In New York, Juilliard School accused of racism and unjustified tuition hikes

The premises of the famous American entertainment school occupied last week, demonstrations in front of Lincoln Center. The 4% increase in tuition fees at the Juilliard School does not go well with students who occupied a school building before going to protest in the streets. A few weeks rather the new institution Yorker has had to face criticism of her handling of diversity issues.

Annual tuition fees increased by nearly $ 2,000

In absolute terms, this 4% increase in the annual tuition fees of the Juilliard School should not have caused such a movement but when we realize that they correspond to 1,870 dollars to be added to the 49,260 € already paid by the 840 permanent students of the largest American entertainment school (Music, dance and theater) one can understand the anger of the Socialist Penguins, the group of students at the origin of this protest movement.

Read also

From Monday to Wednesday several dozen of them occupied part of the Irene Diamond building that the management closed. Thursday and Friday, they demonstrated, often in music, in front of the school located on the site of Lincoln Center which houses the Met Opera, also shaken by social movements. The school management wanted to indicate that it intends to increase the minimum wage for work-study jobs on campus and that it has specific funding for students in precarious situations.

The Juilliard School criticized for its management of diversity issues

This protest movement is not the 1^is experienced by the Juilliard School. In 1940, a hundred students had mobilized to protest against the dismissal of a professor. In 1970, another outcry when the president of the school at the time had expressed the wish to close the dance department for lack of sufficient funding. Martha Hill, dancer and teacher, founder of the dance section, even had to mobilize to save him. From now on, a dance prize, awarded by the school, bears his name.

Read also

At the end of May this year, the institution was the subject of criticism for questions of diversity following several testimonies. While a quarter of the students in the drama division are of African-American origin, a black student revealed to the channel CBS News that the school had organized a workshop called Slavery Saturday (Saturday of slavery) during which the whip sounds and racial insults were broadcast. Following this incident, the school called this episode ” mistake “ and stated that she ” regretted that the workshop had caused pain to the students ”.

Philippe Gault

Retropen the news of Classic

–