting effects on how an art student is looked at in a hiring pool.
Cutting programs affects students directly and makes them have to think about what their futures will look like if these decisions go through. The campus has been taken over by a fear of what will come in SUNY Fredonia’s future.
