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The Decline of Fine Arts Degrees
The Decline of Fine Arts Degrees
Monmouth University - A new picture is being painted, one that could replace art studios with computer labs. Art students may soon trade their paints for iPads, graphite for Graphic Design, and canvases for cameras. A pull away from Fine & Studio Art, and a push towards Digital and Lens-based Art, may be beginning to rear its head at Monmouth. What’s causing this change? Can it be stopped...should it?
Fine & Studio Arts include, but are not limited to, fields such as painting, drawing, and sculpture, explained Monmouth Adjunct Professor Gina Torello. Professor Torello earned her MFA (Master of Fine Arts) from Rosary College in Florence, Italy. She specializes in oil painting, and has been creating art since she was just 9 years old.
“That [Fine Art]’s been dying since I graduated. I graduated in 1985. It's been dropping since then,” said Professor Torello. “It [Fine Art]’s dwindling now, but Graphic Design and Photography have much more of an opportunity.”
This drop may be true, as Arts.gov reported that Fine & Studio Bachelor Degree completions largely plateaued from 2005 to 2013, before dropping 7% in 2013 to 2015. In those same years, Bachelor Degree completions in Digital & Lens-Based Arts, such as Graphic Design, Photography, or Animation, have steadily increased according to Arts.gov. Film and Photographic Arts alone, increased by 29% in those years.
Professor Mark Ludak, who earned his MFA from Hunter College, is a Specialist Professor in Monmouth’s Photography department. For 44 years, he studied, worked in, and now teaches Photography. He agreed that Photographic Arts are increasing, partly due to greater accessibility of cameras. He said such forms of Digital/Lens-Based Art are not causing the Fine Art decrease; a student response to the marketplace demand for specific skills is the cause. A degree in Digital/Lens-Based Art, can better prepare a student for such demand, he said. While he said he felt high schoolers are discouraged from degrees in the Fine Arts, he did not seem pessimistic about the decline. He said “historically-yes,” there has been decline in Fine & Studio Arts at Monmouth, but not presently.
Dr. Frederick McKitrick, Ph.D., and the Chair of the Art & Design Department at Monmouth, said “It’s [the shift from Fine to Digital] certainly true...I mean if you go downstairs and look in the Senior Show for example, you got two Fine Arts majors, and the rest are Graphic Design.” Dr.McKitrick, with a Ph.D. from Columbia University in European History, served as the former Chair of Monmouth’s History & Anthropology Department for 9 years, before becoming the Chair of Art & Design, in January 2020. He always loved art, he said, and was a modern dancer for 10 years before graduate school.
To understand why this shift is happening, we must look outside of the Arts, Dr.McKitrick said. “You want to see the decline in Fine Art majors in the context of the decline in the Humanities all together,” he said. The Humanities are an umbrella term that includes Art. Dr.McKitrick said that in 2012, “there was 280 History majors, but now there are roughly 80.” Anthropology, English, and Communications are also down at Monmouth, while Business, Health Fields and Criminal Justice are rising, he said.
When asked why he felt changes were happening specifically within the Arts, Dr.McKitrick said he could only offer a wild guess, but recalled two Professors, Pat Cresson and Karen Bright. He said, “both of them were trained as Fine Artists, and I think the Art that they [do are] paintings and collages...They were teaching Graphic Design . . . Were they super interested in that? Or did they say ‘Hey, if I’m going to get a job in an Art Department, I better be able to do that too.’?”
Is the current job market the cause of this switch? It was a factor for Gianna Veritas, a junior Studio Art Major and Business Administration Minor. “I added a business minor to be able to have more directions to take,” said Veritas, President of Monmouth’s Art Club. Even now, as she approaches her senior year, she said she still questions her Studio Art Major. She said, “I do love my major, but of course the thought of making a career out of it is limited.”
Madyson Lagotta, a junior Graphic Design Major & Photography Minor, agreed the numbers of majors in Fine & Studio Arts are declining. “Absolutely yes,” she said, “artists are told there are more jobs in digitally based art majors than the fine/studio arts. We are told if you choose the fine arts life, you’ll be a ‘starving artist.’” Lagotta, who became President of The Monmouth Review [a magazine showcasing Art and Literature of Monmouth students] this Spring, said “I chose graphic design because I believed I would have no future as a fine artist. I could not tell you any other reason why I chose this major.”
