The fate of the creative industries course at Wagga's Charles Sturt University campus is expected to be delivered by mid-June following consultation with staff and students over the draft changes.
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Staff have been provided with a draft proposal of changes and have been given until 5pm on Wednesday to submit feedback.
Under the proposed changes, as of next year, the creative industries classes would be rolled into the Bachelor of Arts degrees.
Executive dean of the faculty of arts and education, Professor John McDonald, revealed to The Daily Advertiser that the draft plans would see the Wagga campus become a hub of creative arts specialisations. But the campus would lose its performance majors for first-year enrolments.
Under the proposal, first-year students in Wagga would be able to access on-campus majors in photography, visual culture, digital imaging, and art history. However, theatre media, acting, and performance majors would be concentrated at the Bathurst campus.
Students would also be able to study any discipline area online and the changes would affect only the first-year intake.
"We're keen to ensure [the students] know that we have a cast-iron guarantee to them that they will complete their courses with their chosen majors at the campus they're enrolled in and through the study mode they're enrolled in," Professor McDonald said.
After the feedback deadline, the university will take 10 days to prepare a reply before a review of infrastructure and resources will take place.
After the feedback deadline, the university will take 10 days to prepare a reply before a review of infrastructure and resources will take place.
"Some equipment will need to be moved to ensure it's at the right campus to suit the needs," Professor McDonald said.
"I do understand that there is a degree of uncertainty but we've got great staff and they really want to provide high-quality education for the future."
Continuing students in the creative industries course staged a small demonstration at the Wagga campus on Tuesday morning, protesting the proposed changes.
Third-year acting and performance design student, Claudia Spackman, attended the protest.
"No one is totally convinced with the promises that have been made," the 23-year-old said.
"It feels like a ploy to keep us all quiet until it's too late to fight it."
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Ms Spackman questioned the decision to migrate theatre arts to Bathurst, given the resources Wagga has at its disposal.
"A lot of stuff is already shared between the campuses, so anything movable would presumably go to Bathurst," Ms Spackman said.
"But the Playhouse, for example, it's a proper, free-standing theatre. Bathurst doesn't have that, they have a little theatre but it's not like what we have. Ours is an incredible space. You can't move a building to another campus."
The university currently holds a lease on the Playhouse until 2034 and has revealed it has no intentions of offloading the asset.
But, Professor McDonald said there were concerns about the viability of the theatre for student use.
"With low and declining student enrolments our usage has declined so we've formed a working party with Wagga Council to consider how to maximise [the theatre's] use in the future," Professor McDonald said.
"We're committed to it being a vibrant part of Wagga's cultural assets."
But Ms Spackman believes the decline in student numbers has been artificially constructed.
"Every year group does a production, so the use of the theatre has been in decline this year because there are no first years," she said.
"It's in decline because they don't have the students but this course has been dying a death by a thousand cuts since about 2013 when there were changes to the way it was advertised, its name, how it was structured.
"There used to be 20 people in every year group and now there's not. It's not because there's no demand [in the community] if anything, there's more demand now than there was then."
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