<p>I wish upsetmom’s daughter well. Sounds like she is going to have a long row to hoe. If I were her, I might feel very embarrassed, or would next year.</p>
<p>Upsetmom,
I’d like to thank you for your continuous posting in recent days. I must admit, I was worried at first that AU would receive a bad name from the rough, but rare, experience your daughter went through in registering for classes. Your dedication to posting here has shown any viewer, new or old, your true intent: to discourage others from looking. My case can be summed up by your most recent tirade: the idea of moving the admission presentation to the wonderful Katzen Arts Center. Upsetmom, you have not visited campus and seen this presentation at Katzen, so you really cannot comment on its effect on either the students visiting or the current students studying. While there are many things to scratch your head about in terms of AU administration decisions, this is certainly not one of them. The new location is perfect to show off current students’ work, while the building is large enough where “thousands of visitors” will not disturb those already enrolled. Please, visit the school next time before tearing it down for such decisions.</p>
<p>I think it is absolutely brilliant of AU to house the welcome center in their new arts building. In too many campuses, the arts seem like an afterthought, and students rarely step into the building that houses them.</p>
<p>I went to an undergraduate college that decided in the early 1960s to improve its focus on the arts. The college constructed a building to house them, but it also decided to make the building a student hub by placing student mailboxes, bulletin boards, and an alternative dining option there. As a result, students walked by art galleries and posters for theater and music performances every day of their undergraduate years. If they wanted to eat a burger, they would walk by studio space where their peers were working. Glass walls allowed anyone to view the orchestra or other ensembles rehearsing, and to see students welding/painting/sculpting. This building was a major reason why I chose to attend the school.</p>
<p>Too often, the arts are shuffled off to the side. When the administration decides to highlight such a building, it signifies a dedication to the arts. Bravo, AU.</p>
<p>You have some good points, Rachiee!</p>
<p>What can I say except I will continue to read this thread next year to hear her complain about the lack of enough cheese in the grilled cheese…or perhaps not enough buses when it rains…
My daughter was accepted to AU, we visited the campus together and came away with a nice school located in a great city, where the combination of both could be a great experience…but she opted for another school. My point is AU has its strengths and weakness’s, as do all schools. I would never consider AU one of the top Fine Art’s School’s, of course they have the ability to compete, but that is not what they are all about.
AU is a good school, and even though we decided against it I can think of more positive things than negative, we were glad it was an option for my D.
Quit bashing, and if nothing else let your daughter experience college. College, like life, has twists and turns, it is the overall experience and education opportunities that is important, no matter where she matriculates.</p>
<p>I am trying to help AU become a better place for the arts for my daughter. You don’t seem to understand that the Arts building is an academic building with classrooms for learning, practice, and concentration. I realize that the non-arts people on this post do not comprehend this, because their kids are not in the art program or not involved seriously in the arts except for a few with musicans and composers. The Katzen building is not intended for being a showpace for admissions. It is a place for learning and the art students will certainly pay the price for the ongoing distracting noise and foot traffic from prospective students. AU gets about 20,000 visitng students a year.Why not place the welcome center in the beautiful new KOGOD business school building. That wouldn’t happen because the university respects that program too much to allow those distracting goings on there. It would be easy to pull a child out of AU instead of making an EFFORT to improve the school. If there is a B.F.A. program Stanely90, then that suggests a serious focus on the arts!!!</p>
<p>Upsetmom</p>
<p>upset mom,
I haven’t posted but I have been following your thread for a few days now and have read the whole thing-it’s been great for a quite a few laughs. I am just curious what your daughter thinks of AU? It seems to me like you have done quite a bit of complaining for a parent, and I can’t imagine that with all the issues you have voiced here that you would be happy with her choice to attend, but what does she think? To many people the issues you have been “distraught” over, are pretty small so is your daughter worried about these things, and if so why does she want to attend a school that she is already unhappy with? You said in your last post that you are trying to make an effort to improve the school, and if you were offering constructive criticisms that would almost be believable (overlooking, of course, the