Veritas and Lagotta are not entirely wrong in their concerns; a 2018 Bankrate report stated that Fine/Studio Art majors have a 9% unemployment rate out of college, compared to 7.7% for high school dropouts. A 2014 report from BFAMFAPhD, said of an estimated two million Arts graduates in the U.S, only 10% made a living as working artists.
This fear for employment, Dr. McKitrick agreed, may be one reason that Fine Arts are declining. “A very big concern, by both students and parents, is employment post-graduation,” he said. “There's the looming question of ‘If you have a History degree or an English Degree or a Fine Arts degree, what are you going to do with that?’ they say. Certainly if you get a Computer Graphics Degree there are a gazillion jobs that are well paying, that you can go right into.” He then crossed his fingers on both hands, as he told me he hopes interest in all of the Humanities goes up again.
In a “crude, simplistic way,” said McKitrick, “you can think of college as either training for a particular profession... or you can be educated... that's what the Humanities are all about.” Being educated for a profession means learning how to read, write, see, observe, take in, and synthesize information into something interesting that expresses you, Dr.McKitrick explained.
Lagotta believes that Monmouth Educators do support their Art students in such education. She said, “In my time here, I have had various professors that made it truly possible to achieve my goals. I’ve had professors outside my major open up doorways of opportunity but it’s not the university doing this, it’s the people that work here. The university doesn’t discourage the pursuit of the Arts, but I don’t think they encourage it either.”
When asked if she felt that more encouragement from the University could offer a possible remedy, Professor Torello said “I don't think there's anything you can do.” “The money’s not there,” she said calmly. “There’s no field for it.”
Are artists truly finished? Professor Torello said that although she felt that there are “amazing artists that just rock all over the place,” a Fine Arts degree will lose its value over the next 40 years, maybe even less. “I just don't think that the degree means anything anymore. It's lost, it's a lost art,” and Monmouth may soon start to close such departments down, she said.
When asked how he felt about Professor Torello’s statement, Professor Ludak’s eyes widened. This is not an end, it’s cyclical, he said. Professor Ludak explained that Digital, Lens-Based, and Fine Arts will all integrate, and work intersectionality with one another. As he sat calmly in the Digital Photo Studio, he told me confidently and with a tone of certainty, that people who create, are survivors.
The Skeletons in Your Closet: The Dark Side of “Fast Fashion”
Long Branch, NJ- You enter the mall, dedicated to finding that perfect outfit. A first date, a life changing interview, whatever it is: you know that if you look good, you’ll feel good. Then, you see it. THE outfit. It’s flawless, luxurious, bound to turn heads and drop jaws. The only jaw dropping today however, is yours when you see a price tag that's about the same as a month’s rent. Defeated, you sulk away, wondering how you’ll ever find a worthy replacement. Just as you’re about to give up, another store window catches your eye. Could it be? It is! It’s THE outfit; almost an exact replica but wildly more affordable than the original. For you, it's a dream come true. For the worker who made it, it’s an everyday nightmare.
Clothing retailers such as Shein, Zara, and Forever 21, pump out new, trendy clothing at astonishing rates and cheap prices. The appeal is obvious, especially for young buyers who likely don’t have the funds for expensive high-quality fashion.“Fast Fashion” retailers masquerade as a great fashion alternative, but are some of the biggest global contributors to exploitation of workers.
AnnMarie Hughes, the Department Chair and Assistant Professor of Fashion/Marketing at Brookdale, defines “Fast Fashion” as “fashion that is produced cheaply for a low price-usually with manufactured [synthetic] fibers.” Its counterpart, “slow fashion,” “is intentional and thoughtful,” says Hughes, “usually resulting in better materials, better quality, and from better sources.”
According to SustainabiltyforStudents.com, “Fast Fashion” retailers aim to target young consumers aged 18-24. When asked why she feels “Fast Fashion” appeals to younger audiences, Hughes said “It’s trendy and cheap so it appeals to budgets of younger consumers.” “We live in a society of instant gratification,” added Hughes.
