This evening, Arts Initiative Executive Director Melissa Smey announced that changes are being made to the program, also known as CUArts. These include filling the role of associate director of CUArts and forming a student advisory group.
These changes have dated back to early this month when Will Hughes, CC '13 and Columbia College Student Council vice president for policy, started a petition asking for more funding for CUArts and for it to be led by a full-time director who would oversee a larger staff.
In response to Smey's statement, the student group Advocates for the Arts Initiative, of which Hughes is a leader, said that more needs to be done, including an even more drastic restructuring of the administration of CUArts and the hiring of more administrators.
Smey's email—which was not sent to all Columbia students, but to the Friends of the Arts at Columbia in lieu of her usual newsletter—and the Advocates' statement, sent to Spectator, are after the jump.
