Twenty-three years ago this week, The Amherst Student reported students' concerns over the future of Amherst's dramatic arts program. In the spring of 1981, 122 students enrolled in Amherst's six dance classes. Despite this obvious interest in dance classes, the College announced that the department would cut the number of classes down to only four for the 1981-82 academic year.

In addition to this, Dean of the Faculty Mary Catherine Bateson had asked the dramatic arts department not to begin hiring new professors, according to Professor Walter Boughton, chair of the dramatic arts department. "The dean has said that she wants to appoint a committee, I guess to determine the purpose of the dramatic arts department, before we do any hiring," said Boughton.

Objections to maintaining the dance program at Amherst were focused on the concern that dance does not fit under the liberal arts umbrella and should not be taught for credit. Rather, suggestions were made that dance should instead be incorporated into the physical education department.

Concerned students began a petition after "hearing too many scary rumors" about the deterioration of dance at Amherst. They gathered several hundred signatures. According to The Student, many majors worried that the decrease in dance course offerings "is the first step in an administrative attempt to phase out the dramatic arts department as a whole."

Some students were willing to make changes to keep the legitimacy of the department. "Rather than canning dance altogether, it seems to me we can raise it to an acceptable level," said Raissa Lerner '83. She suggested making attending and writing about concerts mandatory, in addition to assigning reading and learning anatomy as ways of raising classes to an accepted level for credit.

President Julian Gibbs, however, reassured students that "Amherst has a long tradition of excellence in dramatic arts and one way or another we want to maintain it."