After decades without a film degree, the university will once again be offering students the option to major in film studies as early as the fall.

The University Senate voted yesterday, 76 to 7 with three abstentions, to approve the proposal for reinstating the major, which was eliminated in the early 1990s. The approval comes about five years after faculty members, many of them members of the non-degree-granting Graduate Field Committee in Film Studies, renewed the push to create a formal film studies major, which they say is in great demand on the campus.

Professor Luka Arsenjuk, who was hired last semester to teach two new film classes, said the major will capitalize on the wide variety of well-attended film studies classes offered in departments across the campus.

“The major will introduce some new classes and, in a larger sense, it’ll be using the courses and resources that are already here,” Arsenjuk said. “I definitely think there’s an interest.”

The 39-credit major will include a required introductory course in film form and two film history classes, one focusing on silent cinema and the other on cinema in the sound area. Arsenjuk said the required courses would provide students with a broad background.

“We’ll teach different national cinemas, Hollywood cinema, different genres. We’ll teach film theory and history,” he said. “It will be kind of an all-encompassing comprehensive course load that a student will have to take.”

Junior individual studies major Peter Garafalo, president of the Maryland Filmmakers Club, said he was glad students will soon be able to gain the degree without creating their own film major, as he did.

“Our film club has over 85 active members so far, and I know all of them are all really interested in pursuing film in a scholarly way, an academic way,” Garafalo said. “I think it’s really necessary nowadays to include that, especially at a university of this size.”

However, several students said they were disappointed the university is not creating a filmmaking major.

Freshman psychology major Dan Lerner said film production courses would benefit those hoping to enter the field after graduation.

“I think that if they had a filmmaking major, they’d have a lot more people that would be considering it,” he said.

Russian professor Elizabeth Papazian, who helped develop the proposal along with other members of the non-degree Graduate Field Committee in Film Studies, said there are no plans to push for a film production degree, which would have required the university to purchase new equipment and editing software.

Garafalo said although students can learn to make movies on their own – as many students on the campus do – having an academic background in film theory and history can be helpful.

“Film studies is going to be a lot more lasting,” he said. “The films aren’t going to change, but the technology changes every single year.”

However, Garafalo said because of the versatility of technology today, he doubts adding a production major would be as expensive as the university claims.

“With how cheap it is to make a movie today with digital camcorders, you can easily have a production major like a creative writing major,” he said.

Arsenjuk said he believes the new offering will attract students interested in producing films, as well as those solely interested in the historical aspect of cinema.

“I think for students who want to make films, I think what the major will represent is an opportunity to gain a kind of education in the history of cinema, but also to think about cinema critically,” he said. “It’s the kind of knowledge any aspiring filmmaker also needs. … It’s not production oriented, but it definitely complements the interest of those interested in producing film.”

kirkwood@umdbk.com