Policies and Practices

Fordham Theatre aims to foster a diverse community of artist-citizens representative of a broad scope of identities and experiences. We seek students who take creative risks and are curious about the world around them and will then use their artistry to make meaningful change. Our community prioritizes experiential learning with an emphasis on collaboration and creating a caring, accessible and inclusive environment that enriches student growth across artistic disciplines. We lead with the following values and put into place practices that reflect those values. 

Values

  • Intention: An ongoing awareness of the goals and impact of our work, and openness to be challenged and hear other points of view and interpretations of how our work is received.
  • Sustainability: The ability to sustain the drive of our work and the longevity of the program, through clear expectations and healthy academic and production structures, as well as cultivating space for individual self-care and resiliency.
  • Transparency: The openness necessary for honest communication between faculty and students, and students among themselves, that facilitates the handling of difficult or charged topics. We entrust mature initiative to communicate concerns, questions, or grievances, primarily with anyone directly involved, and if not resolved, then folding in any other respective parties as are deemed appropriate.
  • Diversity: A celebration of differences and an acknowledgment of inequities that reflects itself within our community, academics, and creative output.
  • Care: The serious attention or consideration applied to doing something purposefully to avoid damage or harm; a way of working that accounts for the whole person and the environment. Care must be reflexive and instinctive for: the world, the work, each other, and oneself.
  • Authenticity: Expressing and maintaining truth.
  • Responsibility: An acceptance of your role within a group and a commitment to follow through on your word. This includes a collective responsibility to each other as artists and people.

Practices

  • Cultural Humility: A commitment to self-evaluation and self-evaluation with an understanding of historical perspective. Acting with cultural humility means recognizing the shifting nature of intersecting identities and acts with ongoing curiosity and openness to other points of view.
  • Creative Risk: Expressing enthusiasm for exiting your comfort zone, an urge toward the unknown, and a willingness to fail.
  • Collaboration: The commitment to work with others and willingly exchange ideas and practices through open communication.
  • Engagement: The full immersion in the work and willingness to dive into wider artistic questions, promote spaces of active conversation, and utilize artisanship as citizenship.
  • Accountability: The responsibility to hold ourselves and the community to the values outlined above in order to create a positive, caring, and conscientious artistic and academic environment.
  • Adaptation: The ability to respond and change to the current circumstances of the program, the university, and the world at large.

We Don’t Accept

Complacency, prejudice, ethnocentrism, stereotypes, victim blaming, harassment, retaliation, bigotry at large (i.e. racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, ageism, ableism, colonialism, etc), discrimination (based on familial status, pregnancy, religious affiliation, country of origin, citizenship status, etc.), and violence towards self or others.

Commitment

Fordham Theatre is committed to being an anti-racist organization that respects and honors all voices while upholding its values with mindfulness, action, and always in the spirit of collaboration. We understand that the United States is a country founded on white supremacy and anti-Blackness, and that these belief systems are tightly woven throughout American arts and culture and higher education.  We recognize Fordham Theatre's place within that history, and we acknowledge that we have not always lived up to these values. We understand that uprooting biases requires ongoing work. To this end, we have been reviewing, and are continuing to review, our policies and practices in order to create an inclusive, anti-racist environment for our artists, staff members, and audiences. We wish to express solidarity with and gratitude towards those from historically oppressed communities whose voices have raised consciousness and encouraged action.

Warn/Cut Policy

In order to maintain the integrity of the program and quality of education, Fordham theatre program has a policy called warn/cut. Students who perform poorly in their theater major classes are given a warning.  The student will then undergo a semester-long probationary period to improve their performance. If, after the following semester, the faculty evaluation remains the same, the student has the option of remaining a theatre minor but must declare another major. This policy is intended to uphold the rigor of the program. Faculty will do their best to support and nurture the success of each student.