I understand that Dean Lepage seeks to lower costs and I believe disproportionately cutting the Arts Department budget may damage Cornell University's ability to prepare young men and women to be successful after graduation. Cornell's proposed disproportionate budget cut of a permanent nature reflects an image of a University that has lost its way, a University that has failed to appreciate the depth and breadth of the educational experience that the The Department of Theatre Film & Dance provides to the entire student population.
The Department of Theatre Film & Dance trained me, a 2001 graduate of the American Studies Program within the College of Arts and Sciences, to utilize my voice, body, and mind to captivate audiences. My career in law will be shaped by the talents I developed not simply in classrooms at Cornell, but more precisely from performing the classics on stage at The Schwartz Center. Stage training and performance experience endowed me with enormous confidence. I am extraordinarily comfortable speaking in front of large groups, small groups, and in one-on-one meetings. I would not have succeeded as a Broadway salesman pitching licensing rights to business men and women in meetings in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, or Seoul; I would not have succeeded reporting to the Chief of Staff of a Senior U.S. Senator and now current Vice President of the United States. Even now, I stand firmly on my two feet and report with ease on appellate law cases to The Honorable
Mark A. Troncone, J.S.C. This work is a product of my theater training as a Cornell student.
When I consider my four years at Cornell, I smile and fondly remember how I broadened my mind with the University's diverse array of opportunities. What allows me to rave to everyone about my years at Cornell was the entirety of the experience: from reading Kurt Vonnegut while overlooking Lake Cayuga, to walking along O Street from the Cornell-in-Washington Center towards the metro, to making thousands of people, students and members of the Ithaca community, laugh and feel satisfied in the Proscenium at The Schwartz Center.
This past Monday I raved to Judge O'Brien in Toms River, NJ, whose own son is a freshman engineer at Cornell, about my time in Ithaca. I buzzed like a bee, remembering how students in the middle of the nighttime scaled the clock tower to attach a pumpkin to its peak. Only this memory is more astounding than my memories as an acting student in The Department of Theatre, Film, & Dance.
Warm Regards,
Ari R. Wishkoff
Law Clerk to the Hon. Mark A. Troncone, J.S.C.
120 Hooper Avenue
Courtroom 4
Toms River, NJ 08753
The Department of Theatre Film & Dance trained me, a 2001 graduate of the American Studies Program within the College of Arts and Sciences, to utilize my voice, body, and mind to captivate audiences. My career in law will be shaped by the talents I developed not simply in classrooms at Cornell, but more precisely from performing the classics on stage at The Schwartz Center. Stage training and performance experience endowed me with enormous confidence. I am extraordinarily comfortable speaking in front of large groups, small groups, and in one-on-one meetings. I would not have succeeded as a Broadway salesman pitching licensing rights to business men and women in meetings in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, or Seoul; I would not have succeeded reporting to the Chief of Staff of a Senior U.S. Senator and now current Vice President of the United States. Even now, I stand firmly on my two feet and report with ease on appellate law cases to The Honorable
Mark A. Troncone, J.S.C. This work is a product of my theater training as a Cornell student.
When I consider my four years at Cornell, I smile and fondly remember how I broadened my mind with the University's diverse array of opportunities. What allows me to rave to everyone about my years at Cornell was the entirety of the experience: from reading Kurt Vonnegut while overlooking Lake Cayuga, to walking along O Street from the Cornell-in-Washington Center towards the metro, to making thousands of people, students and members of the Ithaca community, laugh and feel satisfied in the Proscenium at The Schwartz Center.
This past Monday I raved to Judge O'Brien in Toms River, NJ, whose own son is a freshman engineer at Cornell, about my time in Ithaca. I buzzed like a bee, remembering how students in the middle of the nighttime scaled the clock tower to attach a pumpkin to its peak. Only this memory is more astounding than my memories as an acting student in The Department of Theatre, Film, & Dance.
Warm Regards,
Ari R. Wishkoff
Law Clerk to the Hon. Mark A. Troncone, J.S.C.
120 Hooper Avenue
Courtroom 4
Toms River, NJ 08753
To the Cornell community and the city of Ithaca:
It has come to our attention that Cornell’s College of Arts & Sciences has mandated a massive budget cut to the Theatre, Film, and Dance Department. The $1-2 million proposed cut would cripple the Department and the Schwartz Center, eliminating numerous faculty and staff members who are essential to the Department’s work and drastically reducing the quality and quantity of Schwartz Center productions. This will affect not only the TFD Department, but the whole Cornell community and the scores of Ithaca citizens who attend Schwartz Center events.
We implore the University to reevaluate its plans and reduce the scope of the proposed cuts. It is up to institutions like Cornell to demonstrate that the performing arts are not an expendable commodity – they are a vital part of human life. Ithaca has a vibrant arts community of which the Schwartz Center is an integral member, and numerous graduates of the TFD Department – including many of us – have embarked on careers in the performing arts. Future students and community members must not be deprived of the extraordinary opportunities that we were afforded at Cornell.
We hope the community will support us in requesting that these cuts be diminished.
Signed,
Barrie Kreinik ’07
Ashley Adams ’08
Charles Travis Atkinson ’05
Christine Bullen ’08
Anya Degenshein ’07
Jeffrey de Picciotto ’05
Neal Freeman ’97
Mary Gilliam ’09
Lance Brett Hall ’06
Alexander Herrald ’07
Kirsten Kollender ’07
Justin Nisly ’06
Ryan Oliveira ’08
Gretchen Poulos ’03
Emily Ranii ’07
Reed Van Dyk ’07
Benjamin Williams ’04
Rebecca Wolozin ’08
Harlan Work ’07
It has come to our attention that Cornell’s College of Arts & Sciences has mandated a massive budget cut to the Theatre, Film, and Dance Department. The $1-2 million proposed cut would cripple the Department and the Schwartz Center, eliminating numerous faculty and staff members who are essential to the Department’s work and drastically reducing the quality and quantity of Schwartz Center productions. This will affect not only the TFD Department, but the whole Cornell community and the scores of Ithaca citizens who attend Schwartz Center events.
We implore the University to reevaluate its plans and reduce the scope of the proposed cuts. It is up to institutions like Cornell to demonstrate that the performing arts are not an expendable commodity – they are a vital part of human life. Ithaca has a vibrant arts community of which the Schwartz Center is an integral member, and numerous graduates of the TFD Department – including many of us – have embarked on careers in the performing arts. Future students and community members must not be deprived of the extraordinary opportunities that we were afforded at Cornell.
We hope the community will support us in requesting that these cuts be diminished.
Signed,
Barrie Kreinik ’07
Ashley Adams ’08
Charles Travis Atkinson ’05
Christine Bullen ’08
Anya Degenshein ’07
Jeffrey de Picciotto ’05
Neal Freeman ’97
Mary Gilliam ’09
Lance Brett Hall ’06
Alexander Herrald ’07
Kirsten Kollender ’07
Justin Nisly ’06
Ryan Oliveira ’08
Gretchen Poulos ’03
Emily Ranii ’07
Reed Van Dyk ’07
Benjamin Williams ’04
Rebecca Wolozin ’08
Harlan Work ’07