April 2019 Townhall Notecard Transcriptions and Responses
Statements and questions submitted anonymously in response to the prompt, “What does this department need?” by people who attended the UW Department of Dance Town Hall on Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion on April 24th2019. Responses written by the department Diversity Committee follow.
Open Letter from Fulltime Faculty to Students who Attended Testimonio on May 21, 2019
A letter the faculty composed to the students who attended a May 2019 forum titled "Calling in Dance: A Student Testimonial Forum.” The forum was facilitated by Dani Tirrell and Rachel Chapman, and all five full time faculty members were present. The fifteen undergraduate students and one graduate student who attended the forum were mostly people of color, and those who boldly spoke their experiences of hurt, frustration and silencing within the Department of Dance were primarily people of color. The faculty was asked to remain silent and not respond because many students felt that they had shared their stories and experiences before under other circumstances, and were frustrated because they had not felt heard.