Anyone thinking about SFAI?

[RKSim]

http://sfaistudentaction.pbwiki.com/

http://www.sfai.edu/Publication/Dialogue.aspx

Is anyone going to risk SFAI?

[nathancotephoto]

wow thats scary. My younger sister is attending sfai for fashion design. I was thinking about applying for mfa in photography as a fallback for grad school this next year but... it appears to be a mfa factory and i dont want to leave as a generic SFAI graduate. It is what ill make it but i wouldnt mind being able to associate myself with a school who's name opens doors itself.

[robybeef]

yes, i'm going to 'risk' SFAI.

after reading both the letter written by the school's president, and the letter of concern from the SFAI community, it seems to me that worst thing i could possibly do as someone who's been accepted into the school is avoid it like the plague. From what i gather from both of the letters is that the financial future of the school is shakey, yet for the most part stable. While i don't quite agree with the actions taken by the president to lay off tenured faculty in lieu of other more expendable resources, i'm quite impressed with the fact there exists such a strong communitas within and around the school. The very fact that a letter of concerned was posted on a website created specifically to cover a crisis of a single school is one that is making me feel more secure in my decision to attend in the fall. To quote the last paragraph of the letter from the SFAI community "It is about relationships and community. It is about the great things that happen when people who care about making art come together and support each other. We feel that now is the time to come together as a community in order to address this deeply troubling situation and support the San Francisco Art Institute that we have come to know and love."

I really do have to agree with this sentiment. It's probably one of the main reasons i'm totally stoked on pursuing an MFA degree: spending 2 years with other artists creating art. How exciting is that?

It's definitely a bummer how certain events have transpired over the course of the last few years at SFAI (mfa program falling from #14 to #30 in the nation, poor WASC report) but i'm banking on the prospects that the powers that be will take the recent history of the institution and learn from it in order to set SFAI on a course for a more prosperous future.

or maybe i'm just insanely naive...i'm still probably going though.

[mtung]

I grew up in San Francisco and eventually finished my BFA there, and while this certain seems like reason for concern, as long as I can remember, there was always "some reason" people were certain that SFAI was going to go down the tubes, in many instances it has been financial problems, other times MAJOR administrative overhaul. The school is not without its problems, but my point is, it is just one of those sources of constant speculation. There are sure to be some huge changes, and no necessarily for the better, but the school is always going to be there, and it still has a ton of great faculty and quite a legacy, both in SF and beyond.

Feel free to talk to the faculty in your incoming departments about the changes happening and be upfront with your concerns, SFAI isn't the kind of school where individual faculty members are going to whitewash things to make you feel better, that is the admins job. Make sure the people you want to work with are sticking around, talk to some current grad students, and if you still feel its a good fit, go for it! The school didn't close down in my 25 years in the city, and it's probably not going to close down in the next 25 either. It would benefit from trashing Bratton, though, probably Enzewor, too.

[Colin]

I grew up in San Francisco and eventually finished my BFA there, and while this certain seems like reason for concern, as long as I can remember, there was always "some reason" people were certain that SFAI was going to go down the tubes, in many instances it has been financial problems, other times MAJOR administrative overhaul. ...[snipped]

thanks mtung

there are always going to be people who gloss over the truth and those who get mired in the murky details and lose sight of the meta... between the two, you have to know, is the real story.

googling about SFAI financial woes, I found it's not a new story. I can post links here, but the gist is there were problems in the 90's and again in 2002 (with tragic results... google yourself) and on it goes.

I will email my contact there and see what he has to say.

[muffin]

As as most-likely-to-be-attending-photo-mfa-student his is definitely scary news. BUT every school that I know of has had similar major financial scares. Pratt almost closed down once because of money issues. Schools make most of their money from endowments and as art schools tend to have few wealthy alums (as compared to b-schools, med-schools) it's an on-going struggle. This is one of the reasons that art schools tend to accept so many undergrads; that's their bread-and-butter. All major schools have lost TONS of money in the last year or so. Yale, Harvard, Penn, their endowments are down at least 30%, and they are lucky enough to have major contributors, so the art schools are really s.o.l. in this climate.

I am comforting myself with the fact that the photography department is still a top ranked program (number 7-ish) and that the official correspondence from the school has been direct and upfront about addressing their issues. If the administration was denying problems I'd be a lot more concerned.

What more can we do?

Who knows, in ten years time the school could be rolling in cash and ranked number 1! Each day and a time....