B.C. University Plans to Phase Out Fine Arts Program

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Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C., plans to phase out its bachelor of fine arts program, citing low enrolment and financial pressures.

It intends to cease new enrolment first, and then end the program in three years when the last current students graduate, Kamloops This Week reports.

“The resources that are going into this particular program far exceed, by an incredible amount, anything else we do,” says arts dean Rick McCutcheon.

The plan will go to the university senate and board within the next six months.

In the meantime, the program's faculty has launched a petition to keep the program. It collected more than 2,000 signatures in its first three days.

"Many of us in the faculty of arts and the greater Kamloops community are in absolute disagreement with this decision," the petition says, citing the quality of graduates and longtime relationships with local arts groups and Indigenous communities. 

Donald Lawrence, a longtime professor in the program, says the program has "a long legacy of success" and has dispersed artists into the community and around the world.

Source: Kamloops This Week