Creative industries students at Wagga's Charles Sturt University campus have renewed hope of saving their course from being gutted after launching a new online petition.
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Now calling themselves the 'creative industries union', the students are expecting to see hundreds turn out in support of their course when they stage a protest against the impending cuts.
It will be held outside the faculty dean's office at 9am on Tuesday.
"I'm not normally a very political person," said third-year acting and performance design student Claudia Spackman, 23.
"I'm not sure how much it [the protest] will achieve, but it's important to let people know this is happening and we're not going to go quietly."
As part of the university's cost-cutting efforts, last year it was announced that the creative industry courses would be taught out for current students, with fewer options available to first years.
From this year, the Bachelor of Communications will be offered with specialisations in advertising, public relations, digital media, journalism, and theatre media.
On-campus options will be available in Bathurst, while the Wagga campus will no longer be offering the in-person degree type for face-to-face students in their first year.
It is one of many changes and restructures under the university's 'sustainable futures' program, which aims to address its $80 million loss in revenue and $49.5 million deficit.
When it was first announced, past and present students in the Acting Union rallied together to form an online petition which garnered hundreds of signatures from across the world in just days.
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Ms Spackman said ideally, the students wanted to see the course returned to its former level of appreciation and value to the university.
"I'm from Young, I moved to uni for Wagga because CSU was offering the best of what I wanted to do," Ms Spackman said.
"We'd love it to be restored to what it was 10 years ago when there were 20 students in each discipline area."
Executive director of Eastern Riverina Arts, Tim Kurylowicz this week threw his support behind the petition to save the course as well.
He told The Daily Advertiser he believes now is a good time to increase investment in theatre and the arts.
"A whole lot has changed in Australia in the past 12 months and there are amazing opportunities in the arts," Mr Kurylowicz said.
"There's been an explosion in work coming out of things like Netflix and there needs to be a massive increase in people with these skills, more so than ever before."
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The potential loss of the creative discipline to Bathurst, Mr Kurylowicz said, would have a detrimental effect on the community as a whole.
"This is something that is beneficial to every regional town, but it's sad to see it lost at all in Wagga," he said.
"Universities in Sydney and Canberra are cutting back on their performing arts courses, and the knock-on effect is going to mean there will be an increase in enrolments for the course that are left.
"In the next few years, this is going to be a big export and there are already billions of Hollywood dollars being spent in Australia. Why wouldn't CSU want to be a part of that?"
In response to the planned protest and online petition, a spokesperson for the university said it had briefed staff of draft changes in the School of Communication and Creative Industries and was welcoming feedback.
"The University remains committed to delivering industry-leading communications courses and specialisations in creative and performing arts for its continuing and future students, including in Wagga," the spokesperson said.
"Further information will be provided when the change process is finalised."
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