The 20 students enrolled in UF's award-winning Documentary Institute would be the last to graduate before its program ceases to exist under a $909,000 budget cut proposal unveiled last week.
College of Journalism and Communications Dean John Wright's proposal would eliminate the Documentary Institute and its accompanying master's degree program in documentary film.
The program's removal would cause four faculty, two of whom are tenured professors, to lose their jobs, in addition to seven faculty positions and one staff position that would be slashed from other areas in the college.
"I'm just scratching my head at all of this," said Churchill Roberts, co-director of the institute.
Roberts said the institute received support from Wright until the college was hit with budget cuts.
"But he never really asked us about the program, so maybe that means he just wasn't interested," Roberts said.
The ll-year-old master's program is nationally ranked among the best academic documentary programs. Work produced by students in the college has also been nominated for the student Emmy Award for best student documentary the past three years and won the award the past two years.
"I've talked to several people about this, and they all said that a good university would protect its good programs," Roberts said. "They'd find a way."
In an interview last week, Wright said he chose to cut the program because it is not as central to the college's core mission as its four departments.
The institute also took a hit last May when its budget was cut by more than $175,000, according to Roberts.
In order to keep the program afloat, Roberts said they dug into their foundation account, which is made up of money from film sales and alumni donations.
Roberts said pulled funding was vital for funding film projects, student travel and equipment needs. UF documentary film graduate student Peter Salmone said the college could use the Documentary Institute to help achieve its goal of including more digital media in its curriculum.
"I know (the program is) expensive to run and doesn't generate a lot of funding, but with the possibilities of new media you could see the money increase tenfold in the next few years," he said.
"Everyone is suffering," Salmone said. "We're just the only department that got canned."
Alligator Writer Thomas Stewart contributed to this article.
