Angered students have announced plans to stage a protest at March's Board of Trustees meeting after hearing news that the School of Arts and Sciences is looking to sell the Villa Spelman in Florence, Italy.
Both alumni and staff of the Villa have express frustration with the decision to sell as well as the University's handling of the situation.
Senior Lana Jo Hill, who attended the Spring 2005 semester at the Villa and is one of the students organizing the protest, said, "There's a Board of Trustees meeting on March 1, and there will be a picket line there. In the meantime we will be handing out fliers with President [William] Brody and Dean [of the School of Arts and Sciences Adam] Falk's contact info so people can tell them their concerns."
The demonstration was originally planned to take place at Wednesday's Commemoration Day ceremony, but it was postponed due to rain until March's meeting, when the Board of Trustees will discuss more concrete plans regarding the decision to sell the Villa.
Other students who have attended the program as well as current staff of the Villa have criticized the University for improperly notifying them of and excluding them from the decision.
"What makes me angry about the whole thing is that there is a complete lack of transparency on part of the administration," said senior Gabe Hopkins, who attended the Villa in Spring 2005.
Senior Elana Snow said, "My friend from Villa Spelman and I tried to set up a meeting with Dean Falk. Because so many people are contacting he won't meet with any students."
Dr. Laura di Polfi, administrative secretary at Villa Spelman, said, "Why have the staff here at Villa Spelman been kept in the dark? Why are we the last to know? We have learned only by hearsay and by forwarded messages about the intentions of the University to sell the Villa."
She added that she also has received no notice as to how her job will be affected. "I still haven't read a single word about possible future perspectives for the JHU personnel here in Florence. ... I find this extremely inconsiderate."
Hopkins also faulted the school for what he saw as too little effort to raise funds for the Villa. "I find it hard to believe they can't find the money," he said.
"They get money all the time for all sorts of reasons, why not make time to raise money for the villa? It's an obvious cause. ... I feel like it's another example of the school not caring about the student body and only caring about money."
According to William Kotti, associate dean of resource planning and development, the Villa has not been a recent fundraising priority. "We've been concentrating on undergraduate scholarships, which are a very important effort for the University."
"Also important is the Humanities Initiative, which includes the renovation of Gilman Hall -- that's $35 million right there -- professorship support, programmatic support within the humanities and graduate support, which is fellowships. That initiative costs $55 million."
Kotti added, "I know in the last campaign around 1993 there was activity in [raising money for] Villa."
However, he said, "Study abroad is important to the school and we're trying to raise revenue from private sources."
Jerry Schnydman, executive assistant to the president and secretary to the board of trustees, said that he regrets that the decision had to be made. "The situation is, can we afford the $3 or $4 million to repair the villa, and who's going to pay for the operating losses? The amount of money that is available for the operating expenses is not enough. It's heart-breaking but it's just that simple."
"Total budget that includes programming, staff and facilities is something over half a million dollars a year. And, that doesn't include a budget for large infrastructure investment," Falk said.
Schnydman added that it would seem charge all students n to support a program in which not all students participate. "We are going to do something that is best for our overall students and best for the institution under the circumstances. Should we charge our 4,300 students a higher charge to fix the Villa up for the 30 or 40 students who go there every year?"
Falk explained that due to budget constraints, the money received from the sale is needed at Homewood. "Operating costs will go into humanities in variety of ways," he explained, "[They will go to] replacing the program in Italy, raising graduate student stipends in the humanities in particular and also the social studies."
"We need to make an investment in graduate stipends throughout the school," he added.
"The budget does not provide enough money to make our stipends as competitive as we'd like them to be. It's very important for the operating costs to go back into academic programming because this really is a choice as to how to support the humanities."
The direct proceeds from the sale will be "used to support the academic mission of the school," Falk explained, but will not be spent to create programs that would become too expensive in the future.
