Dear Argus, 

I was sad to read, at the end of your coverage of [President] Michael Roth [’78]’s visit to the WSA in the Oct. 11 issue, about a student who felt they weren’t receiving guidance in navigating the film major. The article (mistakenly) noted that the University does not guarantee support for theses which creates a barrier for FGLI students in our major.

Foremost, I want to encourage the student to reach out to any of their film professors to discuss the major and options for fulfilling its requirements. If the student is especially interested in filmmaking, I urge them to get in touch with one of our production faculty, all of whom are well experienced with creating work on slim margins. Our faculty filmmakers are Steve Collins, Randall MacLowry, Richard Parkin, Mirko Rucnov, Alejandro Salinas Albrecht, Yaya Simakov, Sadia Shepherd, and Tracy Strain. We are here to help.

I also want to emphasize what the College of Film does to offset the costs of filmmaking for our students. Our endowment and generous alumni donors allow us to offer grants to every thesis filmmaker. This year each digital filmmaker receives $1,000 and each 16mm filmmaker (a much more expensive process) receives $7000. To our knowledge, Wesleyan offers the only undergraduate film program in the U.S. that provides such support. In addition, through the alumni-supported Film Fund for Underrepresented Students, BIPOC and FGLI students are eligible for an Oscar Micheaux Filmmaking Grant which can cover costs above and beyond our base-level support.

We recognize that filmmaking is expensive and do everything we can to make it accessible. Our alumni have stepped up to remove barriers. Please note that we do not require a thesis for completion of the major. We strive to deliver a well-rounded and valuable experience to all our students, with or without a thesis. We also offer theses in screenwriting, television writing, film criticism, and film history and analysis, none of which come with the costs associated with filmmaking. For seniors who cannot commit the time or resources to a full-year thesis project, we have introduced a new capstone course in which students produce short films in a single semester without additional costs.

We’ve also done our absolute best to ensure that regular and required filmmaking classes remain affordable. Some of our production courses require an external hard drive which costs between $70 and $90. The Film Fund for Underrepresented Students allows us to buy these materials for FGLI students, and all other costs (film, processing etc.) are covered for all students.

More than anything, on behalf of the CFILM faculty and staff, I want to encourage any student of need to consider studying film if they are interested. We are here to support you.

Scott Higgins is the Director of the College of Film and the Moving Image and can be reached at shiggins@wesleyan.edu