I'm not saying we should discourage people from becoming professional artists, just as I don't think we should discourage people from becoming professional athletes.

What I am saying, is that a college major isn't the only way to support a profession, and that removing degree programs in the arts does not imply that society doesn't value the arts.

Based on how much media coverage goes towards sports, I think it's fair to say that American society HIGHLY values sports, right?

And yet, nobody in the NFL or NBA has a college degree in football or basketball.

Most of those players did go to college, but they got a degree in something else - because we acknowledge as a society that a career as a professional athlete is a LONG SHOT. So we make sure that prospective professional athletes hedge their bets toward some other career path.

But we don't show our artists the same courtesy. And instead, our colleges just take their money and tell them to follow their dream of creating great art - without giving them any practical skills or certifications to land on if the art doesn't work out.

We expect all of our prospective professional athletes to pursue their sport merely as an extracurricular activity up until the moment they get drafted. Why can't we have a similar expectation of our artists?