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Last week, as most students rushed to pick up a copy of the new class schedule book and begin registering for classes, a small group began questioning the administration in regards to the dance classes offered.
The usual dance classes did appear in the book, but all of them had the number zero set for enrollment. Although there were other classes set at zero, such as some math and language sections, avid dance students and their professors believed the dance program was done for.
Immediately, students and teachers began questioning the administration, flyers were passed out and letters were written.
Through the efforts of Laurie Hicks, the interim chair for dance and theatre, and Ann Ross, the coordinator of the dance program, funding for the program was found and, at least for the fall 2002 semester, dance classes will continue.
Thus, everything was assumed to be fine, at least for next semester.
“At the end of each semester, we are told there is no funding for next year,” Ross said. “This was the first time it ever appeared that the program was cut all together, but still, they have to stop doing this. They have to stop threatening.”
According to Hicks, dance is funded through three sources, a gift from Stephen and Tabitha King, section money provided by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the monies from the continuing education program for certain classes. For next semester, the King’s money and the continuing education money is still available.
“Dance never had base-budgeted dollars until this year,” said Virginia Nees-Hatlan, the associate dean for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “Now, there is some guaranteed funding, but it is necessary to supplement base dollars with section one-time money to meet the demand for sections. We have no funds in the base budget for spring dance classes because the faculty decided to use all of the base-budgeted funds in the fall and hope that one-time moneys can be arranged for the spring. We have some ideas about where funds for spring sections might come from, but we need more information than we have before we can make final budget allocations for sections needed around the college. We need to know about sabbaticals to be funded by the university, for example. Once we have that additional information, we will be able to speak much more definitely about plans for the spring.”
Plans are already being made for the future of dance at UMaine. Ross pointed out that at present there are 15 students who are dance minors and 170 students taking dance classes. There are also waiting lists for most classes and interest has been shown in the dance minor by 70 incoming first-years for next year.
“Even though our program is only part time,” Ross said, “dance is a vibrant, growing program. We have nowhere to go but up and, if the university allows it, we will.”
“If it’s up to me and Ann Ross, this program will not go away,” Hicks said. “It will grow into one of the best on campus.”
Despite these high hopes, students and faculty are still nervous about the future of dance.
“Basically right now I feel that we are still in jeopardy of losing the program,” said Jessica Bishop, a second year dance major and co-leader of the UMaine dance club. “The generosity of the donor to keep the department alive for the fall semester is greatly appreciated, but it’s not enough. We can’t expect donations just to float into our laps.”
Right now, chances are that much fewer dance classes will be available in future years. This would potentially cripple the minor, which requires 18 hours of dance classes.
“If only 9 hours of dance are offered a semester, it will be difficult to continue with the minor,” Ross said.
Students are relating this to last semester’s theatre program scare, saying that, just like theatre, they will fight until they win.
“If it takes a Student Senate meeting storming to drum up peer support, we’ll do it,” Bishop said. “If it takes petitioning in the Union, we’ll do it. If we have to hold special fund-raisers and involve community dance alumni from the university, we’ll do it. We’ll be spending next semester making sure our program does not get cut.”
The college of Liberal Arts said that it never had any plans of cutting the program or the minor. Hicks said that she has no doubt that what has been done has been done because it had to be.
“If the college had their way, I’m sure we’d be getting as much funding as we needed. The college recognizes the importance of this program, and they won’t cut it without absolute necessity to do so,” she said.
“There is and never was any intention to cancel the Dance minor or to cancel fall 2002 dance classes,” Nees-Hatlan said.
Still, students and faculty do plan on making their name and program known to avoid any future problems and to show just how important they are to this school.
“People at this school want to dance,” Ross said. “You can’t just ignore that. It is time to make this program solid. It is time to make this program grow. It is time to dance.”