fact that you are posting in a forum that has no bearing on the way AU is run), but since you have done nothing but complain and nit-pick since you started this thread that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Also, regarding the welcome center: Have you actually visited since it has been moved? Have you witnessed how it has affected student learning? A lot of the art students at AU are very happy with the move. As previous posters have stated the foot traffic through the building allows people to see the artists work, and shows that AU has a real commitment to the arts and values that commitment. You suggested moving the welcome center to kogod instead, but what you are failing to acknowledge is that it is not the same as Katzen. First of all the set up in katzen allows for more ease for prospective students coming into the welcome center, and second, part of the logic behind the move is to showcase artists work, you can’t really showcase students work in kogod unless you are suggesting maybe they frame and hang up some essays? It seems like you feel the arts should be placed above the rest of the disciplines at AU, and that would be fine if AU was an arts school, but it’s not. If your looking for a school that places the arts first and foremost why did your D not choose to attend one of those? Certainly there is not a shortage of them, and if I remember correctly she was even accepted to a few, right?</p>
<p>Near Nic89:</p>
<pre><code> As I understand it, the welcome center was just moved there. Students are off for the summer. The impact will start in the fall. How could placing the welcome center be placed there to showcase artwork, when the art program has to be developed first and foremost for there to be decent artwork to be shown? The Welcome Center is taking up classroom space that should be used for art students. Strengthening the BFA program should be the top priority, hiring art faculty, getting all students off of the studio art waiting lists, not running prospective students through the building.
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<p>cadmiumred,
Once again, it seems as though you will never be satisfied. First you are complaining about how the arts are unappreciated at AU yet when steps are made to combat that you continue to complain. You haven’t seen the effects of moving the Welcome Center, so how can you bad mouth it? I know that where I currently attend school the fine arts department is in the farthest corner of campus and no one ever sees students art work. My mother is an art school grad and my sister is a current art school student, I know that both of them would think that drawing greater attention to the art department is a great thing. </p>
<p>Nic89, you make a lot of great points, essentially the college experience is for the student. There’s a time where parents need to step back and let the students make their own decisions and form their own opinions. If your daughter is happy with her decision than that’s all that matters.</p>
<p>Strengthening the BFA program is not AU’s priority. That is the essence of the problem here. Your D chose a school to study in a program that is not the school’s priority at all, at least not on the level that you want, or on a level that will make it competitive with an art school. For her to be happy, your D needs to understand and accept that. She needs to embrace the OTHER reasons she chose to attend AU. But she did not chose AU on the strength of its BFA program. And if the other factors she had in mind are not going to make her happy, then once again, I advise that she considers transferring to a stronger art program.</p>
<p>Rachiee:</p>
<pre><code> Shouldn’t the serious art training and BFA offerings be more developed first. More needs to done in this regard. The Welcome Center may be drawing attention to the art dept., but you need a serious art department and program first. Wouldn’t your mom and sister agree about having a serious art program before all of the pomp and circumstance? Wouldn’t they rather have many top notch art courses taught by top notch art professors which will produce quality work to be shown. Why are you encouraging displaying mediocrity?
</code></pre>
<p>Uskoolfish:</p>
<pre><code> Of Course the top priority is strengthening the art program. They advertised a BFA program at accepted students day. Why should just SIS, Comm. and KOGOD be strong?
</code></pre>
<p>Syracuse, a huge liberal arts university, manages to bring all depts. up to a quality level including the fine arts dept. There is absolutely no reason why Au cannot do this. They did it before in the 80s.</p>
<p>If you believe that AU’s art department is mediocre than you should not have sent in your tuition check. I can’t understand why you continue to talk poorly about AU yet you are getting ready to send your daughter. If you dislike the school so much, than you shouldn’t have agreed to send your daughter. I also think you are being a little disrespectful of art majors and art students at AU, I am sure that there are some great artists who would love the opportunity to display their work for prospective students and their families. You believe the art department is so poor yet you are letting your very talented daughter attend?
