A large number of animation classes will not be offered next year after the department missed the deadline for submitting their curriculum review. Every five years, departments are responsible for submitting information to De Anza College’s Curriculum Committee in order “to ensure that the curriculum is academically sound, comprehensive, and responsive to the evolving needs and multiple perspectives of the community,” the committee’s mission statement says.
Only a handful of classes will continue to be offered next year, two of which are variable topics classes on three-dimensional and two-dimensional animation that will also contain curriculum from core classes, according to animation faculty member David Perry.
“The situation has prompted a review of the animation curriculum by the administration,” said Perry. “Courses will be resubmitted and ideally will be the same or similar to what was previously being offered.”
This is not a recent concern. According to animation major Francisco Soberanis, there was a meeting held during Winter quarter which notified students about the status of the animation program, however some are still unclear about what is actually going on.
“[Students] should just be able to be informed about what is going on so that we can make arrangements if necessary,” said animation major Christine Lisak, who says that the status of the program’s accreditation is being called into question.
The animation department is not closing and the program is not in danger of losing its accreditation, but rather the steps that the administration and faculty are taking, ensure that the program is able to maintain it.
Part of the accreditation process includes submitting curriculum reviews. Having missed the deadline and not been given an extension, De Anza cannot continue to offer classes that have not yet been reviewed.
The program is not closing, but rather is looking at an organizational restructuring of the certificate and degree programs that are offered.
According to Perry, the Dean of Creative Arts, Nancy Canter, and the Vice President of Instruction, Christina Espinoza-Pieb envision the animation program coming back as a smaller program. The idea is that a smaller program is easier to manage. In addition, the Animation Advisory Board consisting of faculty and local representatives from major animation companies like PDI/DreamWorks have met to discuss what this rebirth could look like.
The department is making preparations to re-add the lost courses into the course catalog for the 2012-2013 academic year, according to Perry.
“The challenge is that if there is a reduction, then how do you keep the quality of the experience?” said Perry. “My biggest concern is that students will still have access to the richness of the curriculum that they have now.”
Perry sees the animation program at De Anza as a “flagship for 2-year institutions” due to the breadth and depth of the classes that are offered. Additionally, the Animation program has a lot of classes that aren’t provided at any other colleges such as the Contemporary World Animation class he is planning to take this summer, Soberanis said.
There will be some question about how each program will fit into the required curriculum, so students who are currently working on their animation degrees or certificates may be delayed as far as getting the classes they need since some of them may not be offered next year.
