But the charges that the art that resulted was"not meant to please either [the students] or theprofessor, and it didn't."
"It was sort of like a semester of building ourown Rorschach blots and then talking about it withthe professor," Cox says. "What was consideredgood use of the medium in which we were workingwas very arbitrary."
Despite the eroding enrollment, departmentChair Alfred F. Guzzetti says the actions of thedepartment have nothing to do with the drop.
Guzzetti says the department has added moresmall studio courses to its offerings. But he saysthis move was designed to expand, not detractfrom, the appeal of the department.
The number of VES concentrators has always beensomewhat limited by the department's admissionsrules, which require an application. But theadmissions process offers no explanation for therecent decline; the percentage of applicantsadmitted has remained steady over the past twoyears, Guzzetti says.
The department is losing concentrators fasterthan it can gain new ones. By the time VES seniorsgraduate in June, concentrators could number asfew as 40.
"I would speculate that fewer students areapplying to a field like art because of theirconcern for prospects in the American economy,"Guzzetti says.
But students question whether drastic economicchanges have actually occurred in the last twoyears. And they also say economic changes wouldprobably not drive the decisions of prospectiveart concentrators.
"If people want to do art they'll probably doit--unless they can't because of a deficientprogram," Sullivan says. "Every other lvy Leagueschool has a better art department than we do, andwe don't even call ours art, or anything remotelyresembling art," Sullivan adds.
Sullivan says she entered the department withreservations because of its reputation and limitedcourse offerings.
"I knew when I came to Harvard that it wasn'tthe greatest art department, but I wanted to tryit anyway," she says.
Sullivan says Harvard's lack of commitment toVES has led to a department that doesn't attractstudents. As a result, the University pays littleattention to VES.
It's a vicious cycle, she says. "You don't cometo Harvard to major in art," Sullivan adds, "andif you're artistic and do come to Harvard, youjust don't major in art."
"This leads to a campus where there are fewerand fewer artistically inclined people, which isfunny because the University talks so much abouttrying to be a diverse community," she says