College theatre program rankings failed BIPOC students

Every August, OnStage Blog publishes a list of the 25-30 schools we feel have the best theatre programs for aspiring performers, technicians, dancers, etc.

These rankings typically get a lot of attention due to the fact that we use a different research model from other ranking publications and the PR teams at these schools love these types of posts.

We usually start the process of adjudicating these schools at the beginning of May and conclude at the end of July.

This year we were in the midst of collecting information when the horrific murder of George Floyd occurred in Minnesota which led to a renewed call to action from the Black Lives Matter movement.

One of the results that came from that movement were college students across the country exposing and calling out the racist and discriminatory behaviors they had been subjected to or witnessed on their campuses. In particular, a significant number of those students have been theatre majors.

The allegations have been disturbing to read. From what we’ve seen, there have been over two dozen programs called out for problematic behavior directed at BIPOC students. Many of these programs also happen to be considered the best theatre programs in the country, such as Ithaca College and Pace University.

Beyond upsetting for the students who attending and are still attending these programs, it’s upsetting for us because we were assured by many of these programs that diversity was “valued” there.

Clearly that was not the case.

But while we may feel betrayed by the educators in these programs, the fault lies with us and publications like The Hollywood Reporter and Backstage, among others, for not asking the right questions when it comes to talking about how BIPOC students are embraced and educated at these schools.

At the very least, we should have asked a lot more questions than what their multi-cultural numbers were.

We should have asked about the BIPOC representation among the faculty. We should have asked about what texts were taught and emphasized in class. We should have asked about show selection and the casting process for BIPOC students. We should have asked about color-conscious casting vs. color blind. We should have asked about diversity and inclusion training for faculty. We should have asked about the availability of resources/mentors for BIPOC students in their program and at the school at-large.

But we didn’t do that. The Hollywood Reporter didn’t do that. Backstage didn’t do that.

Instead, we assumed that these programs embraced and valued all their students. And because of how these programs were highlighted, it sent BIPOC students to audition for schools that had no BIPOC faculty. It sent BIPOC students to schools that didn’t know how to communicate with BIPOC students in the classroom. It sent students to schools where they would endure microaggressions, bullying, racism, discrimination that either pushed them out of the program or made graduation feel like more of an escape than an achievement.

If publications like OnStage Blog, the Hollywood Reporter, or Backstage want to gain the trust of BIPOC students with our college recommendations, we need to own our failings of not digging into these programs to make sure they’re were doing right by these students. Many of them said they would, they’re BIPOC students, and alums say differently.

Worse yet, when many of these programs were exposed or called out, instead of owning it and pledging change, there was first a wave of shock at the suggestion they failed BIPOC students or outright denial.

So the process of adjudicating these schools has to be completely blown up and rebuilt anew. It’s been made clear that many of these programs accepted BIPOC students for PR purposes while gearing their education practices towards cookie-cutter types that far from included them.

I hope other publications who post these types of articles won’t publish them until they’ve reevaluated how they’re ranking these schools. We certainly will.

In the meantime, I hope that any BIPOC student or parents ask these questions to these schools and don’t settle for ambiguous answers. These aren’t easy questions for a young person to ask but they’re easy answers for a school that knows what those answers are. If they don’t, take that as a red flag.

When we do publish college rankings again, it will definitely include which schools have pledged change to their programs to support BIPOC students and which ones haven’t.