National Associations of Schools of Dance Evaluate UWM to be Reaccredited

The Department of Dance faculty meeting revealed on Monday that the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Department of Dance is about to embark on a reaccreditation process from the National Associations of Schools of Dance.

They have been accredited by the institution for the past 10 years, according to Chair of the department, Maria Gillespie.

To be an established member gives your department recognition and legitimacy in the field so other Universities, prospective students or grant givers know you have been through the process to receive the qualifications.

“Because I’m new to the chair position, I have never experienced this accreditation process before,” said Gillespie, who took over as chair of the department this year.

According to Gillespie, NASD has a very rigorous set of regulations, protocols and networking connections of resources for schools nationwide. A very large piece of being a member of the institution if being accredited by them.

Former Chair of the department, Simone Ferro, shared her knowledge of NASD with Gillespie and the rest of the dance faculty at the meeting.

“They are the eyes and ears of the association, everything that is said and seen is a part of the evaluation,” said Ferro. “They are not only looking at the class, but also the composition of the room, the accompanist, how the students are in transition from class to class and the environment in the lobby area.”

Noting the importance of this, Gillespie added that there needs to be extra emphasis on the students to take care of the studios during the week and clean up after themselves.

“An important part of this is standardization of dance training,” added Gillespie. The external evaluators review the teaching curriculum, the staff and facilities to make sure what the school say they’re doing and delivering to the students is actually happening.

According to Gillespie, the dance faculty have been writing a 150-page self-study including every program, class, rubric and syllabi. The external evaluators of NASD review the self-study beforehand.

The two external evaluators coming to UWM are Ann Dils, PhD Professor and Chair Department of Dance at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and Rebekah Kowal, Curriculum Viate Department of Dance at the University of Iowa. They will be at UWM from Wednesday to Friday.

“They make sure the students are being served to get what they deserve, what they’re paying for and what they deserve as creative academic artists,” said Gillespie. “It’s really in place to protect students and allow for programs to be established members of NASD.”

According to Gillespie, accreditation does allow for some dance schools to be eligible to apply for national federal grants.

During the meeting, the schedule of the external evaluators two-and-a-half-day tour was discussed. For Gillespie, this includes transporting them to where they need to be, taking them to academic dance classes they specifically requested and alerting dance faculty of when they will be present in their classes.

“I just need to make sure they have time to see all kinds of classes,” said Gillespie. “There are so many tiny windows in the schedule of our classes so they might not make it to the full class, but at least they will see part of it.”

Upon further discussion of the schedule, Gillespie revealed they are planning to compile a collage of performance video footage for the evaluators to review.

Dance Department M.F.A Director and Associate Professor, Daniel Burkholder, added that it would be nice to include theses video footage of the M.F.A. students in the program. Gillespie agreed considering the evaluators will be having a virtual meeting with the M.F.A students as part of their evaluation process.

“It’s better to plan ahead so you don’t get your feathers raffled on the day you are being observed,” Gillespie stressed to the faculty in attempt to prepare them for the week ahead.

After a thorough evaluation of the department, the evaluators will meet with Peck School of the Arts Dean, Kevin Hartman, as well as Chancellor Mark Mone in a virtual meeting.

“They are assessing the whole school, not just the dance program,” said Gillespie. “They are accrediting UWM as a giver of highly valued dance degrees.”

In addition to the two external evaluators, there will be two internal evaluators from UWM who will be reviewing the department along with NASD.

“Lucky me, my new job as chair is including all these assessments at the same time,” said Gillespie.

The two internal evaluators are a part of the Graduate Program Review Committee, which Gillespie served on for one year, and they too do a review every ten years of the Graduate Programs at UWM.

“It did happen by chance that the reviews are aligned at the same moment, but it is not too uncommon considering UWM has a hybrid model to purposely combine the internal and external evaluators at the same time for one big review,” said Gillespie.

After the evaluation is done, the evaluators will write a report stating one of three things, according to Gillespie. “They can say yes you are reaccredited, yes you are reaccredited if you make these adjustments or you are on pause until you change these things.”

However, the department won’t get the written accreditation report back until a year from now.

The Department of Dance at UWM has a long week ahead of them. On top of the on-site evaluators visiting, they are also hosting their annual New Dancemakers show featuring dance BFA and BA seniors’ choreographic works. The evaluators will attend the show as well.