This gratification fades once it’s known that garment workers are exploited in order to keep up with mass production and growing demands. McKinsey Sustainability reported that in 2014, people globally consumed 60% more clothing, (and kept it only 7-8 wears, half as long) compared to 2000. Hughes agreed with these statements, adding that we often buy garments we do not need or that do not even fit us well, but because it’s cheap.
Why are these garments so cheap? According to the Law Department at George Washington University, the “Fast Fashion” industry employs approximately 75 million factory workers on an international scale. Over 98% are not paid a livable wage.
“The question of a livable wage within the broader garment and footwear industries has been contentious for decades,” says Joseph McManus, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Chair of the Management and Leadership Department in the Leon Hess Business School. “Clothing and footwear manufacturing remain labor intensive activities. As a result, they tend to migrate to less developed parts of the world where the costs of wages are very low. Often the legal minimum wage is extremely low in these jurisdictions.”
Earth.org, claims many “Fast Fashion” giants use ‘sweatshops’ that take advantage of cheap labor of child workers in less developed nations. Dr.McManus said that “one of the big reasons [child labour] still occurs is that low income countries do not enforce the legal requirements.” He also noted the high levels of corruption many of these countries suffer from which impedes enforcement of labor laws, and the additional cost of policing these issues through monitoring and auditing, as reasons that child labour has continued.
Lack of policing also means work days of “14 to 16 hours per day, seven days a week, ” in “poor, unhygienic, and unsafe” conditions, in poorly ventilated factories, according to Earth.org.
The use of synthetic materials is just one health risk. Synthetic materials are common in “Fast Fashion,” as Hughes previously noted. “Synthetic/manufactured fibers are manmade and therefore incredibly cheap to produce and source,” explains Hughes. They also shed microfibers, a type of microplastic, according to FashionRevolution.org.
Love Blue Monmouth, a nonprofit dedicated to beach clean-up and ocean conservation, says that microplastics can cause issues for both respiratory and endocrine systems in marine life. They also said that “The dyes that these plastics and other materials are made of are often toxic and potentially cancer causing.” If these dyes and plastic are toxic to our marine life, imagine the consequences on these workers.
The 2013 collapse of Rana Plaza (which housed 5 garment factories) in Bangladesh, killed 1132 garment workers, according to The International Labour Organization, and was the result of failure to meet legislative standards.
SustainYourStyle.org says that “accidents, fires, injuries, and disease are very frequent occurrences on textile production sites,” along with “no ventilation, breathing in toxic substances, [and] inhaling fiber dust or blasted sand.”
Hughes says this tragedy should have brought an end to these issues, “but sadly it has continued.”
How has this been able to continue? Dr. McManus says that the issue is structural; “Many large, well known consumer brands do not own the factories that produce the branded products they design, distribute, and market.” Manufacturing of garments is often contracted out to local companies in low wage jurisdictions, he explains. “Many of these companies retain the clear capacity to impact worker conditions, but they often choose not to.”
However there are things that buyers can choose to do. Hughes advocates researching before you buy, and looking for transparent brands that are open about materials, sourcing, and labor practices. Synthetic fabrics, abnormally low costs, a constant influx of new styles, and secrecy regarding labor practices, are all indicators of “Fast Fashion.”
Another option is buying from small, thrift, or second hand shops. Gabriella Gaston, owner of Thrift and Consignment shop “Kalokairi Closet,” has been a small business owner since August 2020, and her shop (@kalokairicloset on Instagram) ships nationally all around the U.S.
Gabriella understands the difficulty around shopping “slow,” saying “Obviously I believe shopping from a small business is better than fast fashion, but I do sympathize with the pricing difference and that it isn’t always the easiest decision to choose “slow” over “fast” fashion.” In owning her business, Gabriella hopes to create a positive mindset around thrifted clothing.
“You are changing lives for the better with ethical shopping and supporting a moral cause whereas with bigger places you don’t really know what your money is supporting,” says Gabriella. “It really is a tough decision because ethical shopping, unfortunately, is usually pricier, but even just one choice to shop ethically once is better than none!”
