"Maybe other colleges will have some things to learn from this that will give their students a voice."
-Salma Elwy, Pre-Teaching Student Advisory Board representative.
The 2020-21 Rowan University Department of Theatre & Dance Student Advisory Board (SAB) has been working hard to change the pace in our school and set an example for others. The board represents our current student body and will participate in conversations with our peers and faculty with the goal of initiating shifts within our department that honor and represent our ever-evolving mission and our students.
2020-21 SAB: Michaela Navarro (She/Her) - Design/Technology
Salma Elwy (She/Her) - Pre-Teaching
Gabrielle Langevine (She/Her) - Dance
Rahbert Britt-Tillery (He/Him) - Acting
Jessica Harzer (She/Her) - Musical Theatre
This opportunity for an open form of communication, inclusion, diverse representation, and transparency is holding RUTD accountable to active progress. Want to hear more about what the SAB hopes to accomplish? Keep on reading!
Why did you apply for the Student Advisory Board (SAB)?
Salma Elwy (SE): "I remember them bringing up the SAB when we had the 'How can we do better?' talk in May. They mentioned getting the students and alumni more involved and a lot of people were worried they were kind of saying these things and that they weren't going to follow through with them, including me. When they said they were doing the board I was like, 'Oh! This is my chance to make sure they're going to follow through with this.' I can be the one to stay on top of it. I remembered the things people were saying and what their concerns are. 'I'm qualified; Why not?' I feel like I had something to do."
Gabrielle Langevine (GL): "I applied because Paule and I had a conversation in the beginning of the fall semester about racial issues and issues about women in general because that's what I'm really interested in. I kind of want to go in that directing when it comes to minoring. We had a conversation, and as a freshman I wanted to get to know the department a little bit more. Also, I'm not on campus so that doesn't help, but I just wanted to throw myself into something that will be beneficial for myself and the student body."
SE: "I would say the purpose of the SAB is making sure there is communication between the students and the faculty and that the power dynamics aren't always there when it comes to bringing up concerns and making the department better. Just kind of leveling that playing field."
What do you hope to accomplish this semester?
JH: "We have a big list of things. The first thing, and I think this is one of the things we are most proud of, is creating this really large document with all of the concerns which were voiced during our town hall. It was November of last semester. We shared that with the faculty, explained what the issues are that our students see in our department, and said, 'Alright, what can we do to fix these issues?'
Actually, and this was announced in the first Colloquium of this semester, the students were very concerned about our advisor and I guess the department did not know how bad that issue had gotten. Now there are plans in place to make sure that theatre and dance students are getting the advising help they need to make sure they are graduating on time, getting the credits they need, that they are not staying here longer than they need to, and being able to plan out their college career not by themselves. That was our first order of business.
Through the past two semesters we've been having town halls; we're going to have another town hall. We've also been having meetings with the department. We are making sure conversations are happening. Right now, and this is my favorite part about our accomplishments, we are in the process of creating a workshop for the faculty/staff of the department with the Social Justice, Inclusion, and Conflict Resolution (SJICR) Office. We're creating a sensitivity workshop because students have noted there are a lot of issues that office pertains, so we're going to be working with them."
RB: "Jessica really hit it all. Those are the main two things I'm really excited about as well. There's always going to be that authoritative figure, so trying to break down that protective wall and helping them understand 'Hey, you can make a mistake and that's okay. You are human too and we understand that, but now that you know the mistake let's fix it so it doesn't keep happening.' There's a difference between a mistake and a choice, and something that keeps happening is a choice. We're trying to help them understand, 'Let's not make bad choices.'"
In your work have you encountered any problems? How did you deal with them?
SE: "I think maybe we all thought this process was going to happen a lot faster than it has. This is the first year we're doing anything like this so nobody really knows what's going on just yet. In our heads, we were like, 'We're going to jump in, fix everything, and by the end of the spring semester everything's going to be fine!' That's not the case. I think this is going to keep happening after we all graduate and everything we might want to accomplish might not happen right away. It's a really long process, but we're figuring it out."
JH: "To add onto Salma's point, the communication lines between students and professors were and are really frayed. Realizing the depth of the issues was kind of a shell shock, but I think what's nice about this group is we all have the same goal here, even if it's maybe through different branches. We're all going to communicate how far we want to get to that goal. Sometimes you get out of meeting and it's like, 'Oh well, that was kind of disappointing.' I mean, I think that happens with everything, but it's nice to come back and be like, 'That was that. How do we move forward from this?' I like this group so much because we're so open and willing to communicate."
What are the long term ways you hope to make effective change in our department?
RH: "I think a really long term goal is to make sure the SAB's, because we just keep our seats for the year, momentum does not stop. I hope the snowball just keeps growing until the building comes down and we're ready to build something else. I really do not hope the momentum stops at all. Just because there's going to be five new members from all five concentrations it doesn't mean the missions have changed or the problems are necessarily solved. ...We all want to graduate, come back, and say 'I was proud to be one of the starting members of the SAB and see how it has flourished."
MN: "Going off of that, I just hope that this board will continue our efforts. I hope people will take it seriously in the future. I hope this doesn't become a joke and I hope we'll keep doing things. ...We are very clearly making moves and trying to better this department. I hope students will start to see that."
GL: "We were talking about bridging the gap between student and faculty and this is a happy medium in between that. I want to keep that since that's what the SAB is. Maybe later down the line something happens, but I want this part to keep happening where we're connecting with students so we can be their eyes and ears when it comes to talking with faculty."
How will you evaluate the work you are doing? JH: "I hadn't thought about this before to be completely honest; I'm glad that you bring it up. I think reflecting on especially something new like this can be very helpful, especially for future groups when we pass this on. I think for us in creating that big document that's kind of our goal post; addressing as many of those questions as we can and getting as many of those answers and the ball rolling on programs we were asked about. I think that's how we can evaluate to see, 'Here's what we started with. What did we accomplish? What can we pass on to be added to this list.' Let's make this big document we made a living, breathing thing, and that's one way we can evaluate."
MN: "Another thing we can do, which is exactly what we were creating for, is get feedback from students. We're making workshops and doing things to make this department better and I think getting the information from your peers about whether they liked it or not is really helpful."
RB: "I do think there are the little goals we can celebrate. We don't necessarily have to base our success on our two big goals when we also have all these other little things we're taking care of."
What does the SAB mean to you?
GL: "For me it represents leadership in terms of people coming to us and talking to us. I've had people DM me, text me, and tell me, 'Can you put this in your list?' It's really connecting with students."
SE: "On a bigger scale I'm proud that we're doing something like this because other college theatre departments are not. I'm proud our department saw all the stuff that went down in May with the 'We See You White American Theatre' document and wanted to do something about it. I hope it starts to spread to other colleges. Maybe other colleges will have some things to learn from this that will give their students a voice."
Please email rutdstudentadvisoryboard@gmail.com with any questions, comments, or concerns you may have! To reach out to specific student representatives of concentrations contact:
Michaela Navarro - Design/Technology: navarr26@students.rowan.edu
Salma Elwy - Pre-Teaching: elwysa65@students.rowan.edu
Gabrielle Langevine - Dance: langev78@students.rowan.edu
Rahbert Britt-Tillery - Acting: brittt24@students.rowan.edu
Jessica Harzer - Musical Theatre: harzer35@students.rowan.edu
See you next week!
Erica Gerold
Theatre Arts & Public Relations '23
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