Dean Bernardi Reconsiders Proposed Dance Space Following Town Hall Meeting

GOLDEN GATE XPRESS -- Tensions ran high at the packed town hall meeting in Knuth Hall yesterday where the SF State community met to address the conversion of the Fine Arts dance studio into a campus museum. “You’re taking away our church,” Dance major Becky Kalinowski said. “(The dance studio) means that much to this program.” Interim Dean of the College of Liberal and Creative Arts Daniel Bernardi told the audience that McKenna Theatre was deemed suitable as a temporary dance space for spring 2015 when it was viewed by faculty over the summer, but students were not convinced. After much debate about safety concerns, which included McKenna Theatre’s uneven floors and cold temperatures, Bernardi agreed to reevaluate the use of the theater as a temporary dance space for the Spring 2015 semester. “These are legitimate issues,” Bernardi said. “I need to look at McKenna (Theatre) and evaluate safety concerns.”