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The original UCLA bruin article Lights, Camera, Inaction appears to have been removed somehow.
Thankfully, nothing is ever truly gone on the internet though if you use the way back machine:
web.archive.org
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2/1/2021
Update: This post was updated Feb. 13 at 10:21 a.m. to reflect a more accurate editor's note.
Correction: The original version of this article incorrectly stated Source H was a current undergraduate student. In fact, they are an undergraduate alumnus.
Editor’s note: Daily Bruin policy states that information can only be published without direct attribution when the information is provided by three independent sources and with approval from the editor in chief. The following article, through a combination of nine anonymous but independent accounts, meets Daily Bruin policy standards. Following the publication of this article, administrators from the School of Theater, Film and Television submitted a letter to the editor, which is linked and available for review at the bottom of this article. The Daily Bruin acknowledges that this story presents an unbalanced account of TFT but notes that our reporting team made a good faith effort ahead of publication to reach out to the school, which declined multiple requests for comment. While the school’s single statement is briefly discussed in the article’s original text, we acknowledge it could and should have been emphasized more and have included it in its entirety here for review. Further, the Daily Bruin acknowledges that the participation of Jordan Wilson, a TFT alumnus, in this article is a conflict of interest. We credited Wilson with the intention of ensuring transparency, as he initially helped arrange interviews before exiting the project once the conflict of interest became known. We regret that we failed to provide context for this inclusion and thus contributed to confusion and mistrust. Wilson did not have any input in the writing, editing or publishing of this article.
The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television administration repeatedly disregarded student complaints and potentially violated university policy in recent years, students and alumni said.
Every eight years, the UCLA Academic Senate reviews each department’s quality of education. The 2019-20 review of the Film, Television and Digital Media department in TFT, which offers UCLA’s undergraduate and graduate film programs, revealed patterns of administrative neglect.
Since at least 2018, administrators changed course availability without informing students in the screenwriting department. They also failed to act on student complaints about lacking diversity in both department faculty and curriculum across the undergraduate and graduate programs, students said. Beyond the institutional level, the Academic Senate found that TFT administrators arbitrarily denied students access to classes as recently as 2020, potentially in violation of the university’s Faculty Code of Conduct.
Alumni and current students sourced in this story requested to remain anonymous because of fear of retaliation from faculty or industry professionals. This story refers to all sources using gender-neutral pronouns to avoid possible identification.
The Daily Bruin sought statements in response to these allegations from faculty and administrators in TFT. Every administrator and faculty member contacted declined to comment, and these refusals are reflected when the sources are directly mentioned throughout the story.
Maria Tassone/Daily Bruin
THE SCREENWRITING PROGRAM
In 2018, Professor Phyllis Nagy became the head of screenwriting and began making problematic changes to the program right away, several students said.
Nagy has prevented graduate screenwriting students from directly enrolling in classes since 2018, potentially in violation of the UCLA Faculty Code of Conduct, according to records obtained by The Bruin.
The Faculty Code of Conduct requires that students are allowed to enroll themselves into available classes. However, Nagy required students to submit a list of their preferred classes, which Nagy then used to enroll students herself, according to obtained records.
When students filled out their enrollment requests, Nagy said requests for specific class sections or professors would be honored only in extraordinary circumstances, records show. As a result, students were expected to rearrange their work and personal schedules to work with Nagy’s class placements.
During fall quarter, the Academic Senate's Grievance Advisory Committee found Nagy’s enrollment process to be a potential violation of the FCC and urged the department to resolve the situation.
It is unclear whether the Nagy’s changes to the class enrollment process have been reversed, and the Grievance Advisory Committee’s letter to FTVDM administrators indicated the department has been aware of the situation since at least fall quarter.
Nagy's control over enrollment put some students' financial aid status in jeopardy, students said.
Some screenwriting graduate students were prohibited from taking graduate screenwriting courses outside of their requirements, said Source A, a screenwriting alumnus. As a result, some graduate screenwriting students were forced to enroll in undergraduate courses or work as teaching assistants to maintain their full-time status and financial aid, Source A said.
Nagy declined to comment on whether her system arbitrarily denied individual screenwriting students from taking certain courses.
