Shouts of “Can you explain?” rang out over the Peace Quad as students demanded answers and transparency from university administrators.

The group of approximately 50 protestors gathered on Wednesday, Feb. 26 in front of the Danna Student Center. The protest was approved by administrators under the circumstance that the demonstration would not interrupt normal campus operations.

Students representing the theater department were the initial organizers, but they were joined by students of other disciplines who have seen cuts within their own departments.

The protesting students stood around the blindfolded statue of the university’s founder St. Ignatius of Loyola and displayed signs bearing messages such as “Attacked by the Pack” and “Think critically, act justly.” The students also wore trash bags and tattered shirts, a decision they described as a visual representation of how the cuts will impact departments suffering from budget cuts.

Also part of the demonstration was a tall, cloaked puppet the protestors described as “Death.”

Nicole Oria, theater arts senior, was among the group of students pushing for transparency.

“I am dissatisfied with the lack of transparency throughout this whole situation,” Oria said. “For a university that is supposed to promote social justice and was founded on Jesuit ideals, I just expected them to be more forthcoming with information regarding cuts, which will affect me.”

Numerous alumni and current faculty and staff joined students in their demands for transparency.

Donald Brady, who founded the theater department in the 1960s, also joined in the protest, donning a trash bag of his own.

“The administration from the top down gets an ‘F.’ This process was not well thought out or executed,” Brady said.

Monica R. Harris, A’07, said that students and alumni were working as a united front in their outcry against the cuts and addressed the administration directly in her demands.

“You’ve read several times over heart-sick, impassioned accounts of why current undergrads and alumni alike are on a united front to speak against the budget cuts – a united front against you,” Harris said. “This is me officially calling you out on it.”

Logan Faust, theater arts and mass communication junior, said he believes that Donald Boomgaarden, dean of the College of Music and Fine Arts, has a duty to meet with students who are looking for answers. Faust said that Boomgaarden has denied requests to meet with him.

“If he is in a position where he feels he is above that or exempted from that, I would prefer a new dean. And I’d love to say that to him, would he meet with me,” Faust said.

Natalie Jones, theater arts and Spanish senior, was one of the students leading the protest and said that the solution to the problems may require more than transparency.

“I urge the administration to practice the Jesuit ideal of ‘effective communication’ and engage with the student body as opposed to leave us uninformed about matters that directly affect us,” Jones said.

The theater students’ actions prompted other students to speak out about how the cuts have impacted their departments.

Students from the sociology department vocalized concern about the decision not to renew the contract of Kathleen Fitzgerald, visiting associate professor.

“I have never been as challenged in a class as I have in a class taught by Dr. Fitzgerald,” Jessica England, psychology senior, said. “She challenges you and she supports you, I have grown eight-fold as a person because of Dr. Fitzgerald, and she just got cut.”

Alexandra Kennon, theater and mass communication junior and Maroon staff writer, said that she does not think the current actions of the university reflect the Jesuit ideals they are trying to instill in students.

“It raises the question of how we can be expected to stay silent when we see our professors being treated so poorly, when they are the very people who taught us the Jesuit values of thinking critically and acting justly,” Kennon said.

Sam Morel, theater arts senior, said he feels as though the overall protest was successful in making sure their voices were heard.

“One of our goals was to get people informed and get them talking about what’s happening to their professors and their departments, and multiple have seen that happening in the wake of the protest, so I think we did what we set out to do,” Morel said.

Kellie Grengs, costume director, was one of the staff members in the theater department to receive salary cuts. She said at the protest that administrators should have also felt the effects of reductions.

“At this point, they’re just all up in their offices sitting on their six-figure salaries, doing nothing,” Grengs said. “We need some cuts from the top down, not the bottom up.”

Lauren Patton may be reached at [email protected]