Mourners gather for funeral for higher education

By Taylor Six

Eastern Kentucky University theatre students gathered at the Capitol Building in Frankfort Monday for a “funeral for higher education” to protest budget and program cuts with a mock funeral procession.

Students in all black carried an empty wooden casket from the Capitol steps to the rotunda, 30 feet outside Gov. Matt Bevin’s office to mourn the loss of the theatre program.

“Today we have brought an empty coffin, which symbolizes higher education as we lay her to rest where she was killed, inside the Capitol Building in Frankfort, Kentucky,” said Logan Burris, 19, a junior theatre major from Harlan County.

Lack of state funding for higher education caused the EKU Board of Regents to approve suspension of the theatre program on April 6. The Board of Regents suspended numerous other programs, including deaf studies, economics, associates in nursing as well as others.

EKU also cut 153 jobs, the men’s and women’s tennis teams and the Danville regional campus.

Members of the department stood one at a time to read eulogies, telling about the importance of the arts. Many said that the theatre program offered a “home outside of home” and a “safe place to land” on campus.

“The importance of theatre is a big question because it means so much to me; it has offered me a home while I’ve been here at EKU and it has given me numerous skills from organization, to teamwork collaboration to public speaking, improvisation and just countless skills,” said EKU street artist, Wylie Caudill, a broadcasting electronic media major.

Burris led the mourners in songs and chants saying, “This is what democracy looks like,” and “Who’s future? Our future.”

Jocelyn Skinner, a theater education major from Westminster, Maryland, said she chose EKU specifically for the theatre education program.

“It really is a home. It’s a family. It’s not just a bunch of people doing a show together. It’s people who genuinely care about each other,” Skinner said.

Others talked about the impact and importance of theatre in academia and to the university as a whole.

“When I arrived at EKU I was told it was a liberal arts college. So I ask you, what is a liberal arts college without the arts?” said Evan Daulton a broadcasting and electronic media major.

“I hope that we are heard to the right people. I hope Kentucky legislature sees what we have done. I hope they see things like this and they have a response. I hope more people in the state of Kentucky see this and can band with us and join our fight to save the arts in Kentucky,” Caudill said.

Burris said that the future of the EKU chapter of Alpha Psi Omega, a national theatre fraternity, is unknown because nationals require the university to have a theatre department in order to be a member.

“We want our voices heard. We want Gov. Bevin and our representatives to know that we are against these budget cuts and we believe that universities should not be cut at all,” Burris said.

“I hope for the future… this is kind of wish upon a star, I hope university cuts will be reversed and want to hope that EKU theatre will come back someday. The future is unknown and it’s scary, but we here have done everything we can to preserve it on campus and in the city of Richmond,” said Burris.

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