In February 2024, Alfred University’s School of Art and Design (SOAD) began closing all of its buildings at 10:00 PM daily, and reopening them at 6:00 AM. This included all of the art studios, as well as specialized labs for art forms such as glassblowing, neon, videography, and ceramics. SOAD’s buildings are usually unlocked until midnight for artists to work on their projects, and it’s common for students to remain beyond that to work. These hours, however, came with the strict enforcement of emptying the buildings at 10:00.
The change was announced in an email by Dr. Lauren Lake, SOAD’s dean, on February 1st, the same day it went into effect. Dean Lake stated that the “earlier closure is in response to student concerns about personal safety… threats to the safety of members of our community have persisted, this has become a necessary action.” The email also said that more permanent solutions would be considered by February 20th.
Many of Alfred’s art students were upset about the changes, feeling that the restrictions were unreasonable and prevented them from doing their work. It’s common for art classes with specialized equipment needs, like ceramics and glass, to assign students studio hours that occur after 10:00 PM. “I feel like they just dropped this all of a sudden,” said a first-year art student.
Additionally, when students install their artwork in galleries, they are given from 8:00 PM to 8:00 AM the next day to install– meaning that the changes gave them just four hours to install at most. According to a senior, “that time is essential… it’s going to be virtually impossible to install a good installation in four hours.”
Not all art students were opposed to the change in hours. A junior art student said that “personally, I think a lot of people are being selfish. It’s only ’til the 20th… this is being done because students were being made to feel unsafe in the studio. All [Dean Lake] is asking is that we suck it up for two weeks while they figure out a solution.”
Another student discussed asking for building access outside of official hours, saying “I have a good standing with the dean’s office, and I requested access, and I got it.” When asked if requesting access was possible for most students, they said that “I told two other students to request access, and they got it, but they were also both glassblowers, so I’m limited in my experience.”
On Wednesday, February 7th, Dean Lake held an open forum following a Student Senate meeting for students to voice their concerns about the changes. The forum was well-attended and lasted hours, with many students making statements and asking questions. According to a student at the meeting, the administration announced that students could not have their phones or laptops out, and that no notes or recordings were allowed to be taken, calling the forum “private.”
A senior artist stated that “there’s way too much one-sidedness from everyone… if the real problem is student vandalism, I think personally they should try to get cameras installed.” Others echoed the sentiment about cameras, expressing that they would feel safer that way. “If any of our stuff went missing,” said a first-year art student, “we would have no way of tracking it down.”
However, according to students at the forum, Dean Lake and other administrators expressed hostility towards the idea of cameras, citing expenses and the fact that their installation would be “a lot of work,” as Dean Lake was quoted as saying by an attendee. “They asked for short-term solutions, and then immediately shot all of them down,” said a non-art student who attended the forum. “It seemed like they didn’t want to listen at all.”
Two days after the forum, Dean Lake sent out another email to SOAD students, walking back the changes to the hours. She did not mention student complaints except to say that she was “grateful for the thoughtful emails [and] productive… conversations regarding building hours.” While she cited “the complexity of the issue, involving both safety and access,” she gave no solution to student safety concerns, other than providing a link to AU’s Report IT system, which students say that they rarely use.
According to a student who works with Dean Lake’s office, the dean did not make the decision to return to 6:00 AM–12:00 AM hours, and was upset about it. “It was someone above her, I don’t know who,” said the student, “but she’s not happy about it.”
No permanent solution for the safety of students and their work has been announced as of February 29th, and as far as students have been informed, there are no plans to install cameras or institute other safety measures.