For decades, SF State’s dance department has been one of the country’s most diverse programs, providing a wide range of classes and opening student’s eyes to a world of dance that they could not get elsewhere.

The dance department is yet another victim of the budget cuts that are sweeping the SF State campus, depleting programs and classes while fees are being raised and teachers are being fired.

The department has not received final word of what will need to be cut, but the administration has given warnings, according to Jerry Duke. Duke, coordinator of dance studies, says the department has been cut down each of the past three years and will not be spared this fall.

“We have been told that cuts would be severe,” said Duke. “That most part-timers may be laid off, and that we should not tell any of them, that they will be laid off. This has created a huge amount of tension throughout the university.”

The dance program is made up of approximately 55 percent lecturers, which the department heavily relies on.

“Any cuts to our dance program will be devastating,” said Duke.

According to Susan Hall, assistant to Keith Morrison, the dean of the dance department, it is still too early to know exactly what will happen and that there are no hard numbers yet.

“We aren’t being singled out,” said Hall. “The entire campus will be getting cuts. I won’t deny that the cuts will be extreme.”

Alicia Pierce is a dance lecturer and has been teaching classes at SF State, such as African-Haitian Dance, since the mid-1970s. She said the department is in danger of losing a core of the classes offered and that the cuts will be depleting the talent and diversity the program has attracted for so many years.

“The mission of our program is that students should have a wide breadth of courses to learn different forms of dance,” said Pierce. “If we have less to offer than we are straying from our mission.”

Pierce noted the department is split between performance choreography and ethnology dance and the latter category is what the program is known for nationally and that is what has been cut dramatically. The program features a wide array of courses featuring many cultural dances such as African-Hatian, the North Indian dance, Kathak, and Capoeira.

Pierce said with the upcoming cuts, current students would be able to finish their programs to graduate but that there might not be many new students attracted to the program if they cannot complete it.

“What’s the point? Who will come?” Pierce said. “We have a very good faculty that is strong and dedicated. But our mission is being lost when there are no resources. We have to do as much as we do now with less.”

The School of Music and Dance has more lecturers than any other on campus. The dance department relies on these lecturers because each of them specializes in a different dance, mostly ethnic dances that add to the wide spectrum of dance the program has grown famous for.

Susan Whipp has taught dance at SF State since 1982 and says she has put her life into this program. She is one of only two full-time tenure track faculty members that will be returning in the fall. She is stressed about the upcoming budget cuts and says she has lost sleep thinking about the funding issues the department faces.

The dance department will be given the final funding numbers in May. Whipp is in charge of making the schedule for next semester. She has been allowed to schedule the 45 percent of classes that the full time staff will be able to teach, but has had to list and prioritize the other 55 percent that lecturers teach and add classes according to the upcoming budget.

She stresses that nothing is certain in terms of the dance budget.

“Things may be cut dramatically,” said Whipp. “But they may not, things may work out. We just don’t know what is going to happen.”

Whipp says SF State’s budget problems did not start on campus and to make change occur students need to affect what the governor and the legislature are thinking.

“This is not a campus issue,” she said. “This is not a storm the dean’s office issue. This is a state issue. Students need to contact their congress-person and tell them what is going on and how it is affecting them.”

Albirda Rose, who teaches Theory and Practice of Dance Education, says the budget cuts are putting education at risk and that education is one of the biggest steps in the American dream.

A self-proclaimed child of the 1960s, Rose says she was taught that education was a means to a peaceful and successful society. “But if we as a people do not fix the system there may be no dreams for anyone and the America we know will no longer exist. Greed will win.”

“After 31 years on the campus of SFSU,” said Rose, “it is difficult to watch what may be the ending to what really never had the chance to become, the best and most unique dance programs in any institution of higher learning. It is another dream deferred.”

Dance majors have reacted to the possible cuts in several ways. In late February, about 70 students gathered to protest the possible cuts of the department. They marched around campus and interrupted classes, trying to get other students to walk out, and shouted slogans such as “I just want to dance!”

The Student Dance Alliance has started writing letters to Congress to plead the SF State cuts be mild.

It is still some time off until the dance department will find out how much of their budget will be cut and what adjustments will need to be made for next year. Until then, students will practice their dance and hope for the best.

“We have beautiful students dancing at professional levels here,” Whipp said, “I hope we will continue to attract strong and confident dancers despite the cuts, if any.”