Several high-level administrators, including the former Dean of TFT Teri Schwartz and former Chair of FTVDM Kathleen McHugh, received notice that Nagy was denying students access to courses since at least 2018, according to records obtained by the Daily Bruin.
Schwartz and McHugh declined to comment on this matter through TFT spokesperson Noela Hueso.
Sarah Kernal/Daily Bruin
THIRD-YEAR SCREENWRITING STUDENTS
Multiple alumni said Nagy often unfairly blamed third-year graduate students for siphoning the program’s resources away from first and second-years.
“There was this push (that third-year students) were stealing from you, they’re taking from you, and it’s so selfish,” Source A said. “There was this idea that anyone who wanted to stay was selfish and was stealing or taking resources from the (underclassmen).”
The graduate screenwriting program is typically completed in two years, according to TFT’s website, but some students stay for a third year to finish degree requirements or to hone their writing skills.
Nagy failed to formally inform some third-year students about special courses, including one highly sought-after class sponsored by Sony, according to records obtained by The Bruin. This left many students unaware of opportunities and classes they should have been eligible to take advantage of, records show.
During one discussion about course offerings, Nagy asked why third-year students would want to take limited course spots away from their underclassmen, said Source B, a screenwriting alumnus.
However, three students noted it was administrators who had already drastically reduced course section offerings without notifying students in fall 2017. Students only discovered these changes while planning their schedules for the following quarter or through word of mouth, added Source C, a screenwriting alumnus.
Source B said they met with McHugh after discovering more than half the sections for one of their core courses had been unexpectedly eliminated. As a result of the cuts, several students were forced to take multiple writing courses in a single quarter in order to graduate in two years, Source B added.
Before Nagy became the head of screenwriting in 2018, screenwriting students could stay up to 10 quarters to finish their degree, according to UCLA Graduate Education. Starting from the 2018-2019 academic year, screenwriting students could stay for a maximum of seven quarters before graduating or facing potential disqualification from further graduate study, according to UCLA Graduate Education.
Nagy also updated the petition process for students seeking a third year in the program so that students were no longer guaranteed a third-year option, Source C said.
Prior to the change, third-year petitions were little more than a formality, Source C added. The change was a blow to screenwriting students who needed the extra year to balance their coursework with outside work, Source B said.
Source A said neither they nor anyone they knew were formally notified about changes to the petition process or opportunities for third-year screenwriting students. This was independently corroborated by obtained records.
Nagy declined to comment about the policy changes and subsequent communication or lack thereof.
Tung Lin/Daily Bruin Senior staff
When screenwriting students at a 2018 town hall complained about lacking communication from administrators, film professor George Huang simply told the crowd to expect similarly poor treatment in the film industry.
“It’s completely unfair; you guys are getting screwed,” Huang said at the town hall. “But, and this is a horrible thing to say, get used to it. This is the industry you chose.”
Hueso declined to comment on Huang's comments at the town hall.
OUTDATED UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM
Several undergraduate students said the film program taught outdated practical skills and focused too much on film theory and history at the expense of hands-on experience.
Barbara Boyle, the head of the producers program, repeatedly told students during her lectures and meetings the undergraduate film program fails to provide a meaningful hands-on learning experience and should be disbanded altogether.
“For us to be sitting there and being told by a department head that our experience was just worthless was so surreal,” said Source D, a current undergraduate student.
Students said they hoped to reform the program rather than eliminate it altogether.
Hueso said Boyle and all TFT faculty declined to comment for this story.
Most undergraduate film students spend their first six quarters at UCLA taking film theory and history prerequisites. The first course that teaches hands-on film set skills – Film and Television 150: “Cinematography” – is normally taken in an undergraduate's third year in the program, said Source E, an undergraduate alumnus.
“It became a running joke that by the time you got to your first production class, which is usually happening junior year, ... you already knew everything about how to be on set because you had to learn it earlier (on your own time),” Source E said.
The school decided that teaching hands-on skills in the latter half of the undergraduate program would be more appropriate to accommodate third-year transfer students, according to an emailed statement from TFT. Freshmen in the undergraduate film program are encouraged to gain experiences in the meantime by volunteering for graduate student film projects, but are not typically encouraged to direct their own films, according to the same statement.
