Dance, theatre departments will combine to form new school

Most of the academic consolidations discussed last semester are unlikely to materialize, but the dance and theatre departments are moving forward with their plan to combine, administrators said.

Despite the focus on mergers as cost-saving tools last semester, the university's dire budget situation was not a driving force in the decision to combine the dance and theatre departments to form the School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies, said Daniel Wagner, the acting chairman of the dance department and chairman of the theatre department. Instead, the newly formed school will intend to promote cross-collaboration among the departments, he said.

Although university officials considered fusing other departments, including African American studies, women's studies and American studies, the disciplines were found to be too dissimilar to go forward with the plans, Arts and Humanities Dean James Harris said.

Talks of folding the classics deparment into another program have also been abandoned.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender studies was not considered as part of a merger as had been previously reported, he said.

Initially, the consolidation of African American studies, American studies and women's studies was considered to increase collaboration, as well as insulate the departments from budget cuts. A larger unit may be better prepared to handle by shuffling its resources around, Harris said.

Regardless of the possible benefits, Harris said the departments worried merging the different disciplines would jeopardize their unique identities.

"We were concerned that it would dilute or inhibit our ability to pursue that public policy scholarship that the department is known for," African American studies professor Darrell Gaskin said.

Unlike the resistance the other merger plans met, Wagner said dance and theatre faculty were overwhelmingly supportive of the plan to form a joint school.

Dance and theate programs are already integrated at many universities, Wagner said, and combining the two programs would encourage disciplines like performance studies — which investigates performance traditions across cultures — to draw from both programs.

Likewise, theatre students studying scenery design may want to help produce a dance performance.

"It's going to, over time, create tremendous new opportunities for cross-discipline performance activities, new curriculum, new courses that look to involve dance and theatre students together," Wagner said.

The combined department would include about 25 full-time faculty, 270 undergraduates and 50 graduate students, Wagner said.

Although the slumping state budget is a concern, both departments are buoyed by a multi-million-dollar donation from the Smith family, and cost cutting was not the major consideration, Wagner said. And he noted the savings, which he estimated at less than $100,000 per year, have already been realized: Wagner has been acting chairman of the dance department since 2007, and staff positions have already been consolidated.

The dance and theatre merger still has to pass the university's review process, which includes consideration by the University Senate.

Harris said whether or not programs are combined, budget cuts still threaten university departments.

"Some small units — classics is one of them — yes, I worry about them," he said.

But for classics' Acting Chairwoman Lillian Doherty, the announcement that the merger proposal involving her department is no longer on the table was good news.

Doherty wrote in an e-mail that she was pleased her department will stay independent.

Combining classics with another department could make the university seem less prestigious, she added, because the university's peer institutions have stand-alone classics programs.

Potential budget benefits were illusory, she said.

"It turned out that there would be practically no financial savings, and we would not really be protected because if our faculty lines were transferred to another department, they could be converted into (e.g.) English or Spanish lines when we retire," Doherty wrote.

cox@umdbk.com