BroadwayWorld: Ithaca College has changed its Theatre Administration program for future students. Steve TenEyck, dean of the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, announced to current students that the specific program will no longer continue in its current form. Students currently enrolled will still graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Theatre Administration.
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The way the school handled the release of this information was not well done. It led to various misunderstandings and an uproar among the students. The idea of taking funding away from arts education to put it towards teaching about AI is a very controversial action and the college should have been prepared to face backlash and planned for it. Creating a major for AI is a controversial idea, but I also think it is a smart one. AI is not gonna go away no matter what so instead of letting it run wild Ithaca is trying to control how it is used and teach students the proper way to use it. It is a very smart idea and I hope that it is a successful program that teaches kids to control AI and not let AI control you. It is the execution of releasing this information that was poorly handled.
As a theater major, I find Ithaca’s decision to broaden this program disappointing. In the current world, specialized roles within theatre, while sometimes hard to find, are extremely important to the success of a production. Therefore, having specialized majors such as Theatre Arts Management is essential to the success of a show. This new iteration of their Theatre Administration major to appeal to a broader audience is only doing those wanting to concentrate in arts management a disservice. Additionally, this change occurring in tandem with the new artificial intelligence major being offered at Ithaca–despite being denied by the college themselves–reflects how arts can suffer as a result of the rise of AI. I don’t see why an artificial intelligence major would be useful at an arts-based school such as Ithaca. Overall, I think that the timing of the new AI major with the broadening of the Theatre Administration major was unfortunate, and possibly purposeful by the university.
The timing of these announcements were very poorly done by Ithaca College. It truly seemed that the AI program was taking money and resources away from the Theatre Administration program. I thought it was interesting that the college said that no one was currently enrolled in the AI program, but that they knew people were interested in it. If they really want to make AI a major, then they should've started with a few classes to get a feel for how the student body reacted. It is upsetting to read about how all of the current Theatre Administration students are devastated by the loss of their major. Although they get to graduate with the degree, they miss out on building community with other years, especially now that they will not have incoming underclassmen to mentor and get to know. Overall, the college really needed to time its announcements better, as they created a huge misunderstanding and lost the trust of many of their students.
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