5/15/2025 BOT Comment: Barrigan
Thank you for your time today. As department chair of Theatre and Film, I am here to offer a comment about the Department’s request for base funding from S&A that was rejected. Since 2008 the department has relied on S&A base funding to support student employees who work in the fabrication, installation, and equipment lending shops in our department. A co -curricular program, it offers students the opportunity to develop skills and apply them in ways that significantly aid their career attainment. Alums who participated in this co- curricular program have, for example, moved into professional positions in live entertainment, fabrication and installation, facility management, and project management after graduation, due in large part to their experience in this program. Annually, this employment program offered opportunities to 20 -30 students and the outputs of the student employees are felt by hundreds of students on campus. For these student employees , the richness of the experience is equally ba lanced by their ability to earn some income. In discussions, I have learned the depth of impact employment in these spaces has had on student retention and peer recruiting for our programs. It is worth noting that these types of employment experiences are unavailable for 100 mile s around Ellensburg . With all that said, my larger, structural question of why so many highly valuable areas of the university experience, which are connected to the study and application of the arts and humanities, and offer students essential opportunities for honing their career- readiness have been left to rely on the unpredictable funding support of S&A. This is true throughout the College of Arts and Humanities; programs which are an invaluable co -curricular element of alumni career achievement have been left to beg for money from student fees. I hope that today, one outcome of the defunding crisis of so many crucial student learning experiences is a consideration by the Board of how to create more stable funding streams, especially for the students in Arts and Humanities.
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