This is in contrast to film programs at other schools like New York University and the University of Southern California, whose students often take hands-on classes starting from their first year, according to the schools’ websites.
When students eventually begin learning how to use cameras and lighting, it is with outdated technology no longer used in most professional studios, multiple students said. Source F, a current undergraduate student, said they were taught cinematography with film reels rather than digital cameras, creating problems for future career prospects.
“The problem is I can maneuver a film camera now like the back of my hand, but whenever I’m on set outside of UCLA with an internship, ... I have no knowledge of the actual cameras that people are actually using in 2021,” Source F said. “I’m going in with a skill set that would be more useful in 1995.”
Bridgette Baron/Daily Bruin staff
During undergraduate professional development courses, professors told students about skills production companies expected applicants to possess, such as how to use specialized equipment and multimedia editing software, Source F said.
This created concern for the students, as they said UCLA’s film program does not teach many of these skills.
“I was texting five people at once, (saying) ‘We literally don’t know how to do any of this because we were never taught it,’” Source F said. “And now we’re being told we had to have (these skills), otherwise our degree is worthless.”
COMMUNICATION WITH THE ADMINISTRATION
Students’ complaints to administration about issues such as lacking diversity in faculty and course curricula often went unaddressed, several students said.
To communicate students’ concerns with administrators, undergraduate students in FTVDM established a student council with two representatives for each graduating class, Source E said.
However, these meetings only resulted in vague promises of action and little actual progress, Source E added.
Students said Film and Television 6A: “History of American Motion Picture” did not include enough films from members of minority groups, and instead focused too much on films with a predominantly white cast and crew.
Some sources said they think TFT faculty should also be more diverse. In the academic years between 2010 and 2018, FTVDM’s faculty were consistently over 77% white and as high as approximately 92% white, according to faculty demographic data provided by the UCLA Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. This was less diverse than the rest of the university, which saw the overall percent of white faculty decrease from approximately 74% to 65% over the same period.
Administrators and professors have been brushing off student complaints about Film and Television 6A and other diversity issues since as early as 2016, students said. Despite acknowledging students’ concerns, administrators and faculty took no concrete steps to address problems, students added. In the case of diversifying course curricula, they told students that changing the curriculum would be too difficult, students also said.
UCLA declined to comment on whether Steve Anderson, the interim chair of FTVDM, was aware of students’ grievances regarding communication with the FTVDM administration and how he responded to academic diversity concerns.
Following numerous concerns from students about the department, then-Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh ordered an investigation into FTVDM, according to emails obtained by the Daily Bruin.
When asked about details of the report, Stephen Yeazell, a distinguished law professor and the appointed investigator, declined to comment and said only the Provost’s office could comment on the report.
The Daily Bruin then requested Oct. 5 that UCLA provide a copy of the report pursuant to the California Public Records Act. The Provost’s office declined the request Nov. 12, stating the report was exempt from CPRA requirements under the deliberative process privilege.
"THIS LITTLE SECRET"
Source G, a current undergraduate student, said when they enrolled in the Film and Television Bachelor of Arts program, they and many classmates had high expectations. As the students spent more time at TFT, however, they found the program difficult to navigate, Source G added.
"Everyone essentially feels how underdeveloped the classes are, our class plans are constantly switched around,” Source G said. “It’s ... confusing what we’re supposed to do sometimes because everyone’s a little disorganized.”
Bridgette Baron/Daily Bruin staff
Source G said students and alumni often discuss their concerns about the program, but the conversation remains within their community.
Source H, an undergraduate alumnus, said they think one of the reasons some film students wouldn’t speak up about their concerns is because they feel no one would believe them.
Many Hollywood internships tend to prioritize and value UCLA film students in the industry, Source G added.
“It feels like everyone is holding in this little secret that we all know – the school isn’t up to standard – and no one else knows,” Source G said.
Click here to read the letter to the editor submitted by administrators from the School of Theater, Film and Television.
If you have any further information about the student or faculty experience in FTVDM, please email us at enterprise@media.ucla.edu.
Contributing reports by JORDAN WILSON.
Developed by Sarthak More. Illustrations by Bridgette Baron. Designed by Jongho Weon.
