DEKALB, Ill. (WIFR) – Hundreds of Northern Illinois University staff and students demand the administration lift a ban on student recruitment for the Master of Fine Arts in Acting program.
Early Monday morning, more than 270 staff and students joined forces outside Altgeld Hall to fight for what they call an anchor of the School of Theatre and Dance.
In August, a ban was established halting faculty’s ability to recruit new students, meaning there will be no graduate-level actors on campus next fall.
On Monday, the group delivered a petition signed by more than 200 tenure-track faculty members to NIU President Lisa Freeman. The petition argues that pausing the program threatens the university’s shared governance policy.
“Shared governance is one of the things that is key to how a university operates,” said NIU United Faculty Alliance President Mark Van Wienen. “It means that the creation of programs, the maintenance of programs and the future of programs depends upon the direction and the expertise of faculty and their interactions with students.”
Van Wienen estimates the decision to pause recruitment will impact nearly 100 students, not only making it harder for theater production at the school, but also taking away student’s ability to collaborate with younger and older peers.
Junior Sophia Dimond says there is need for more people to contribute to the program. Without them, she believes it will lack diversity and shared experience.
“I feel like it’s hard to have theater if you don’t have a big group of people with different experiences telling their own stories in their own ways,” Dimond says.
Classmate David Alvarado agrees with Dimond and adds it is disheartening to see empty halls within the department.
“If we don’t have people for this program, it sucks because we are learning really valuable things here,” Alvarado says. “We need people to run theatre and I think the less people we have in certain departments it just brings down the whole school.”
All NIU graduate programs are undergoing review this year. In a statement, administration says it must ensure that all graduate programs align with the University’s mission, values and goals.
But with the ban being put in place ahead of the reviews, Van Wienen believes this is an excuse to quietly cut the program altogether.
“Let the actors act. Let the teachers teach their students,” Van Wienen said. “Let the program review determine the direction of the program.”
Full statement from the College of Visual and Performing Arts
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