Siloam Springs : JBU opts to relax policy on dancing
Posted on Friday, October 20, 2006
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/170204/
SILOAM SPRINGS — Jennifer Paulsen knew changing a long-standing cultural mandate at an 87-year-old Christian university wouldn’t be easy.
Social dancing has been forbidden on John Brown University’s campus since it was founded in 1919. The only exceptions were put in place 20 years ago, allowing folk or square dancing, or choreographed dancing as part of a dramatic presentation.
Students were ready for a change.
“People have been talking about it for a long time,” said Paulsen, 21, a senior and president of the university’s Student Government Association. “The culture has changed. We think students are ready to do this in an appropriate and responsible way.”
JBU will host its first social dance later this semester after its board of trustees revised the dance policy at the board’s semiannual meeting Oct. 6-7. The 31-member board, after months of campus debate, expanded the types of dance allowed on campus to include ballroom, swing and salsa.
Paulsen broached the topic with administrators in the spring. Then she researched dance-related policies at other Christian schools.
The Student Government Association submitted its formal dance proposal in August, shifting the debate to the board. Because it is a private university, JBU’s trustee meetings aren’t open to the public and officials declined to say by what margin the revision passed.
Diane Willits of Siloam Springs, a 1978 graduate who’s been on the board for eight years, said the decision wasn’t easy.
“I went into the board meeting still not really sure. I really prayed on this,” she said.
University officials were concerned about the long-term effects of such a change on campus culture.
“I was raised in a family where Christians did not dance,” Willits said. “In high school I was homecoming queen, but I did not dance at the dance. I’m now a mother and a grandmother and I look back on that and it’s not so much a focus.”
She voted for the policy change.
“We don’t want our campus to be about what we can’t do, but about who we are as Christians,” she said.
Stephen Beers, John Brown University’s vice president of student development, said an attitude shift in the nation’s evangelical community made the policy revision appropriate. Many incoming students have danced at school, church or other social events. That wasn’t the case 20 years ago, he said.
“I think the church as a whole has changed its perspective on dancing,” Beers said.
Beers said students submitted a proposal that was sensitive to the institution’s concerns. It was approved close to its original form, with the only deletion being a request to allow hip-hop dance.
A committee of two students, two faculty and two staff members are overseeing preparations for the university’s first dance, Beers said.
“It’ll really be a celebration of the John Brown community,” Beers said. “I think that’s what everyone is looking forward to.”
JBU is not the only faithbased university to wrestle with the issue.
Paulsen examined policies at 18 nondenominational members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. Of those 18 colleges, nine allow school-sponsored dances, and eight don’t. One school allows dancing, but has no policy stating whether school entities can sponsor such events.
The Washington, D. C.-based council is an international higher education association with 179 members.
In Arkansas, five private church-affiliated colleges and universities ban dancing on campus, including Central Baptist College in Conway, Crowley’s Ridge College in Paragould, Harding University in Searcy, Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia and Williams Baptist College in Walnut Ridge.
Four church-affiliated private schools in the state allow dancing: Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock, Hendrix College in Conway, Lyon College in Batesville and University of the Ozarks in Clarksville. Dustin Tracy, 21, a John Brown senior, said he was shocked when he heard about the policy revision, something he said wouldn’t even have been considered a few years ago. “It keeps us as students from wanting to go out and hit Dickson Street or go to the clubs,” Tracy said. “I think students are just happy that we’re kind of catching up with the times.”
To contact this reporter: cpark@arkansasonline. com