When you look up SUNY Fredonia, unfortunately the words “Program cuts” are usually followed. As a slight recap of the obvious changes to Fredonia’s academics, about half of the proposed programs that would be cut from Fredonia as a major included the arts. Photography, sculpture, ceramics and art history being the highlight, which angered the art students as those programs are half of the Visual Arts and New Media department, which is a tight-knit group, try and mess with them I dare you. 

In response to the lackluster administration that is Fredonia’s administration when it comes to actually responding to questions, art students and students whose programs were proposed to be axed have formed Students for Fredonia (SFF) a day after the announcement of the program cuts. 

With protests directly screaming at administrators to listen to students who actually pay their salary and give the school the reputation that it does, SFF have held 2 successful events in the past 2 semesters in response to the troubling time that is college in this day and age. If you look at SFF’s Instagram, you can see that these protests were highly successful with over 200 people attending and marching across campus and through Fredonia. 

But to really get to the bottom of this situation that affects all SUNY campuses, you need to go to the big guys in Albany, NY. Which was what the members of SFF did during Feb., where the students talked to the higher ups of New York promoting Fredonia and convincing them to give the campus the proper funding it deserves. Unfortunately, because SUNY views the campus report that SUNY Fredonia’s Marketing and Communications sends out, this fact was not publicized by Fredonia. 

Additionally, members of SFF attend University Senate meetings, which is part of the decision process of many policies on campus as well as other issues regarding campus, where the students directly talk and ask questions to administrators (which were often ignored). This was to show administrators that we do in fact care what happens to the campus and the faculty that would be affected by these program cuts, as these cuts will definitely affect the admissions rate because of the programs that will more than likely be axed. I will definitely recommend that you keep an eye on this club, as they are definitely not going anywhere anytime soon. Catch me at the next protest!