Thankfully, nothing is ever truly gone on the internet though if you use the way back machine:
Lights, Camera, Inaction
Daily Bruin Enterprise investigated complaints from UCLA film students and alumni about a lack of communication from their administrators, unfair treatment of third-year screenwriting students, and a potential violation of the Faculty Code of Conduct.
web.archive.org
Copy Pasta:
Lights, Camera, Inaction
By: MAANAS HEMANTH ORUGANTI2/1/2021
Update: This post was updated Feb. 13 at 10:21 a.m. to reflect a more accurate editor's note.
Correction: The original version of this article incorrectly stated Source H was a current undergraduate student. In fact, they are an undergraduate alumnus.
Editor’s note: Daily Bruin policy states that information can only be published without direct attribution when the information is provided by three independent sources and with approval from the editor in chief. The following article, through a combination of nine anonymous but independent accounts, meets Daily Bruin policy standards. Following the publication of this article, administrators from the School of Theater, Film and Television submitted a letter to the editor, which is linked and available for review at the bottom of this article. The Daily Bruin acknowledges that this story presents an unbalanced account of TFT but notes that our reporting team made a good faith effort ahead of publication to reach out to the school, which declined multiple requests for comment. While the school’s single statement is briefly discussed in the article’s original text, we acknowledge it could and should have been emphasized more and have included it in its entirety here for review. Further, the Daily Bruin acknowledges that the participation of Jordan Wilson, a TFT alumnus, in this article is a conflict of interest. We credited Wilson with the intention of ensuring transparency, as he initially helped arrange interviews before exiting the project once the conflict of interest became known. We regret that we failed to provide context for this inclusion and thus contributed to confusion and mistrust. Wilson did not have any input in the writing, editing or publishing of this article.
The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television administration repeatedly disregarded student complaints and potentially violated university policy in recent years, students and alumni said.
Every eight years, the UCLA Academic Senate reviews each department’s quality of education. The 2019-20 review of the Film, Television and Digital Media department in TFT, which offers UCLA’s undergraduate and graduate film programs, revealed patterns of administrative neglect.
Since at least 2018, administrators changed course availability without informing students in the screenwriting department. They also failed to act on student complaints about lacking diversity in both department faculty and curriculum across the undergraduate and graduate programs, students said. Beyond the institutional level, the Academic Senate found that TFT administrators arbitrarily denied students access to classes as recently as 2020, potentially in violation of the university’s Faculty Code of Conduct.
Alumni and current students sourced in this story requested to remain anonymous because of fear of retaliation from faculty or industry professionals. This story refers to all sources using gender-neutral pronouns to avoid possible identification.
The Daily Bruin sought statements in response to these allegations from faculty and administrators in TFT. Every administrator and faculty member contacted declined to comment, and these refusals are reflected when the sources are directly mentioned throughout the story.
Maria Tassone/Daily Bruin
THE SCREENWRITING PROGRAM
In 2018, Professor Phyllis Nagy became the head of screenwriting and began making problematic changes to the program right away, several students said.
Nagy has prevented graduate screenwriting students from directly enrolling in classes since 2018, potentially in violation of the UCLA Faculty Code of Conduct, according to records obtained by The Bruin.
The Faculty Code of Conduct requires that students are allowed to enroll themselves into available classes. However, Nagy required students to submit a list of their preferred classes, which Nagy then used to enroll students herself, according to obtained records.
When students filled out their enrollment requests, Nagy said requests for specific class sections or professors would be honored only in extraordinary circumstances, records show. As a result, students were expected to rearrange their work and personal schedules to work with Nagy’s class placements.
During fall quarter, the Academic Senate's Grievance Advisory Committee found Nagy’s enrollment process to be a potential violation of the FCC and urged the department to resolve the situation.
It is unclear whether the Nagy’s changes to the class enrollment process have been reversed, and the Grievance Advisory Committee’s letter to FTVDM administrators indicated the department has been aware of the situation since at least fall quarter.
Nagy's control over enrollment put some students' financial aid status in jeopardy, students said.
Some screenwriting graduate students were prohibited from taking graduate screenwriting courses outside of their requirements, said Source A, a screenwriting alumnus. As a result, some graduate screenwriting students were forced to enroll in undergraduate courses or work as teaching assistants to maintain their full-time status and financial aid, Source A said.
