USF melds theater, dance

Dance faculty say joining the theater program degrades the prestige of their discipline. College administrators say budget constraints forced the issue.

By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 8, 2002

TAMPA -- The fears of dance students and faculty at the University of South Florida have come true. Wednesday, the university merged the dance program with the theater program into a department of theater and dance. The immediate effect was to eliminate the dance department and its chairman's post, which had been vacant.

Ron Jones, dean of USF's College of Visual and Performing Arts, told theater and dance faculty.

"The value of dance has nothing to do with what happened," Jones said Thursday. "What happened is that the college doesn't have enough money."

Jones and other USF administrators have been struggling since last summer with state-mandated budget cuts, which became even more severe after Sept. 11. The $10-million budget of the college, which includes art, music, theater and dance, was slashed by 8 percent.

With fewer than 80 students majoring in dance, Jones said, the department was the smallest in the college. Art and music each has about 400 majors, and theater has about 175.

"I think that by administratively combining theater and dance, it will give them more equity with art and music," Jones said.

Theater chairman Barton Lee will head the newly merged department. Dance faculty see the merger as a loss of prestige for their discipline.

"In the world of dance and academe, unless you are your own department, you really don't garner very much respect," dance professor Gretchen Ward Warren said. "A program that's a department of theater and dance would be looked down upon in the academic dance world."

Dance students and faculty have felt singled out by the cuts. The department has been without a leader since last summer, when Timothy Wilson resigned as chairman to go to the University of North Texas. Wilson's salary of about $60,000 plus benefits fell to the budget cuts.

Jones also moved to eliminate the dance education program, which had 22 majors studying to become dance teachers in the public schools.

Cuts in arts education are going on throughout Florida's university system, which is reeling from the loss of state revenue in an economic downturn. At St. Petersburg College's Clearwater campus, the small theater department is being virtually shut down, with no more student productions planned.

With eight full-time faculty members, the USF dance department is widely respected. Facilities in the Dance Centre, which opened in 1984, are the best in the state, according to Warren.

"It's pretty sad around here right now," she said. "We're trying to hold our head up."

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright