A heartbroken documentary community seeks answers
We, members of the Center for Documentary Studies community, are profoundly disturbed by the treatment of the CDS staff, faculty and community at large over the past 18 months by the new director with the approval of the CDS board. Instead of listening, observing, and carefully seeking to understand the various functions of CDS and how they might be improved, the CDS we all know and love has been rejected almost entirely. Seven staff were recently laid off on the heels of nine who voluntarily left over the last year. We understand that not only were these staff members laid off but also that their positions have been eliminated, essentially erasing many core functions and attributes of CDS built up over 34 years. We are all left wondering how the programming and classes we have all benefited from could possibly be saved.