In the school year of 2020-2021 the dance department was able to hold in person classes on campus. This was due to the nature of dance classes and how unproductive they are over zoom. Due to corona we had to spread out in our space as well as dance outside for some of our classes. This sounds, in theory, great except our department wasn't given the funding to make this happen in a safe way. There were over 8 injured dancers including myself because the new space we were spreading out in lacked a sprung floor which is essential for the safety of one's joints, bones, and muscles when dancing. I hurt my ankle from overuse on the unsprung floor, leading me to be out of class and unable to dance for part of the summer. we were dancing outside on uneven ground and in the hot sun people easily could have twisted their ankles or passed out. And several people felt with squint headaches from not being able to see from the sun. On top of this covid specific problem, our space lacks central temperature. It is always either boiling in the gym or freezing. This is dangerous for dancers not just on a comfort level but on a physical level. Too hot leads to over stretching and the pulling of muscles. Too cold leads to stretching of unrelaxed muscles and snapping / pulling things. Just today one dancer passed out because it was unbearably hot in our gym during an audition. This is unsafe and no other athlete at UMaSS would be treated this way. When one of us did get injured we were not given specific help like another athlete at Umass would get. We had to go to UHS and figure out how to rehab ourselves, and with the help of our teachers.

We propose that the dancers at UMaSS should be treated as any other athlete. We should have a studio that has sprung floor, an adequate temperature gauge, and a physical therapist that give us physicals and helps us think well about our bodies. Im sorry to say this but getting sprung floors is a drop in the bucket financially in comparison to the 2 million dollar new Hockey locker room which is beautiful but purely for leisure. UMaSS needs to start caring about people who may not make money. If all of the dance major tuition went to things dance majors needed we would have more than enough money. Where is all our money going? All we want is UMaSS to help us by making our space less prone to injuries. Is that too much to ask?

Please sign and send along the petition and let's have UMaSS start caring.

**I did not put the names of every dancer that was injured because I did not have their explicit consent. Thats why I only included the example of myself (Lili Greenberg)**