Ithaca College is Ending Its Theatre Administration Degree. That's a Mistake.

by Chris Peterson

Ithaca College is ending its Theatre Administration degree for future students.

According to the college, the program is “evolving” into its new B.A. in Creative Industries, expanding its focus beyond theatre to include business, communications, media, entrepreneurship, and other areas of the creative sector.

But future students can no longer enroll in Theatre Administration. So, call it whatever you want. The degree is going away. Current students will be allowed to finish it, while future students interested in this kind of work will be directed toward Creative Industries instead.

I think that's a mistake.

There was another piece to this story that understandably got a lot of attention. Ithaca recently introduced a new degree in artificial intelligence, leading some to connect the two decisions.

Ithaca has since made it very clear that the AI program had nothing to do with Theatre Administration. According to the college, the two initiatives were developed separately and aren't a case of sacrificing an arts program to build an AI program.

Fine. But even if I accept that explanation, the timing is still terrible.

You cannot announce a shiny new AI degree while students are learning that a specialized arts degree is disappearing, and then act surprised when people start putting those things together. At a moment when students, especially artists, are already nervous about what AI means for creative careers, the optics were always going to be awful.

But forget AI for a minute, because my bigger problem is the decision itself.

Ithaca's Theatre Administration degree was wonderfully specific. The college describes it as “combining performing arts with business, with training in development, producing, marketing and management.” Those are actual jobs our industry needs people to do.

However, if I'm an 18-year-old who wants to work in theatre, why wouldn't I want the specialized degree?

Theatre is its own weird business. It has its own ecosystem. It needs people who understand what happens offstage just as much as it needs performers.

Ithaca itself once called Theatre Administration a “one-of-a-kind program.” That's something I would be protecting, not broadening out of existence.

A petition has been started to save the program. It can be found here.