“It was supposed to be a brainstorming meeting to tell them what was going on and figure out the best approach.” Minster says.

At the meeting, they decided to write an open letter to Summers and try to gain as many signatures as possible. “It was like our petition,” Minster says, “and it became all-consuming for a couple of weeks.”

Alaly recalls going to every dance class that met at Harvard to request signatures and personal letters.

Soon the open letter became known outside the dance world too.

“The campaign gave us credibility as a student group and made us known to the administration,” Minster explains. “After awhile I couldn’t sit down in the dining hall without someone, professors or students, asking me how the struggle was going.”

Minster says she realized at a meeting with Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby that “dance really wasn’t on the administrative radar screen, but that’s where we wanted it to be.”

“We were handed a list of priorities in the administrators’ minds,” Alaly recalls, “and that made me feel that we would have a ton of work.”

Kirby says he was impressed that the group “issued no demands” and “understood that there were no easy solutions.”

“They were critical in keeping the issue on the table,” says Office for the Arts Director Jack C. Megan. “They reminded all of us of the need to follow the problem, functioning almost like a conscience.”

The Summers Meeting

“It was our big sink or swim moment,” Hilby said of the group’s Mass. Hall visit.

The group decided to throw all of their weight into a presentation.

“We scrambled to organize binders and raise our level of professionalism,” Minster explains. “We had to tailor our presentation in a way that he would see our credibility. We weren’t coming in with solutions in mind, but we did have a list of needs that had to be met.”

The dancers stressed that they needed the space before the end of the lease on Rieman.

“A gap between spaces would destroy the program,” Hilby says.