After reading UC San Diego’s tentative funding plan for the 2024–2025 academic year, Biochemistry major Beaker Labson was “floored” to learn about UCSD’s numerous renowned art departments, including music, theatre, visual arts, and dance. “When I first came to UCSD, I was surprised enough that my roommate was a history major,” said Labson, “but I can’t believe a serious school like this would actually let people major in stuff like ‘acting.’”
The new funding plan would include a reduction in the Biological Sciences department’s grant — from $94 million to $93.5 million — and an extra $500 in funding for the fine arts departments. “What do they need all that money for?” asked Labson. “Crayons? Do they even have classes?”
Labson recently founded Students Against Arts Degrees (SAAD) and began campaigning to prevent this funding change. With SAAD, he hopes to “get things back to normal,” following his theory that “with more money funneled into STEM, fewer students will want to spend time drawing and tap dancing instead of doing worthwhile work like memorizing all the organic chemistry functional groups.”
