Administration halted a dancer in the middle of her performance yesterday when SF State's Culturefest 2010 went past 2 p.m., breaking the University's restriction on playing music in the quad in the afternoon.

"I'm appalled," said Mitra Ara, who professor of foreign languages and literature. "I cannot justify this. They're just going to cut off a performer's music in the middle of her dance?"

Four international campus organizations put on the event in honor of International Education Week: Office of International Programs; Leadership, Engagement, Action, Development; International Education Exchange Council; and International House.

Culturefest received no money from administration and garnered support from local donations, Ara said.

The abrupt ending of the event also forced an SF State, Filipino student organization to cancel its performance, even though the students had practiced for weeks.

According to members of I-House, and organization dedicated to promoting linguistic, cultural and artistic activities, the 30-minute performance was put at then end of the schedule and administration promised the event could go until 2:30 p.m.

"It doesn't seem like the administration is looking out for the student's best interest," said senior E.T. Taylor, who is a member of the Filipino act that was supposed to perform. "They're hella strict on time which is understandable but it's not our fault."

Ara fears that sponsors of the event will not only be unsupportive for next year's Culturefest but will also ask for their money back for this year's event.

However, the event was still a relative success.

"The turnout was pretty good," said I-House representative and sophomore Kathleen Cervantes. "A lot of people came out and asked a lot questions and wanted to get more information."

The purpose of Culturefest is to draw students into learning more about various ethnic cultures by displaying an array of exhibits and performances.

Still, the sudden interruption put a damper on the event as a whole.

Ara vowed to speak with Corrigan and the rest of the administration about their reason for stopping the performances, so the situation does not occur again.

"We have to resolve this," Ara said. "I will talk to Corrigan or whoever I have to, to see that this doesn't happen again. This is not a good look for the University."