Nagy declined to comment on whether her system arbitrarily denied individual screenwriting students from taking certain courses.
Several high-level administrators, including the former Dean of TFT Teri Schwartz and former Chair of FTVDM Kathleen McHugh, received notice that Nagy was denying students access to courses since at least 2018, according to records obtained by the Daily Bruin.
Schwartz and McHugh declined to comment on this matter through TFT spokesperson Noela Hueso.
Sarah Kernal/Daily Bruin
THIRD-YEAR SCREENWRITING STUDENTS
Multiple alumni said Nagy often unfairly blamed third-year graduate students for siphoning the program’s resources away from first and second-years.
“There was this push (that third-year students) were stealing from you, they’re taking from you, and it’s so selfish,” Source A said. “There was this idea that anyone who wanted to stay was selfish and was stealing or taking resources from the (underclassmen).”
The graduate screenwriting program is typically completed in two years, according to TFT’s website, but some students stay for a third year to finish degree requirements or to hone their writing skills.
Nagy failed to formally inform some third-year students about special courses, including one highly sought-after class sponsored by Sony, according to records obtained by The Bruin. This left many students unaware of opportunities and classes they should have been eligible to take advantage of, records show.
During one discussion about course offerings, Nagy asked why third-year students would want to take limited course spots away from their underclassmen, said Source B, a screenwriting alumnus.
However, three students noted it was administrators who had already drastically reduced course section offerings without notifying students in fall 2017. Students only discovered these changes while planning their schedules for the following quarter or through word of mouth, added Source C, a screenwriting alumnus.
Source B said they met with McHugh after discovering more than half the sections for one of their core courses had been unexpectedly eliminated. As a result of the cuts, several students were forced to take multiple writing courses in a single quarter in order to graduate in two years, Source B added.
Before Nagy became the head of screenwriting in 2018, screenwriting students could stay up to 10 quarters to finish their degree, according to UCLA Graduate Education. Starting from the 2018-2019 academic year, screenwriting students could stay for a maximum of seven quarters before graduating or facing potential disqualification from further graduate study, according to UCLA Graduate Education.
Nagy also updated the petition process for students seeking a third year in the program so that students were no longer guaranteed a third-year option, Source C said.
Prior to the change, third-year petitions were little more than a formality, Source C added. The change was a blow to screenwriting students who needed the extra year to balance their coursework with outside work, Source B said.
Source A said neither they nor anyone they knew were formally notified about changes to the petition process or opportunities for third-year screenwriting students. This was independently corroborated by obtained records.
Nagy declined to comment about the policy changes and subsequent communication or lack thereof.
Tung Lin/Daily Bruin Senior staff
When screenwriting students at a 2018 town hall complained about lacking communication from administrators, film professor George Huang simply told the crowd to expect similarly poor treatment in the film industry.
“It’s completely unfair; you guys are getting screwed,” Huang said at the town hall. “But, and this is a horrible thing to say, get used to it. This is the industry you chose.”
Hueso declined to comment on Huang's comments at the town hall.
OUTDATED UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM
Several undergraduate students said the film program taught outdated practical skills and focused too much on film theory and history at the expense of hands-on experience.
Barbara Boyle, the head of the producers program, repeatedly told students during her lectures and meetings the undergraduate film program fails to provide a meaningful hands-on learning experience and should be disbanded altogether.
“For us to be sitting there and being told by a department head that our experience was just worthless was so surreal,” said Source D, a current undergraduate student.
Students said they hoped to reform the program rather than eliminate it altogether.
Hueso said Boyle and all TFT faculty declined to comment for this story.
Most undergraduate film students spend their first six quarters at UCLA taking film theory and history prerequisites. The first course that teaches hands-on film set skills – Film and Television 150: “Cinematography” – is normally taken in an undergraduate's third year in the program, said Source E, an undergraduate alumnus.
“It became a running joke that by the time you got to your first production class, which is usually happening junior year, ... you already knew everything about how to be on set because you had to learn it earlier (on your own time),” Source E said.
The school decided that teaching hands-on skills in the latter half of the undergraduate program would be more appropriate to accommodate third-year transfer students, according to an emailed statement from TFT. Freshmen in the undergraduate film program are encouraged to gain experiences in the meantime by volunteering for graduate student film projects, but are not typically encouraged to direct their own films, according to the same statement.
