President Trumps budget proposal could affect University of Maryland

By Gillian Casey
March 17

COLLEGE PARK, Md. President Trump announced a 2018 budget proposal Thursday that will
eliminate funding for the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for
the Humanities (NEH) and other arts-
related agencies. This plan, which would
effectively shut down the NEA and NEH,
could threaten funding for the arts and
humanities at the University of Maryland,
College Park (UMD).

In the proposed financial plan, the

Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (John T. Consoli)
Department of Defense budget would
increase by $54 billion, the Department
of Veteran Affairs budget would grow by
$4.4 billion and the Department of
Homeland Security budget would rise by
$2.8 billion.

White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney considers this proposal a hard-power budget, as
increased defense and homeland security spending come at the cost of other agencies. Nineteen
agencies, including the NEA and the NEH, would be eliminated if Congress confirms the proposal.

While the NEA allows Americans to

participate in the arts and develop their
creativity, the NEH promotes excellence
in the humanities.
NEH Chair William Adams released a
statement about Trumps proposal.
We are greatly saddened to learn of this
proposal for elimination, as NEH has
made significant contributions to the
public good, Adams said.

Budget proposal infographic (Los Angeles Times Graphics)

The NEA and the NEH are also vital to UMD.

[The NEH and NEA] have been important in a lot of ways, said Arts and Humanities College
Dean Bonnie Dill in a Diamondback interview. They are a very important part of the work that
we do.
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The Clarice Smith Center for Performing Arts is supported by the Maryland State Arts Council,
which is funded by the NEA, according to the Diamondback.

If Trump were to eliminate the NEA and NEH, the Clarice Smith Center for Performing Arts, and
other art-related organizations on campus, would have to rely on donations and private funding.

Some students, however, believe private funding can be more beneficial than taxpayer dollars.

When organizations who foster arts operate under a for profit business model, they are forced to
create art in new thought-provoking forms because they are competing with other forms of visual
media and entertainment, said Varun Mohan, a sophomore computer engineering major at UMD.

Those against government funding for the arts and humanities believe more important agencies
need subsidies.

Many people believe any tangible benefits to art are individual and highly subjective. Critics think
the government should spend money on agencies that will be quantifiably beneficial for the
majority of the population, said Joey Marcellino, a sophomore physics, saxophone performance
and philosophy triple major at UMD.

While many who disagree with government funding for the arts and humanities hold conservative
ideologies, some Trump supporters do not agree with this budget proposal.

Even as someone who has voted for Trump, I think the arts should be a government funded
program because they actually dont cost much to the budget in the first place, said Cole
Drummond, a junior finance major at UMD.

Terps for Trump has not yet released a statement.

Students, such as Drummond, are worried about the elimination of the NEA and NEH for UMD.

If there is funding for STEM there should be funding for the humanities. It is still a very necessary
part of education, and I think choosing one completely over the other is ridiculous, said Lauren
Baker, a sophomore English and classics double major at UMD.

Christine Condon, a freshman Diamondback writer at UMD, commented on this issue.

Providing technology isnt the only thing our society needs, Condon said. We also need to be
enriched by the arts, enriched by communication and enriched by understanding what it means to
be human in more than a sense of what it means to create scientific ventures.

Drummond, Baker and Condon are just a few of the students who are uncertain where the
university would be without the NEA or the NEH to fund its programs.

Congress must approve or reject this budget, and UMD students await the decision.
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