Drawing by Edie Fake, one of the USC Seven
Is an MFA worth it? Not when your scholarship, teaching assistantship, and benefits have been ripped out from underneath you.
A year into the well-regarded MFA program at the University of Southern California, the school’s entire class of first-year students has dropped out. In an open letter published in Art & Education, students Julie Beaufils, Sid Duenas, George Egerton-Warburton, Edie Fake, Lauren Davis Fisher, Lee Relvas, and Ellen Schafer have all agreed to drop out of the MFA program because the university is failing to honor funding promises made during recruitment.
From the sounds of it, they entered into a program undergoing a rather confusing transition:
We, the incoming class of 2014, were the first students since 2011 to take on debt to attend Roski, and the first students since 2006 to gain no teaching experience during our first-year in the program. Moreover, when we arrived in August 2014, we soon discovered that the dean of the Roski School was attempting to retroactively dismantle the already diminished funding model that was promised to us, as well as make drastic changes to our existing faculty structure and curriculum.
Since February of this year, the students have persistently warned university officials that they would be unable to continue on in the MFA program if promises made during recruitment were not kept. But with no constructive response, and continuing “unethical treatment,” the USC Seven have decided that they will be better off “returning to the workforce degree-less and debt-full.” (At this time, we don’t know if any students plan on transferring to other programs in the fall.)
That’s a tough decision to make as an MFA student, when you’ve likely moved across the country, quit a former job, and generally put your life on hold to attend a program. It’s an even tougher decision to make when you’re a year into that program—it might be easier to grit your teeth while signing additional loan paperwork. But the USC Seven know that an MFA can be more than an expensive piece of paper. In a time when fewer and fewer graduate programs receive funding, and students seem like a means to income rather than a resource, it’s a bold position to take. We salute you.
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When used as a modifier: first-year student.
Otherwise, no hyphen needed.
As a lover of grammar, I appreciate the sentiment. I think that’s in the quoted text, though?
Yo before I make my comment load this up in another tab:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scp0hPwhG14
so you can like experience my WRATH. I’LL WAit.
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ok now that this is jammin heres what i gotta say about these art kids not respecting their elders. I received a BFA in textiles in 2004 and could care less about art now. California has to do what its got to do to make money. These kids might have paid the big bucks but that’s capitalism. You want to make it in the art world? its gotta take a lot more than bein a QUITTER. stay in school you miscreants. UGH. You have no idea how priveleged you are quitting school while theres probably BILLIONS of people who would love to be in your shows. That MFA program seems easy anyway. Stick it out and enjoy all the perks that come with a top notch terminal degree. USC has one of the top football teams in the nation, ranked #6 on the AP sports Coach’s poll. Im about to drink water
I’m not sure what Khafemma is on but I agree with the sentiment. When I graduated with an MFA in Fibers there wasn’t a lot of funding available and I needed to scrounge around locally. Thankfully my practice was mostly lint-based and as such I had many sources to draw from.
These students need to be similarly economy-minded, their state is dealing with a severe shortage of water and artists are often the biggest water-wasters i’ve met. It wouldn’t surprise me if they wasted more water per-capita than a nestle employee. In other words they should be grateful for the opportunity they’ve been given and that the program hasn’t been shut down by the university entirely.
If they insist on looking for handouts instead of using their constraints artistically then the PR of their ‘open letter’ won’t be worth the water they wasted handmaking the paper it’s on.
Maybe you didn’t read the article, correctly, Devin. (Lint on the brain?) The students aren’t seeking handouts – they’re seeking for the University to honor promises and contracts they made. Since when does living up to your side of a mutually-agreed-upon contract constitute “giving handouts?”
It’s easy to defend soul-smashing capitalism when you’re on top, isn’t it. Here’s to hoping that one day (hopefully soon) you, too, can enjoy being the victim of money-grubbing at all costs! (Curious to see if you’re so brainwashed already that you end up “Stockholm Syndrome” defending the capitalists even when they’ve got their knife at YOUR throat!)
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