Unjust Department

Let me start off by introducing myself. I'm Kelsey. I'm a college student at an unnamed university in the south-eastern United States. Recently, it has come to my attention that the department under which I am studying has a habit of being incredibly biased and unjust towards its students. This has prompted me to start this blog to document this situation as it continues to spiral out of control, as well as those other musings that I find important to write about. Now on to this situation...

I study in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the fore-mentioned University, and it has been an unspoken rule that undergraduate students are pushed to the way-side in turn for the much more "favorable" graduate students. Apparently, there has been a rumor circling the department that certain professors favor the graduates specifically, and have no respect or wish to help those undergraduates also under their professorship. To the uneducated (and in some cases, the educated) eye, this seems to be the case.

At the end of one of my classes today, one of the professors whose name has been heavily mentioned in said rumor decided to speak to our class. After a lengthy spiel about how we are paying for our education and deserve our money's worth in time and opportunities, they continue to discuss the rumor. Now, I dealt with things like this being a preteen girl in middle school. There is no need to stop class early and waste valuable learning time that I am paying for out of pocket in order to discuss drama circulating the department! Once this initial debriefing was over, the conversation danced around the equal opportunities of grad and undergraduate students. In my experience, the graduate students in this program are practically guaranteed roles in shows while undergraduates are forced to lap up their leftovers. This at a university where we are not yet ready to be thrust into, nor are we already living in the big bad world of acting professionally. It's a given that students learn better from experience when it comes to acting, and the undergraduates are left to "experience" from the bit parts and one-line roles left behind from the MFA's. As if this situation could get any worse, the same small group of undergraduates are cast in every production- leaving many without any experience acting in the department at all. Does this seem fair at all to you?