UCLA Gets ‘Less Ambitious’ Plan for Arts Studies Revision

UCLA Chancellor Charles E. Young on Monday proposed an overhaul of arts studies that he said was “less ambitious” than a controversial proposal he advocated in April.

In his new plan, Young proposed that the current College of Fine Arts be split into a School of the Arts and a School of Theater, Film and Television, and that art history and historical musicology become divisions of the College of Letters and Science.

“In the technical and detailed terms, it is certainly less ambitious than my (original) plan,” Young said at a campus press conference. “It involves less movement, less change. But I am very pleased that the final outcome is consistent with the goals I had.”

Young drew sharp criticism from students and faculty when he proposed that all arts programs be absorbed by a new College of Letters, Arts and Science and that several undergraduate degrees in studio and performing arts be phased out. Greater emphasis would have been placed on undergraduate academic courses, such as art history, musicology and criticism. And performing arts would have been expanded through the creation of a new Graduate School of Performance Arts.

Young had said the “radical change” in the organization of the university’s arts programs was needed to keep UCLA abreast of developments in the local arts scene. He also said it reflected a growing trend in higher education to concentrate professional education at the graduate level.

But art students and teachers protested the proposed changes and a student-faculty task force was formed to examine ways to organize arts studies at UCLA.

The new plan must now be approved by the Academic Senate of the campus faculty and by UC President David P. Gardner.