A financial exigency plan for the fine arts at Louisiana Tech University: An internship

Date

1987-05

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Texas Tech University

Abstract

The internship at Louisiana Tech University and the resulting study developed from an interest in creating survival strategies for the fine arts within the institution. From the outset, the primary contention has been that Louisiana Tech is a typical university in its relationship with the fine arts. Being a typical university, the preparation of financial exigency plans involved problems faced by many fine arts programs. The economic environment of the Southwest states has resulted in funding cuts in most, if not all, state-supported colleges and universities.

This internship was designed as a study of the fine arts system of a typical university, and using the information collected, three plans for financial exigency were developed. This study and the three plans are based on the following premises: (1) in the event of drastic cuts being made to fine arts programs in colleges and universities, those programs with we 11-prepared contingency plans will stand a better chance at survival than similar programs which have no plan; (2) a systems approach to fine arts education can enable a program to function more efficiently and effectively; (3) the model plans for financial exigency will provide fine arts personnel with a structure in which to function that will minimize the waste of time, energies and funding, while maximizing the use of resources. Evaluation of the first and third premises can only be made if the plans are used in the cases of possible budget cuts. If the system is developed, an evaluation of the second premise can be made after one year with the system having completed one full cycle of operations.

The study is organized around four major areas: (1) a history of fine arts education at Louisiana Tech University (Chapter II); (2) a review of practices in operation during the 1985/86 internship (Chapter III); (3) plans for three cases of financial exigency (Chapter IV); and (^) the general relevance and applicability of the financial exigency plans.

Description

Keywords

Louisiana Tech University -- Finance, Arts -- Louisiana -- Ruston -- Finance

Citation