This is in contrast to film programs at other schools like New York University and the University of Southern California, whose students often take hands-on classes starting from their first year, according to the schools’ websites.
When students eventually begin learning how to use cameras and lighting, it is with outdated technology no longer used in most professional studios, multiple students said. Source F, a current undergraduate student, said they were taught cinematography with film reels rather than digital cameras, creating problems for future career prospects.
“The problem is I can maneuver a film camera now like the back of my hand, but whenever I’m on set outside of UCLA with an internship, ... I have no knowledge of the actual cameras that people are actually using in 2021,” Source F said. “I’m going in with a skill set that would be more useful in 1995.”
Bridgette Baron/Daily Bruin staff
During undergraduate professional development courses, professors told students about skills production companies expected applicants to possess, such as how to use specialized equipment and multimedia editing software, Source F said.
This created concern for the students, as they said UCLA’s film program does not teach many of these skills.
“I was texting five people at once, (saying) ‘We literally don’t know how to do any of this because we were never taught it,’” Source F said. “And now we’re being told we had to have (these skills), otherwise our degree is worthless.”
COMMUNICATION WITH THE ADMINISTRATION
Students’ complaints to administration about issues such as lacking diversity in faculty and course curricula often went unaddressed, several students said.
To communicate students’ concerns with administrators, undergraduate students in FTVDM established a student council with two representatives for each graduating class, Source E said.
However, these meetings only resulted in vague promises of action and little actual progress, Source E added.
Students said Film and Television 6A: “History of American Motion Picture” did not include enough films from members of minority groups, and instead focused too much on films with a predominantly white cast and crew.
Some sources said they think TFT faculty should also be more diverse. In the academic years between 2010 and 2018, FTVDM’s faculty were consistently over 77% white and as high as approximately 92% white, according to faculty demographic data provided by the UCLA Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. This was less diverse than the rest of the university, which saw the overall percent of white faculty decrease from approximately 74% to 65% over the same period.
Administrators and professors have been brushing off student complaints about Film and Television 6A and other diversity issues since as early as 2016, students said. Despite acknowledging students’ concerns, administrators and faculty took no concrete steps to address problems, students added. In the case of diversifying course curricula, they told students that changing the curriculum would be too difficult, students also said.
UCLA declined to comment on whether Steve Anderson, the interim chair of FTVDM, was aware of students’ grievances regarding communication with the FTVDM administration and how he responded to academic diversity concerns.
Following numerous concerns from students about the department, then-Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh ordered an investigation into FTVDM, according to emails obtained by the Daily Bruin.
When asked about details of the report, Stephen Yeazell, a distinguished law professor and the appointed investigator, declined to comment and said only the Provost’s office could comment on the report.
The Daily Bruin then requested Oct. 5 that UCLA provide a copy of the report pursuant to the California Public Records Act. The Provost’s office declined the request Nov. 12, stating the report was exempt from CPRA requirements under the deliberative process privilege.
"THIS LITTLE SECRET"
Source G, a current undergraduate student, said when they enrolled in the Film and Television Bachelor of Arts program, they and many classmates had high expectations. As the students spent more time at TFT, however, they found the program difficult to navigate, Source G added.
"Everyone essentially feels how underdeveloped the classes are, our class plans are constantly switched around,” Source G said. “It’s ... confusing what we’re supposed to do sometimes because everyone’s a little disorganized.”
Bridgette Baron/Daily Bruin staff
Source G said students and alumni often discuss their concerns about the program, but the conversation remains within their community.
Source H, an undergraduate alumnus, said they think one of the reasons some film students wouldn’t speak up about their concerns is because they feel no one would believe them.
Many Hollywood internships tend to prioritize and value UCLA film students in the industry, Source G added.
“It feels like everyone is holding in this little secret that we all know – the school isn’t up to standard – and no one else knows,” Source G said.
Click here to read the letter to the editor submitted by administrators from the School of Theater, Film and Television.
If you have any further information about the student or faculty experience in FTVDM, please email us at enterprise@media.ucla.edu.
Contributing reports by JORDAN WILSON.
Developed by Sarthak More. Illustrations by Bridgette Baron. Designed by Jongho Weon.
