In case you are too busy re-scheduling your senior thesis to read the thousand word letter, we have consolidated and bulleted the main points:

• This has been a problem for the past five years that we have failed to fix in a sustainable way Spider man 2 download.
• We warned you in the fall of 2007 that while you were covered individually for over a million dollars in insurance, a student actually needing a tenth of this could destroy our program’s policy.
• The kid who lost $100,000 in lenses was warned a number of times, like all Tisch students, and probably is to blame.
• We changed this policy to prevent our insurance from being taken away in 2009 but even that may not work.
• We are sad but everyone is sad now too because of the economy.
• You should be happy with the equipment we provide because our faculty reviews it – those who have ‘grander’ ideas hurt the ones that don’t.
• You can get more Sandbags from us if you want. Those are cheap.
• We have four people that will be visiting your classes, there you can vent your frustrations.
• We are doing everything we can to ensure you don’t transfer to USC.

Full letter after the jump.

March 11, 2009

Dear Students and Alumni:

We are writing in response to your open letter in NYU Local dated March 10, 2009
and want to say that we appreciate and understand the issues and the concerns
you raise.

Allow us now to explain the events that lead to our sudden “application of a
tourniquet” to what we can only describe as our hemorrhaging insurance policy
issue. To be sure, production insurance has been a major issue in the Kanbar
Institute for some time, particularly as our choice of carriers has dwindled to
just one. In the past, we had several choices of carriers but due to national
issues facing all insurance carriers as well as Kanbar’s tremendous losses over
the past five years only one insurance carrier will write us a policy. And that
company has warned us repeatedly that that if we have another major loss it will
be forced to consider not renewing our policy.

The loss of our insurance program would mean students would no longer be covered
for departmental or rental equipment as well as liability for locations and
workers’ compensation insurance; the latter is mandatory if students are to
continue working with professional actors. Beginning fall 2007, we began
telling students in each of the production classes that if losses continued it
would have a devastating effect on our insurance program. At the same time we
have also tried to instill more responsible practices by our filmmakers while
using any equipment. In addition, we also began providing information about the
supplemental insurance program we are now requiring you to purchase.

This past year, a few of our students suffered large losses of equipment that
amounted to approximately $100,000 when lenses were taken from an unattended
van, something students are continually warned about by the faculty and the
staff, and is also mentioned in the production handbook. This latest loss could
not have come at a worse time as NYU’s Office of Risk Management and Insurance
is in the middle of negotiations with our insurance carrier for the renewal of
our policy.

As a result, in an emergency meeting with Dean Antonio, Chair Lamar Sanders,
several faculty, and the department’s senior staff in consultation with NYU’s
Office of Risk Management & Insurance it was agreed that the only option for
continuing the negotiations with our insurance carrier was to immediately
implement this policy change. It was felt by all that by prohibiting students
from using NYU insurance to cover rental equipment (one of the major causes for
losses)—thereby requiring them to purchase additional coverage from CSI (College
Student Insurance) at an additional cost of $110—we may stand a good chance of
having our policy renewed for next year. This is the “tourniquet” of which we
spoke earlier. But just to be clear, we are still at risk of losing the entire
insurance program, even with the implementation of this change.

While we are all saddened by the reality that our policy is so affected by the
actions of a few there is no way to isolate those few from the rest of us as
the policy covers the entire department. This is the case nationally with
insurance, medical care, and the entire financial structure of our country.

We believe the issue for students to really be focused on, however, is the level
of equipment we provide for exercises in required courses vs. the level of
equipment some students want to rent for both the required as well as optional
advanced courses. Every spring semester, the faculty review the equipment
packages provided for each production course in order to make sure it each
pedagogically sufficient to complete the work and degree requirements. As we
all know, some students have grander ideas about their projects and this in turn
increases student production budgets, which in turn drives up our premiums.

It should be noted also that UGFTV students are not required to direct advanced
films in order to graduate. That decision is an optional one.

In your open letter it was stated that students are renting equipment “…to keep
our sets safe while maximizing the use of our NYU allotted equipment…” It is
not the loss of sandbags or other safety equipment that have been claimed on our
insurance policy; it was lenses, cameras, and outsider rental equipment. Safety
is our number one concern and we will gladly spend whatever additional money is
needed to ensure that. We are asking the faculty and staff to review the safety
equipment we provide and recommend any additional equipment that needs to be
purchased to make sure all safety requirements are met.

We are confused when you state in the letter too that students are renting
equipment to ensure safety on their sets, but then you go on to write they are
renting “lenses and special lighting” and “professional-standard film
equipment”, none of which is related to safety. Furthermore, your letter points
out that “The decision of students to rent supplementary equipment is often
economic….” We are not sure how it can be economical to rent additional
equipment thus spending additional money for a project that can be completed
with departmental equipment, according Kanbar faculty. Each year, faculty and
administrators spend a great amount of time consulting with one another to be
sure that every course is provided with adequate equipment without the need for
rentals.

Finally, the purpose of the faculty meeting earlier this week was to determine
how we may best assist those students who are most affected by these drastic
changes in policy, but especially those who are shooting in the near future. Be
assured that we are working to create a “response/support system” for them.
Lamar Sanders, the Chair of UGFTV, Rick Litvin, the Executive Director of
production for UGFTV, Rosanne Limoncelli, the Director of Production for Kanbar,
and Christina DeHaven in the Production Center, have made themselves available
for this assistance. Not only have they visited classes to discuss these issues
but they also insisted that the production faculty alert them to any student
production(s) immediately affected. If you or someone you know is in a similar
situation and your production faculty has not communicated with you, please
contact any of the above people immediately.

We completely agree with you that “the Equipment Insurance was a cornerstone of
NYU’s many resources for student filmmakers.” And to reiterate, we took the
measures we did in order to maintain not only our insurance program but the film
program itself. Unfortunately, the recent change does not guarantee our
policy’s renewal, and our efforts may still prove ineffective. Trust that we
are doing everything possible with the guidance of our colleagues at NYU’s
Office of Risk Management and Insurance to preserve Kanbar’s insurance program.

Sincerely,
Sheril D. Antonio, Associate Dean of Film, Television, New Media
Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music

Lamar Sanders, Chair of the Undergraduate Department of Film & Television
Kanbar Institute of Film & Television

——————— via NYU E-Mail Direct ———————