To Chancellor Subbaswamy:

I hope this message finds you well.

I write as a senior reflecting on the past four years of my outstanding education. As a BDIC major in Performing Arts in Education, the College of the Humanities and Fine Arts has supported me in blossoming into the socially engaged innovative teacher and artist I set out to become four years ago. I have taken a predominant amount of my classes in the Theater Department, which consists of the Rand and Curtain theaters with additional classrooms. The faculty is outstanding, passionate, willing and infinitely inspiring. Without this program, I would not be where I am or who I am. But here comes a long warranted complaint.

The classroom facilities are in a semi-abandoned state of disrepair. I have taught stage movement as a teacher’s assistant four semesters now and have to come in early every day to sweep, bang stray nails back into the floor and help bring the room to an acceptable condition for a class.

Most theater classrooms are in the basement of the Fine Arts Center, which boast windowless, clammy, drab rooms whose condition does not reflect the brilliance that unfolds within its walls on a daily basis. All the doors on the upstairs stalls of the women’s bathroom have been broken since I was a freshman (You have to hold them shut with your toes while trying to go to the bathroom in peace). The Theater Department has only one laboratory for students to explore and mount original work. Room 204 is always double booked, which leaves vying students little option but to abandon academic projects for lack of space.

Would the biochemistry department turn their backs if there was only one laboratory for their students to explore, innovate and ask questions through conducting their research? Would the chemistry department accept these inadequate and dingy conditions? This is unacceptable. A thin coat of new paint on our walls is not synonymous with a completed renovation: job well done.

I will not take what I can get. I have paid to receive this education. I have chosen this university. This university has taught me the value of critical thinking and observation. Here are my observations.

I find it hard to believe that the University can fund our neighboring sciences to build elaborate castles of research, yet they cannot fund my classrooms to be up to a basic code of safety. I am not naive. It is very evident that this institution doesn’t value the arts in the same way as the sciences. This is an obvious reflection of a greater reality of values that our society upholds and the University perpetuates.

I am personally grateful for the recent renovation to the Rand Theater and that doesn’t go unsaid. We are all very grateful. This is what the public sees. Now theater is a respectable major in the eyes of the public. But what about in our own eyes? It is proven that students perform better when the facilities are well designed.

It breaks my heart to see my hardworking professors, staff and fellow students have to operate in these conditions. They deserve more respect. It is embarrassing to share these spaces with Five College students who are accustomed to better facilities. Individuals engaged in the arts shouldn’t have to apologize for their involvement. This is a real major with very important real world implications, just like the sciences. If you truly want to govern over a university that upholds a “radical vision…boasting state-of-the-art facilities for every discipline,” you will make time for this conversation.

No faculty member sent me to instigate this conversation. I would like to meet with you and share my experiences for the betterment of the Theater Department facilities. I think this would be a valuable conversation for both of us. I know you are very busy and your job requires that your attention and energy to be many different places at any given time.

I am proud to be a student at this University. My mother is a first generation college graduate from UMass, received a doctorate from this great institution and is now a professor in the School of Education. My father received his bachelor’s degree from UMass and now runs one of the grants and contract offices. My younger brother is a sophomore in the architecture program. My pride in being student at this school is rooted in a place of deep meaningful family history. I want all generations to come to have a “journey defined by personal and intellectual growth,” like you so eloquently state. We have the same agenda, yet part of taking care of the student body’s intellectual experience is taking care of their surrounding environments.

Take a walk through the classrooms in the Theater Department. Talk with me and other students about what’s missing. Together, I believe we can create a department that boasts state of the art facilities for all research, learning and performing purposes. You use the word “radical” in your “words of welcome address” to describe this University both historically and in the present day. This institution will truly be upholding radical values if it takes intentional, sustainable and immediate care of its incredible performing arts programs.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I am looking forward to meeting you and discussing further steps. I have immense respect for you and all the good work you do for this University and the greater community. I speak with passion because I care so much about this school and all the remarkable mentors, professors, staff and peers I have been fortunate enough to learn from in the past four years.

Sincerely,
Emma J. Ayres

Emma Ayres is a Collegian contributor. She can be reached at [email protected].