Nutrition Counselor at Monmouth University
Health Center - Monmouth University Health Services, in collaboration with Gourmet Dining, has brought back on-campus nutritional counseling with Registered Dietitian Mollie O’Kane, beginning September 15th.
This service is available to all Monmouth students, as well as faculty, staff, and their spouses. “My goal is to make nutrition understandable, enjoyable, and nutrition goals achievable to those who seek counseling,” said O’Kane, who studied nutrition as an undergraduate student at the University of Massachusetts. O’Kane began working as Monmouth’s Nutritional counselor in Spring 2022. The service is in place, according to MU’s Health Services, to assist in losing or gaining weight, in increasing athletic performance, eating healthy on a limited income, or exploring specialized diets among other things. O’Kane is available by appointment from 12:00pm-4:00pm on Thursdays in the Health Center.
“Not only does she provide one-on-one nutrition counseling, but also hosts tabling events in Magill Commons - this can be as simple as sampling a healthy recipe or a Teaching Kitchen pop-up,” said Director of Resident Dining, and former nutritional counselor for Monmouth, Aimee Orndorff. O’Kane also uses the Gourmet Dining Instagram account (@gdsatmonmouth) to promote not just her in person service, but events at Magill Commons, as well as advice on nutrition, allergies, intolerance, etc. according to Orndorff. Orndorff said she would estimate about 5% of students will take advantage of O’Kane’s services this session. This service is free, and O’Kane can take up to 3 one-on-one meetings each Thursday. “If students do not want to commit to a one-on-one appointment, they have the option to meet with her during these events and ask questions,” said Orndorff.
O’Kane said this past spring, her sessions were mostly focused on athletic performance. This semester, she has primarily dealt with weight management, mostly losing weight. The National College Health Risk Behavior Survey reported that 35% of college students are obese or overweight, and this semester O’Kane said she is most expecting to see students who are seeking advice in weight management, as well as students with food allergies. The Director of Student Health at Rutgers University, Dr.Cathryn Heath MD, FAACP, was contacted but could not be reached for comment on the nutrition of college students.
Compared to The University of Massachusetts, O’Kane said she “felt as [if] there was minimal marketing for nutrition services.” At Monmouth, the services are “well marketed and appropriate for the size of the community.” “Meals offered on campus are overall well-balanced and nutritious. There are a variety of stations throughout the Dining Hall where items from different stations can be made into a nutritious and delicious meal as well, creativity is key,” O’Kane continued. These meals include avocado and hummus toast, overnight oats, and more.
In a study in 2022, Lawrence Cheskin, chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food studies at George Mason University, partnered with several experts from multiple universities, and reported that a large number of college freshmen in the U.S. consume amounts of added sugar, refined grains, sodium, and saturated fat that exceed recommended dietary guidelines set by the U.S Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services.
Nutritional counseling has been provided from the time Monmouth transitioned over to Gourmet Dining in 2015, Orndorff said she suggested it. “I reached out to Health Services asking if they would be interested in offering this service and we never looked back.” Orndorff said “She [O’Kane] has an opportunity to walk students around the dining hall and highlight the nutrition facts information, help students build a healthy plate, and seek healthier alternatives.”
During the Covid-19 Pandemic, Monmouth University had to cease all in person nutritional counseling. “Now that we are in a post-pandemic / endemic phase of Covid, both parties felt it was time to bring back this valuable service,” said Director of Monmouth Health Services, Kathy Maloney. “During the Pandemic many developed unhealthy eating habits,” continued Maloney.
Prior to the start of the pandemic in 2020, roughly 10.5% of U.S households suffered from food insecurity, according to HealthAffairs.org, and now they estimate that rate has doubled. They also estimate 29-38% of college students experience food insecurity. These numbers are a result of campus closures, reductions in food assistance that universities and colleges offer, and rise in unemployment the pandemic caused, according to Registered Dietitian Maureen McCoy and her colleagues from HealthAffairs.org.
