The committee also recommended that the department "diversify the teaching of film and photography, to compensate for its present bias toward machine-produced art of a documentary character."
But Guzzetti defends the department's approach to the track.
"We are not a film school," Guzzetti says. "For them to reduce it to documentary film--they didn't do their homework."
But some students with experience in the department disagree.
"I was interested in film and photography, but they don't encourage photography outside of documentary," says one Adams House junior who has since switched concentrations from VES to English. "They're not into experimental or more creative things."
She also says the costs that come with buying materials for VES courses are too high.
"I spent about $60 to $70 that I just didn't have on a final project for a studio class last semester," she says. "They don't really lay it out for you at the beginning and say this is how much money you have to spend so that you can lay out your project within these limits."
But other VES concentrators disagree.
"I started out doing painting, and it was pretty expensive, but film is great," Irene E. Lusztig '96 says. "They have a really generous budget, even better than film school."
Phelan says that VES remains committed to subsidizing students despite the strain on the department's budget.
"It's a noble ideal and, in principle, I support it, but it's also a logistical nightmare," Phelan says.
Nightmare or not, this departmental feature makes VES attractive to potential concentrators.
"To make a move, that costs thousands of dollars," Hirzel says, adding that the funding is enough to keep him in the department.
Reaching Out
The Buell committee also wanted VES to take better advantage of art resources within Harvard and the larger art world, a recommendation that concentrators agreed with.
"There needs to be better dialogue between what we're doing in the classroom and what we're making," the junior says. "The visiting artists program is great because they stress what's going on in the art world today. It gives you something to think about."
Lusztig says that Phelan has stressed the importance of the visiting artists program. "[Phelan] is really into fluid, nonacademic contact with people who know what's going on in the art world," Lusztig says. "The downside though is that you really can't work with one person for a long time. They're great to work with, but it's hard when they're gone."
Overall, Phelan says she is pleased with the changes that have taken place within VES.
"We're working more cooperatively as a department with intersecting interest than we have ever had before," Phelan says.
--David A. Fahrenthold contributed to the reporting of this story.