Like I said before, if you expect perfection from a school than you are in for a harsh reality. I also feel bad for your daughter as others have mentioned. This should be an extremely exciting time and I feel that all your negativity, doubt, and ill feelings for the school are overshadowing what should be a great experience for her.</p>
<p>Raichee:</p>
<pre><code> When we visited a number of times, we observed that the grad student artwork was first rate, and a few of the undergraduate pieces were good, so we were hopeful. To make the undergraduate program top notch, more focus on improving the program is needed and very doable. I sense some flexibility in this regard based on our current experiences. When you have a beautiful art center, why would you not try to have a great art program? It is obvious. Just using the building as a show piece is weak. Why have the new Welcome Center draw attention to an art program with not enough sections. There are still wait lists for all of the other 200 level courses Mini. The full need was not met as you claim. Why don’t you want consistent excellence throughout the school? All I am hearing now on these posts is to run away, to transfer, to just accept the weaknesses. As my dad, who fought in the WWII, would say, we would have lost the war with this attitude. Your answer is who cares , pull your daughter out, who cares about the BFA program, accept the problems. You are not supporting AU with that attitude. I AM by trying to work everything out. My daughter is quite proud and happy that we are trying to make the program workable.
</code></pre>
<p>RISD. seriously.</p>
<p>I want to thank everyone again for posting in this discussion group. My daughter and I care about AU, and our only intentions honestly are to make her experience the best possible.
We would not be hanging in there if we didn’t think it was a quality university. When you walk on campus, it is gorgeous, and its location on embassy row make it phenomenal for any student. I have personally known many exceptional, successful, law students from there, and as I mentioned earlier, one of my closest friends is a superb artist AU alumnus, from the 80s, who is an art professor at University of Maryland. The potential for the art dept. is so clearly there, but seems to need a little motivation or push to bring it to the level of excellence that was once there. The Katzen Center is an amazing facility! There are few universities with this type of art center. I do not believe in complacency, and I am sorry if I have miscommunicated the way I have tried to help my daughter who truly wants to make AU work for her. Thank you again.</p>
<p>Regards,
Upsetmom</p>
<p>cadmiumred, if you think the BFA program is so terribly deficient, it seems ridiculous for you to send your daughter there on the assumption that you will somehow be able to singlehandedly affect the direction of the program and bring about the changes you deem necessary. I certainly wouldn’t take that risk with my child’s expensive education. Here’s the thing: You won’t be there. Your daughter will be selecting her courses for each semester and dealing with the Art Department personnel on her own. Neither she nor the AU staff will welcome your input/interference. This is the last chance you have to control your daughter’s college experience in a meaningful way. So if AU’s Art BFA program is inadequate, now is the time to tell your daughter that despite her preference, you won’t pay for her education there. Call Syracuse and plead your case. I suspect they won’t turn down an accepted student who has a sad tale to tell and is willing to pay up. </p>
<p>I may be all wrong, but my spidey sense tells me that there is some underlying mother-daughter conflict here–daughter picked AU, mother wanted a different choice and will continue to find fault with AU to prove that she was right. I just hope that if the daughter stays with AU, her orientation experience is positive enough offset all the negativity coming from her mother, so she is able to start her freshman year with a good attitude.</p>
<p>My daughter is a musical theater major who will be spending a lot of time in the Katzen Center, and we couldn’t care less about the relocation of the Welcome Center. (In fact, D would just adore the chance to be a tour guide, and the new location would be ideal for that.) We visited AU during a busy time in the winter (many high schools were on break). There were about 60 people at our info session, and when it ended, we all dispersed quickly and quietly into our designated tour groups and moved on to the rest of the campus. I hardly see how this sort of activity could be detrimental to any student. It’s not as if the visitors will be traipsing through the art studios and gawking at the students as they work. And since neither I nor cadmiumred know anything about how much unused space is available in Katzen, neither of us is in a position to claim that needed classrooms are being taken away. (I’m also quite aware that AU’s BA Musical Theater offering, like its Art offering, is not one of AU’s strongest programs, nor is it among the upper echelon of MT programs. But D selected AU with her eyes wide open; the school as a whole works for her needs and desires, and I have no plans to try to improve the MT program or make it work better for my daughter during the next four years. That’s not my job.)</p>
<p>MommaJ:</p>
<pre><code> You are wrong on all accounts. I am not trying to offend you either, because I appreciated your earlier comments and suggestions. Why would I try so incredibly hard to make sure she was placed in a studio course if I didn’t want her to go there? I am optimistic enough to believe that it will all work out. I hope that you are right in that the Welcome Center will not negatively impact the classes.
