Art and art history students have tuition increases and sessional lecturer cuts to look forward to next year.

According to arts and science vice dean of humanities and fine arts David Parkinson, the department is “trying to ensure that we don’t lose sessionals where they’re absolutely essential for the programs.”

A town hall March 31 at 1:30 p.m. in Arts 241 will allow students of all disciplines a chance to weigh in on what should be done to make the humanities and art and art history classes more fiscally sustainable.

A similar meeting was held in February, alerting students to the planned cuts to sessionals.

For music majors, sessional cuts could mean fewer one on one classes, which are currently offered as a mandatory part of a music degree and included in regular tuition. The courses currently rely on working musicians for sessional jobs.

“The really crucial thing here is, in fact, we really have a very specialized group of instructors, mostly located out in the music community, coming in to teach a few students,” said Parkinson.

Without the help of upper-year sessionals, he warned that the U of S “would have a second rate music program.”

An alternative to cutting sessionals is to assign the cost of private lessons to the students themselves, but the cost could be difficult for students to handle.

“The gap between the sessional stipend and what basic level tuition actually covers is really huge,” Parkinson explained.

The president of the association of student musicians, Mitch Bonokoski, shares Parkinson’s concerns, and is part of an open student committee working to lobby the administration for students in the affected departments.

“We’re passionate about our education experience and want to make sure we get the best value for our money,” he said. As the most visible music student representative on this issue, Bonokoski wants to be careful to represent the needs of his fellow students and is understanding of the need for restructuring.

One option is to raise tuition to cover the costs of the program.

“If these fees and tuition are going to go up and the quality of my education goes down, that doesn’t make any sense,” said Bonokoski.

Parkinson said that changes to the tuition and instructional structure of performing arts are also part of a move by the college to create more options for students. Noting Saskatoon’s active and diverse musical community, he said that the music department should try to tap into that.

“If we could see things expand and advance in that way, our music program really could be the best anywhere in Canada. But we can’t afford what we’re currently doing, so we can’t grow,” he said.

Additionally, many drama faculty members will be retiring or moving to other schools.

Losing faculty sort of calls into question the future of your program.

Charlie Peters, U of S drama student

Combined with sessional cuts, students are obviously concerned about the future of their department.

“Losing faculty sort of calls into question the future of your program,” said Charlie Peters, a U of S acting student. Since drama departments offer what Peters called “holistic” programs, transferring institutions isn’t a viable solution for most students.

The cuts and tuition increases are being incurred as a latent result of the past economic downturn. Budget adjustments take time to see fruition, and offering specialized courses at basic tuition costs has put a slow strain on the department.

“It’s frustrating to see the province is doing well, the university is doing well, the [provincial] budget is very positive… But now we realize that fine and performing arts are expensive,” said Chris Stoicheff, president of the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union.

Stoicheff said that one encouraging thing for students is the three per cent cap on tuition increases in the province, which sets a limit to the financial damage to students already enrolled at the U of S.

He also wants to ensure that changes to the art and art history departments are implemented gradually, with the least detriment to current students. Parkinson echoed that goal.

“We’re looking at a graduated entry of a fee… that way it doesn’t jeopardize the students in question,” said Parkinson.

So far, Stoicheff has met with the sessional instructors’ union once this year, but said that the USSU would welcome input from sessionals and faculty on ways to solve the final gap in fine arts programs.

Cuts won’t only be limited to relatively expensive faculties; humanities might also see cuts to their sessional lecturers.

For both the performing arts and humanities models, maintaining some number of sessionals and reasonable costs to students are Parkinson’s goals.

“We’re working really hard to figure out ways to expand the number of sessionally taught courses on a cost recovery model,” he said.

One way to do this, in fine arts at least, would be to expand the number of spaces for first-year courses. For example, the interest for first year photography is roughly five times the available spaces. On a cost recovery model, more enrollment would mean more money going back into the department, so if more spaces opened, some upper-year financial strain would be alleviated.

For Bonokoski, the best solution is the one that will offer the best education. He’s waiting until the next Town Hall to see what options might be most fruitful.

“If this is what it means for me to get a quality education then that’s what I want. But we’re definitely waiting to see what comes out of the meeting,” he said.

– –
image: Pete Yee/The Sheaf