In response to growing pressure from students and faculty, a new major in cinema studies was approved during a faculty meeting on Nov. 14. It will enable students to take film classes offered in various academic disciplines and have them count towards the major. It will begin next Fall.
“I think our major right now is really strong…with more offerings than [film departments] of most other liberal arts schools,” William Patrick Day, English professor and director of the Cinema Studies Program said.
Day is one of the main forces responsible for the creation of the new major. Plans have been underway since the cinema studies was formed three years ago with the main objective of developing a cinema major. But the committee’s hopes had not become tangible until two weeks ago when the proposal for the creation of the major was approved and the College faculty voted to implement it.
“We approved the major because the committee has put together a high-quality program and there is a lot of interest in film studies from both students and faculty … it’s a very hot area of the humanities,” Robert Geitz, Associated Dean of Arts and Sciences and head of the Educational Plans and Policies Committee (EPPC) said.
College President Nancy Dye has greatly encouraged the EPPC and College Faculty Board to approve the major. “It was good news for me, she said, “I’ve wanted to see it established since 1994 [when I came here].”
Given the popularity of film classes and student film organizations like the Oberlin Film Society and the Independent Film Society, it is perhaps surprising that it took so long for the College to implement a cinema major. In the past there has only a film concentration in the English department. According to Day, however, it is only recently that film majors are beginning to appear in small liberal arts schools like Oberlin.
“Things were brewing for some time,” Geitz said. According to Geitz, the College’s decision to hire Geoff Pingree last year, an associate cinema studies professor to replace retiring film professor, Donald Goulding, acted as a catalyst that brought everything together.
Aside from the addition of Pingree, there have been few changes, in the curriculum or members of the faculty involved in the program. There are currently 18 cinema courses offered at Oberlin, in a variety of departments, as well as four core cinema professors, almost all of whom teach other humanities courses as well.
Pingree, who earned his Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from the University of Chicago, said that he hopes that the cinema curriculum will retain its interdisciplinary as the major develops. “Students should be able to study cinema in the context of the liberal arts…thinking about it in terms of social and political impact,” he said.
However, Pingree and others hope that film production will become just as integral a part of the major as cinema theory and history. According to Day, students majoring in cinema studies will be required to take a mix of production and humanities classes in order to receive their degree. Many students interested in film feel that the film production offerings at Oberlin are limited at this point. Art professor Rian Brown teaches digital video courses in her department. Currently, she is the only faculty member who teaches aspects of production.
Matt Marlin, a senior who teaches a filmmaking ExCo, said that “support and acknowledgment [are] sorely lacking” for students interested in film production.
Marlin, who made his own movie at NYU over the summer, teaches other students how to work with 16mm film, a medium not taught by the College.
This development of cinema studies coincides with a rough financial period for the College. Due to huge health care costs, the recent national economic slowdown and several other factors, the College currently faces a large deficit. As a result, the hiring of more faculty members and expansion of the department’s resources may not be immediate, according to Day. However, his committee is working towards future improvements in the department, realizing that the administration, while cautious, is still willing to spend some money on programs that are deemed worthy of furthering the College’s strategic academic goals.
“We’re going to be experimenting, seeing if the structure we have really works, and working on improving our facilities,” Day said.
Students interested in film were generally excited to hear about the approval of the new major. Many entertain high hopes for the development of the department.
“I hope that someday we will have a department that produces quality filmmakers,” said senior Peter Cairns, who is president of the Film Co-op and IFS.
Students seem to have enthusiasm and faith in the new major because many have enjoyed the film classes that they have taken in other departments, which will now be cross-listed.
“The offered cinema studies courses are phenomenal. I can only see improvement in the department,” junior Erin Wolthausen, an English major, said.
On the other hand, many upperclassmen, while happy to see the department’s creation, have also expressed disappointment that they cannot reap the benefits of the new major.
“I don’t know how different my experience would have been at Oberlin had the major been available when I got here,” Marlin said.