For students who are suffering from food insecurity, nutritional counseling can be helpful in this, as well as in achieving a variety of goals according to O’Kane. “Whether someone's goal is to maintain good health with a medical condition on a college campus/away from home or those who are trying to optimize their nutrition intake on a budget or suffering from food insecurity,” O’Kane said nutritional counseling is especially helpful.
For students suffering from other serious issues such as eating disorders, O’Kane discourages the use of her service. “Eating disorders require an interdisciplinary team approach for the most efficient treatment,” she said. “Eating disorders are prevalent in today's society.”
While O’Kane said she does fear the misuse of counseling, she is confident in her professional judgments to “pick up on unhealthy behaviors and guide anyone [to the appropriate counselor] who may be in need of treatment.”
Director Maloney from Health Services feels that O’Kane’s nutritional counseling has been well received this semester. Orndorff believes O’Kane’s services are “invaluable” to the University.
“It is our hope that both students and employees take advantage of this valuable resource and utilize the service as one of the many options Monmouth University has available to keep the campus community healthy,” said Director Maloney.
Tuesday Night Record Club & The Grateful Dead
Pollak Theatre - The Tuesday Night Record Club hosted their 90-minute session this week on The Grateful Dead album, "American Beauty," via Zoom and in the Pollak Theatre, with host Professor Kenneth Womack, Ph.D, from the Department of English, Music and Theatre Arts.
The club meets every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Past recordings of the club's events can also be found via Anchor on Spotify. Womack is a professor of English and Popular Music, while also being "one of the world’s foremost writers and thinkers about the Beatles," according to the Monmouth University Website.
Eighty participants signed up for the event, and 60 attended via Zoom and in person. The attendees on Zoom fluctuated but remained around 40 people through the evening. The event consisted of listening to and discussing songs. Some of the central songs discussed were “Friend of the Devil”, “Sugar Magnolia”, “Ripple”, “Attics of My Life”, and “Trunkin.” The discussions focused strongly on the lyrics, the concerts, and the community of The Grateful Dead and their fans, more commonly referred to as "Dead-Heads." Womack, on his Zoom screen and the display behind him in Pollak, displayed a quote by Rolling Stone magazine that called lyricist for the Grateful Dead, Robert Hunter, “one of rock's most ambitious and dazzling lyricists.”
Attendee Pasquale DeNardo referred to Hunter's lyrics as “beautiful poetic word imagery.”
Participants reminisced about their personal experiences at the concerts, with two participants giving examples of how Grateful Dead concerts were bonding experiences for them with their son and their father. “It was a whole party. It wasn't really just a concert," said attendee Dean Nancy Mezey of the Honors School.
During the discussion of the song "Sugar Magnolia," attendee, Associate Professor and Chair of Monmouth’s Communication Department Aaron Furgason Ph.D., said "dancin’ & groovin’ [is] a key aspect of a great Dead Show. The beauty of it is the community. People are dancing everywhere and anywhere."
Another topic of discussion was the drug use associated with the Grateful Dead. "They were a mess sometimes. They were deeply into hallucinogenics," said one participant via Zoom. At 8:01 p.m. when a fire drill alarm went off in Pollock Theatre, Womack played the song "Friend of the Devil '' for those on Zoom. The song was then discussed after the drill, and interpreted by Womack as a cautionary tale for drugs. He discussed the circular box on the album representing the earth. The song is then a country tale of “what can happen if you abuse the fruits of the earth," said Womack.
Dean Mezey pointed out in response, that the song “Candyman” was also about substance use.
The event concluded with a performance from the Blue Hawk Band, who performed the featured songs. "The Blue Hawk Band learning the material contributes to a strong foundation in music for them on their journey as artists," said Director Vaune Peck of the Center for the Arts. "You can learn a lot about what lies ahead by what preceded it. It’s just like when painters study the masters. They learn a lot from them," she continued.
The University’s affiliation with the LA-based Grammy Museum began in October 2014, and the Record Club began as a result of this, according to the Monmouth University website. Both the Grammy Museum and Monmouth's Center for the Arts are co-sponsors and facilitators of the club, and Director Vaune Peck and Assistant Director Kelly Barratt are also club personnel, along with Womack.
