Leisure art classes resume despite cuts while art program still suffers
I was pretty upset after reading the recent article, “Leisure Arts Studio to reopen after four year closure,” in the Reveille, and felt I needed to represent the sentiments of some of the art students.
This disgusts me. I was never aware of any student polling to fund leisure classes in the Union and certainly would have voted against it, both for fundamentally opposing the idea of University-supported (and liberally accommodating) leisure, and for the lack of funding allotted to facilities for students enrolled in the arts, actively and seriously pursuing an engaged relationship (strongly opposing what Ms. Maxwell here supports- a lazy, half-engagement where arts fit conveniently between classes, and only when there is a little extra time). I am absolutely astounded that, in the midst of our budget crisis, construction continued on a new leisure class studio to support a supposedly high interest in taking entertainment-based classes in the arts, when our actual arts college is suffering, and has been for years, to maintain the facilities for students in which the future of art resides.
Maybe most of the University was unaware, but our ceramics studios (which, by the way, maintain a status of second-best graduate program in the United States for the work produced, despite the dilapidated studio conditions) have now mandated that students purchase expensive heavy-duty gas masks because of issues with leaking kilns that have been neglected to be fixed for years. Our painting students work in the old engineering shops which have been on the renovation list for over 20 years, where roofs leak onto paintings, supplies and materials are regularly stolen for lack of adequate locks and windows, and poor ventilation requires any pregnant students or students with health conditions to fund their own studio space (a heavy and superfluous burden when enrolling in a program meant to accommodate studios for active participation with faculty).
I can’t understand why the University feels it needs to maintain a source of entertainment or leisure for students in the first place under such tight budget restrictions of late.
These sorts of things make me question whether LSU is a brand name business, trying to make a buck, or whether it is an educating institution, which is implied by “university,” that hopes to afford not only the highest possible education to our students, but also the most accommodating arena to do so.
This is a perfect example of the lack of communication within the different departments of LSU, and the lack of reverence for our serious students, who enrolled to engage with faculty and resources that have earned respect out of hard work and national academic or artistic prestige, not for entertaining the masses. 
Thanks for continuing to cover happenings at the University that affect students.
 
Ellen Ogden 
Painting/drawing and art history senior
 
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