Dear Community Stakeholders & Supporters,

The Drama Department at UNC Asheville is facing the high probability of being completely eliminated as the result of a recent Academic Portfolio Review process, which began February 2024 after what was initially announced as a $6 million budget shortfall. We understand that managing budget deficits and eliminating programs is part of a larger national trend happening in higher education. We also recognize that theatre as a discipline and industry is undergoing a major metamorphosis. We believe we can ride these waves of change and invite you to be a part of shaping this moment with us. Please consider sending a letter by Monday, June 24th to Chancellor van Noort and President Hans asking them to reconsider their decision to eliminate the Drama Department at UNC Asheville. If you are on social media, tag @unca_drama in your posts.

Before this announcement, the Drama Department already had plans for more strategic alignment with the university’s financial realities and evolving institutional vision. In 2022, we conducted a self-study and external review to identify our strengths and growth areas. The reviewers commented: “It is also recommended that university administration take note of the excellent work coming from the Department of Drama, its value as a recruitment tool, and important role in the liberal arts.” As a result of this process, we have been actively working to evolve the department in more sustainable and innovative ways by increasing our number of majors and graduates, changing the type of theatre we make, strengthening our collaborations with adjacent departments, and engaging with our community partners to share resources and provide students with even more employment opportunities.

The Drama Department has a strong, 50-year history of rigorous, experiential student learning with a proven record of graduates who use their liberal arts Drama degrees to become accomplished professionals and compassionate citizens. In addition, we have endowed funding specifically restricted to use for the Drama Department and its students and capital assets unique to our discipline, which give us a strong foundation for thinking creatively about how we might continue to educate our students with integrity while staying within the institution’s current budgetary constraints.

In 2024, the university invested in the replacement of the Carol Belk Theatre roof, and in 2020, they spent $500,000 on a renovation of the lighting grid system. There are other capital investments, such as new lighting instruments and projections (~$250,000), scene shop equipment (~$60,000), costume shop equipment (~$30,000), and costume stock (~$100,000). The university has already made the investment in Drama, and now we should see it through. In the last 3 years, we’ve grown our number of majors/minors by 4% and are rebuilding community partnerships. Given the significant amount of human, financial, and capital investments the university and generous donors have made to the Drama Department and the Carol Belk Theatre, we believe it would be an incredible waste of talent, potential, and resources to sunset the program at this time when we have just started to recover from the impact of the pandemic and are actively growing and rebuilding.

At the end of the Chancellor’s Proposal to the UNC System President and Board of Governors, she states:

“The University needs a sustainable enrollment of 3,800 to 4,000 students by 2030. In the Asheville 2030 overall vision, these students will be drawn to UNC Asheville’s model of an innovative university of the future — known for its student-centered focus, liberal arts and sciences foundation, hands-on learning, technology-driven solutions, and career-ready emphasis.”

We wish to highlight some of the ways we already exemplify this model.

Student-centered Focus

Since 2013, we’ve supported student written, directed, and designed work on our mainstage with 9 senior shows and projects. Our students consistently complete interdisciplinary undergraduate research projects that combine their academic and personal interests, such as Atmospheric Science and Theatrical Fog and Military Service and Solo Performance. We directly support student domestic and international travel to SETC, USITT, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Liberal Arts & Sciences Foundation

We embody interdisciplinary through our on-campus collaborations with faculty, staff, students in Humanities, Music, Mass Communication, New Media, STEAM Studio, Ancient Mediterranean Studies, Physics, Anthropology, English, Health Sciences, Sociology, Political Science, Key Center for Community-Engaged Learning, Student Academic Success Center, and Student Affairs. In spring of 2020, Assistant Professor Casey Watkins developed a new course called Global Theatre & Performance. This led her to developing a Korean Performance course that she recently taught as part of a South Korea Study Abroad trip in May 2024.

Hands-on Learning

As a practice-based art form, Drama understands the necessity of embodied practices and hands-on learning. Full Professor Laura Bond, who recently published in the Routledge press book, Trauma and Embodied Healing in Dramatherapy, Theatre and Performance, currently holds the Paddison Endowed Professorship where she is not only continuing her scholarship in somatic practices dedicated to wellness initiatives within the performing arts, but also brings these techniques for emotional resiliency to our students and to wider local, regional, national and international communities through her development of the Emotional Body method.  

Technology-Driven Solution

In May, Full Professor Rob Berls, considered one of the “go-to” experts in the field on 3D printing in the theatre, published a new book with Routledge, Teaching Practical Theatrical 3D Printing. In January, we worked with the STEAM Studio to hire a new joint staff member to strengthen the students’ technology-driven learning experiences. In the Spring, we also began conversations with New Media about mutually beneficial collaborations in the areas of projection design and animation.

Career-ready Emphasis

Our students graduate with an education in theatre and well developed soft skills, which at their core include: effective collaboration, creative thinking, adaptability, time management, and clear verbal and written communication. Many articles, similar to this recent Forbes Advisor report, support that employers are seeking these skills as much as the technical job-related skills. In Spring 2022, we made high-impact, low-cost curricular changes by including a Senior Project (i.e. an undergraduate research project or professional internship) and Senior Seminar to our degree requirements, which prepare students with the knowledge and insight needed for the varied and competitive job market they face.

Given our current human, physical and financial capital listed below, we believe we can reach a viable solution that fulfills our educational mission and financial responsibilities.

Faculty/Staff:

• 3.5 full-time professors

• 1/3 time administrative assistant (shared with Philosophy & History)

• .5 production support staff member (shared with New Media)

• .4 technical director staff member shared with the STEAM studio

• no adjunct contracts were renewed for next year

Fall 2024 Drama Majors/Minors:

• 20 majors

• 18 minors

2023-2024 Audience Attendance for 14 performances of 4 shows in the Belk Theatre:

~1300 (50% on-campus community; 50% off-campus community)

2023-2024 Academic Year Direct Student Engagement with Productions:

82 students (approximately 50% are non-majors)

Capital Investments, specifically for the Belk Theatre:

• A new roof on Carol Belk Theatre completed this month

• $500,000 Belk Theatre grid renovation completed in 2020

• Approximately, $250,000 of new lighting instruments and projections equipment, close to $60,000 of Scene Shop equipment, $30,000 costume shop equipment, and $100,000 costume stock

Donor funds, restricted specifically for the Drama Department:

• ~$25,000 annual scholarship fund restricted for Drama majors/minors

• Paddison Endowed Professorship, restricted for Music & Drama faculty only

• ~$35,000 annual endowed funds to be used to support department needs, student travel and visiting artists

We are creative and resourceful people who believe in the life-enhancing and -sustaining power of the arts to bridge differences, build community, and promote civic dialogue. With your support, we can Keep Theatre at UNCA, in our lives and within the values of the UNCA liberal arts education. We are asking the administration to reconsider its decision and to collaborate with us by giving us clear and fair benchmarks and the opportunity to work with community stakeholders to make our vision a reality.

Sincerely,

UNC Asheville Drama Department Faculty and Staff