The albums and bands up for discussion are decided by the Club's members via vote every April, according to Womack. The Club is primarily advertised through The Center for the Arts, but Womack believes that the club could benefit from a social media presence, and he said "We [the club] could always do more!" As a long-term goal, Womack said he would like to see the club raise funds "so that we can provide students with opportunities to operate social-media campaigns and other benefits that could generate experience for their [students] resumes."
On a Tuesday night, the club sees 150 people typically, according to Womack. He explained that the club's demographic typically "skews towards Generation X, although we have been growing by leaps and bounds during the pandemic."
Despite its name, Womack said the Record Club "doesn’t really celebrate ‘records’ per se. We celebrate the music and why it impacts us so greatly across generations and over time."
"Music is constantly shifting, which is what makes it so interesting and special. At the same time, it is a near-constant state of fusion, reaching back into the past and reimagining it for the present," he continued.
When reflecting on the event, Womack said he is very happy with the program and said, "The discussion was outstanding, always engaging. The most important takeaway is that folks can’t get enough of shared experience—listening to the songs and then sharing their thoughts!"
"Much effort and art went into creating an exciting playlist for albums. The ebb and flow of dynamics to keep the listener listening. It’s like reading a good book," said an adjunct professor in Monmouth Music and Theatre Arts department, Marc Muller, who, in addition to his position as an adjunct professor at Monmouth, is a musician himself. He leads his band "Dead on Live," which performs recreations of classic Grateful Dead hits. When asked how he felt albums have changed from the time of the album American Beauty to today, Muller said that albums today, as well as the music industry, will never be the same as they were then. "But there is music in every facet of everyone’s life," he said, "anywhere you are, anywhere you go. That means there are creative people creating, and some sort of business platform buying and selling. Life is unsustainable without music. No matter what the challenges, art will always find a way."
The Club’s next event, on Tuesday December 6th, will cover Aretha Franklin’s album “Young, Gifted, and Black.” This event is also free to attend, via Zoom or in person in Pollak theater and will begin at 7:30pm.
“Fun Home” and The LGBTQ+ Community At Monmouth
Monmouth University - From November 11th to the 20th, Monmouth University hosted a production of the musical “Fun Home,” which explores personal struggles with sexuality and identity, a struggle some Monmouth students may also be experiencing.
According to Monmouth’s website, “Fun Home,” follows main character Alison throughout her life, as she grows to understand her sexuality. As Alison is discovering herself, she learns that her late father who passed away from suicide struggled with his sexuality throughout his life.
Tim Pakrad, a sophomore English student at Monmouth and cast member of “Fun Home,” said “I think theater does have a toxic history in its representations of queerness. “Fun Home” at Monmouth was my first time actually portraying actual queer characters as a queer performer. It was very fulfilling to make that real without feeling taken advantage of or misrepresented.” Pakrad played three roles in the production; the characters of Roy, Mark, and Bobby Jeremy. Both Roy and Mark were students and lovers of Bruce (main character Alison’s father,) while Bobby Jeremy was a figment of Alison’s imagination as a child.
Pakrad was skeptical as to how successful this portrayal could be in a musical, and said that a “majority of audiences found parts of the show that were touching to me to be hilarious. While that dissonance [lack of agreement or harmony] was slightly frustrating to me, it doesn’t mean they didn’t appreciate it.”
According to FamilyEquality.org, in 2020 approximately 4.5% of adults (those over 18)
in the U.S. identified as LGBTQ+, more than 11.3 million LGBTQ+ adults in the U.S.
Adriana Zefutie, President of Monmouth’s Pride for close to 2 years, and Psychology Major said “as a researcher, I have to jump in and say that the major flaw of both estimation and self-report measures is that the number presented is probably not reflective of the actual number of LGBTQ+ teenagers. Many are probably hesitant or completely against marking their identity or telling others in the first place.” She also added that she believes calculating the numbers of LGBTQ+ individuals is not what should be of importance, as this is not something done with people who identify as heterosexual.
Assistant Professor for the School of Social Work at Monmouth, and coordinator for the School of Social Work’s LGBTQ+ Older Adult Project, Jeanne Koller Ph.D., agreed with Zefutie’s conclusion that there tends to be underreporting of LGBTQ+ individuals. Koller believes this is due to “due to stigma and related concerns.”
