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Item: WSU to cut departments of theater, dance/Andy Jones, WSU Evergreen
More Info: All the students in the Department of Theatre and Dance received notice of an emergency 1 p.m. meeting on Thursday at Wadleigh Theatre. Knowing that the university’s budget was expected to be announced today, the students braced for possible cuts of various positions within the department. Theatre instructor Ray Pritchard’s first words struck like a death blow. “The College of Liberal Arts has completely cut the theatre and dance (department),” he said. The department is not going down quietly.
Question: How important are theater and dance to a college curriculum?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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PatrickH on May 01 at 9:08 a.m.
I wonder what the cuts to athletics are? Probably little if any. This idea that we only fund sports and basic academics at all levels, while cutting the arts is tragic. We may be turning out students that can read and write, but what will they have to read and write about?
Digger on May 01 at 10:50 a.m.
I’ve never understood why one needs a degree in dancing. You can either dance or you can’t and the best way to learn is to just do it. Same with theater - so why do you need a degree?
Cuts to academic programs have been necessary for a long time and elimination of programs like this (which I would equate to a degree in underwater basket weaving) is what our country needs.
moscow_minidoka on May 01 at 10:55 a.m.
And attitudes like Digger’s are why the humanities are suffering in this country. Either you can draw or you can’t - why do you need a degree? Either you can design a bridge or you can’t - why do you need a degree? Either you can perform open-heart surgery or you can’t - why do you need a degree.
Give me a break. Your post reveals your ignorance about pursuits you don’t understand, and you obviously know nothing about the world of dance and theater. Why do you need a degree? If you have to even ask that question, it’s not worth giving you the answer.
LukeB on May 01 at 11:07 a.m.
Every bit as important as sports, if not more so, as they actually add to humanity as a whole. Sports are a mindless distraction.
idawa on May 01 at 11:12 a.m.
Our nation needs more artists, not less. Another example of the effort to turn American in to a dull, lean, economically efficient gulag.
Digger on May 01 at 11:28 a.m.
As usual, MM misses the point of my comment and skews it to things that you actually do need schooling in - architecture, medicine, etc…
The point was not that you’re either cut out for it or you’re not rather that perhaps our public universities have taken on too much with regards to courses and programs and have gotten away from core education.
moscow_minidoka on May 01 at 11:51 a.m.
And how, Digger, do you define “core education”? Things that are quantifiable? Things that make money?
toadman on May 01 at 12:00 p.m.
mm - Digger simply discounts anything in which he doesn’t find any value. He most likely has no understanding of how art, music, and dance, enhance and broaden the human experience making them more rounded human beings, and thereby, making them better at business or any other vocation or major.
Understanding and being exposed to art, music, dance, and etc. creates a deeper understanding of the human condition, and the human mind, and in turn, makes one better at relating to ones fellow man in any vocation.
We need artists, like we need air to breath. With out art and artists, we are a dull, lifeless, robotic society.
moscow_minidoka on May 01 at 12:22 p.m.
And I would like to add to Toadman’s post… having a department of Theater and/or Dance does not merely serve people who major in those fields. The majority of students taking such classes are NOT majors, but well-rounded students who have more than one interest in life (and in college).
Sisyphus on May 01 at 12:49 p.m.
I strongly agree with MM and Toadman. Digger’s criticism is reminiscent of the Oscar Wilde line on knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing. There’s a notion that the sciences power the future, the liberal arts explain it. Each discipline in the humanities has tremendous value. Certainly if the previous administration had been better versed in some liberal arts they wouldn’t have doomed us to repeat some history. But to say that dance and theater aren’t degree worthy pursuits demonstrates a woeful lack of appreciation for the discipline those students endure. There’s not a dance student I know that couldn’t kick an athlete’s ass on physical training and performance. And Ronald Reagan’s acting skills carried him far.
hmoffsuite on May 01 at 12:58 p.m.
I received a minor degree in speech from WSU. I took several speech, theater and acting classes as a result. I look back and feel that the training was beneficial and useful my entire life.
idawa on May 01 at 1:51 p.m.
the UW, today, announced that part of its cuts would be both the men’s and women’s swim teams.
spokelooneh on May 02 at 12:04 a.m.
Digger made a college career out of tilting at windmills and uttering long and meaningless diatribes at student government meetings before he bored of that and dropped out, a huge sigh of relief was heard, and he started selling used cars.
Doesn’t. Get. It.