Anxiety mounts UI film studies may be dropped

Faculty in the University of Iowa film studies and cinema and comparative literature programs say some of their graduate offerings have been recommended for elimination.

They are spreading the word and gathering testimonials via e-mail, online postings and Facebook in the hopes of swaying the final decision.

UI Provost Wallace Loh said no recommendations have been made, though the work of a task force on graduate education is causing anxiety. Recommendations to eliminate degree programs must come from college deans and require state Board of Regents approval.

“The most important thing is they have not completed their report yet,” Loh said of the task force. “I think people are jumping the gun, and they're nervous.”

The anxiety is understandable, Loh said, given the budget cuts and a decision last year to phase out graduate admissions in German because of low enrollment.

Loh hopes to have the task force's final report in a few weeks.

“The next stage is what are we going to do with this,” he said. “What we're trying to do is increase instructional efficiency.”

The graduate task force, one of six charged by Loh with looking at university priorities, has given preliminary reports to each department, which now may respond.

Several faculty in cinema and comparative literature, the department that houses film studies, said the preliminary recommendations include: eliminating the doctoral program in film studies and the master's and doctoral programs in comparative literature; and moving the master's in film and video production out of cinema and comparative literature and into a new Division of Communications.

Professor Russell Valentino, chairman of cinema and comparative literature and editor of the Iowa Review, said faculty and graduates are disappointed that quality did not seem to be a consideration. Graduate programs in film studies admit about 10 students annually out of 120 applications, a highly competitive rate.

“I know that some people in the administration probably think we're overreacting, because the recommendations are not final,” he said. “You want to prevent something that you see as valuable from being discarded.”

Cinema and comparative literature professor Rick Altman said it's not in the UI's best interest to discontinue such esteemed programs. “We're simply trying to make sure that the right information gets into the right hands,” he said.