Nancy Mezey, Ph.D., professor of sociology and Dean of the Honors School agreed with both Koller and Zefutie, saying that there are still many places right in the U.S. where people may not feel safe if they were to come out as LGBTQ+ publicly.
According to FamilyEquality.org, there is no federal nondiscrimination law expressly protecting LGBTQQ+ people in the U.S. as of 2020. FreedomforallAmericans.org, reported that LGBTQQ+ Americans aren’t fully protected from discrimination in 29 States.
Discrimination can be a big deterrent for those questioning coming out. “Mental health can be negatively impacted by staying in the "closet" but unfortunately can also be negatively impacted once "out of the closet" due to discrimination and bias,” said Koller. However, Koller said that coming out can be better for one’s mental health “because one can become more integrated into the LGBTQ+ community for support, can feel relief, and can live as their authentic self without the stress of carrying a "secret" and "concealed" identity.”
“Drawing on the research, there is ample evidence that those who struggle with gender and sexual identities are over eight times more likely to consider suicide or attempt suicide,” said Mezey. This number is even higher for men who identify as bisexual. Mezey also said how several studies show “how LGBTQIA+ youth are up to four times more likely to experience sexual abuse, parental physical abuse, or assault at school than non- LGBTQIA+ students.” “Based on the research,” she said, “there is no doubt that the suppression of – or even grappling with – one's gender and sexual identities causes mental health problems or other problems for youth, in the age range of most Monmouth students.” These problems can include, but are not limited to, suicidal thoughts or actions, self-harm, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, risky sexual behavior and low self esteem.
Zefutie wishes Monmouth University had a stronger LGBTQ+ community presence, but believes Monmouth is a “decently open and welcoming campus.” Zefutie is unaware of any policies at Monmouth specifically for LGBTQ+ individuals. However, she said, “The Intercultural Center & school have done a great job enforcing and introducing policies for using one's chosen name and pronouns.” The Chosen Name Initiative was put into place in the Fall 2022 Semester at Monmouth, “As part of our ongoing efforts to foster a welcoming and inclusive campus community,” according to President Leahy.
Monmouth’s Discrimination Policy, supports “equal opportunity” and “affirms the right of its faculty, staff, and students to work and learn in an environment free from discrimination and harassment,” according to Monmouth University’s Student Handbook.
For Monmouth Students or Faculty struggling with their sexualities or identity, Zefutie recommends “The Intercultural Center to meet others and find a sense of community and Monmouth's CPS to have someone to talk to.” In order for Monmouth University to be a better ally towards the LGBTQ+ community, Mezey said that steps such as infusing LGBTQ+ studies into Monmouth curriculums, social events, creating informal spaces for Monmouth's LGBTQ+ faculty, students, and staff, and ensuring that Monmouth’s psychological counseling center has staff who are specifically trained to work with LGBTQ+ students” can be taken.
The Pride Club is also planning to host new social events after the pandemic put a halt to their plans. These events include a yearly panel for Monmouth students and faculty to learn about LGBTQ+ leaders on Campus, celebrations for National Coming Out Day in October, and a tie-dye event in the Spring.
Theater could be one possible outlet for LGBT+ student seeking community. “Theater is all about representation, and when people can see themselves reflected on a public stage, they may feel validated, seen, heard, and valued as an integral part of society,” said Associate Professor of Communication and Performance Studies, Deanna Shoemaker, P.h.D.
Pakrad said “Even before I came out as queer, I knew that the theater was a space for queer people. In my experience, putting on musicals and plays when I was in the closet gave me the space to ‘act out,’ I suppose.”
Pakrad believes that stories like “Fun Home” need to be told more often. “Most queer people I know aren’t struggling with identity, but visibility and community! Monmouth’s queer student body should know they’re not alone. You do not have to be a theater person. You do not have to be an athlete. You do not have to ‘look’ or ‘act queer.’ Just to say it one more time, you are not alone.”
“You might face tension or very hard circumstances as a result of your identity-- but you have to push forwards and have love for yourself,” said Zefutie.