</code></pre>
<p>Regards,</p>
<p>Upsetmom</p>
<p>MommaJ: we were in the exact same place last year as your D and Cadmiumred’s D when deciding where D should attend school. She was torn between going to a school like AU that offered her the opportunity to study voice and perform, with the additional option of majoring in something else for a broader based liberal arts background…or choosing a school that would allow her to pursue music on a more focused (yes, higher) level, but would not avail her additional opportunities for a double major.</p>
<p>The choice was D’s. I could have seen her go in either direction. But there were definitely constants which were not going to change. NYU for sure had the stronger, more acclaimed vocal performance program. And AU for sure had a wider array of opportunities for academic pursuits, while still allowing for D to pursue voice.</p>
<p>When she chose NYU, I could not go there and complain about the “narrow curriculum” and the fact that she was spending too many hours in music classes. It’s what we signed up for. And if she chose AU, I could not complain that she could have gotten better music training elsewhere. Again, if D made that decision, it would have been with the knowledge that it was not her place to expect things to change.</p>
<p>Actually, the one thing that did turn us off to AU was that the head of music that we spoke to kept trying to sell us on all the changes she wished to make to the department. And inadvertantly gave the message that she was not satisfied with the program as is.</p>
<p>Sorry, Cadmiumred, I believe your expectations are unreasonable. And the Katzen Arts Center is not just for the use of BFA art students. It was built to house its music and theatre programs and performances, as well. It is a reflection of the AU community’s commitment to the arts. But it is not a sign that they are becoming a music or art conservatory.</p>
<p>Upsetmom: I’m going to offer some more insight as to how academia works, with the hope that you’ll retool your expectations.</p>
<p>When AU offers a B.F.A., all it promises is that it will offer a fine arts curriculum to satisfy the requirements of a such a degree. It says nothing of the quality of instruction, of the facilities, or of the support that the administration gives the program. If there aren’t enough art students to use a specific space, the university will use it for other things because it cannot afford to let areas go unused. </p>
<p>Also, whenever a new department or program is formed, or whenever a university decides to improve an existing department, it takes time, sometimes up to a decade, to build, or re-build. Faculty members have to be attracted (a first-rate professor-artist is more likely to accept a position at, say, RISD than at AU because of the reputation and quality of the faculty and student artists at RISD), and students have to be admitted. Without a solid program, this becomes really difficult; not until a critical mass of faculty and students is reached does a program really take off. Notice how a few parents on this thread have said that their arts-oriented children considered AU but instead chose a more established program. That will continue to happen, for the reasons listed in those posts, precisely because AU doesn’t yet have a reputation that rivals the others – and probably never will. Of course, that doesn’t mean that students like your D won’t go to AU. They will. It’s just that the number of students like her will be smaller than at the other programs.</p>
<p>A university wishing to beef up a program faces two major obstacles: no/little reputation in the field, and finances. Your daughter received a hard sell because they need students like her; however, her role, in terms of program building, comes into play AFTER she graduates, when she goes on to graduate school or to a life as a professional artist. Her accomplishments then reflect back on the program. Obviously, it’s not all up to her, a single student, but up to all the students who enter and graduate from the program.</p>
<p>As for finances, all universities, from Princeton to Podunk U, are currently limiting spending. Only those projects committed to prior to the economic downturn are going through. That means that AU may not have immediate plans to increase the faculty in the B.F.A. program. Just to let you know what that means: faculty members have fixed course loads, depending on the department or the fame of the individual faculty member. If the art department has a 3/3 load, that means that each faculty member, unless exempted for other reasons (a famous artist might negotiate a 2/2 load), teaches three courses per semester. No more. You cannot open new sections without hiring adjuncts (part-timers) or canceling other courses because of low enrollment. While adjuncts are relatively cheap (no benefits, no commitment to continued employment), department budgets must have the money to pay them. And the university must approve of them.</p>
<p>Students and parents would be well-advised to take “what you see is what you get” approach when deciding on a college. Promises for the future should be completely disregarded because you have no idea when, or if, those changes will be implemented.</p>
<p>I’m sure your daughter will be happy at AU once she gets there. It might be wise to let up a little and to readjust your expectations.</p>