DAN QUAGLIANA
News Editor
Every student at Fredonia whose major has been proposed to be cut is upset about it. But very few of them, if any, are doing more about it than Henry Domst.
Domst is a senior double major in graphic design and art history with a minor in computer science. Out of those three areas of study, only the B.A. in art history is on the chopping block — but Domst is fighting tooth and nail to make sure that not even a single program is discontinued.
“I [originally] came here [just] for graphic design,” Domst said. “Then I later added art history because I became passionate about it after my arrival to Fredonia. I was drawn in because of my professors.”
It’s still unknown what’s going to happen to the professors who teach courses in the majors proposed to be discontinued if they’re cut. Will they get to stay here and just teach courses that count as credits for other majors? Or will they have to leave the university entirely?
“I’d taken so many art history classes beforehand that I was already interested in [the subject] and thought, ‘Why not add this to my resume?’” he said. “I love [my art history professors] so much. They give me so much information, confirmation on things that I’m doing. They just make me feel confident in making art and being able to talk about art in a different way.”
In an interview with the TV station WIVB, which is based out of Buffalo, Domst said that, “Our liberal arts are humanities. Our art programs are what make up Fredonia, and by taking them away, it’s kind of depleting the community, leaving an irreversible scar on our campus and just inevitably depleting the morale of our students in those majors and [those] that take classes within those departments.”
When Fredonia President Stephen Kolison originally announced the proposed program discontinuations on Dec. 6, 2023, everyone who heard about it was outraged. But Domst was one of the few students who decided to take action quickly that very same day. He’s one of the co-founders of the student advocacy group Students for Fredonia (SFF), who have been making their voices heard throughout campus and the local community.
“[The next day,] on Dec. 7, we held [a] protest and were successful in making some noise. They could even hear us from the top floor of Maytum Hall,” Domst remembers. “Our turnout was great and this gave us some momentum to be ready in the following semester as, coincidentally, the President held the address in the week prior to finals of the fall semester.”
And that’s who he blames for the current situation on campus — the administration.
“I think they want to look at this university as a business as much as they can,” he explained. “And so, by attaching students and these numbers to dollar amounts, it kind of tends to shift their biases and respect a little bit so that they don’t understand the full picture of [why] each major is important.”
Domst feels like he’s losing a community by having these programs potentially taken away from the university. “Seeing it be reduced to just numbers… it hurts a lot,” he said. “I can see it in my teachers’ faces, I can see it in my fellow students’ faces — [in] everyone that has a major that’s being cut.”
Domst explained, “[We] know that [we’ll] be able to graduate. I’m worried that when I try and find a job somewhere and I give them a resume to a school that’s known for their arts; when they see that I graduated with a degree that was just cut, I don’t think they’ll see that as an equivalent as if I went to another school [and] got that degree [where] that degree program is flourishing.”
Henry Domst, the subject of this profile, is the Design Editor of The Leader.