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What's Up?

Hey there, dancers! Before you share your story, here's ours:

 

UConn Swing and Blues, a student organization, started as a group of friends carpooling to Hartford Underground, an east coast swing scene in the Greater Hartford Area, and since then, the outside community has been integral to our club. They have taught us how to dance, how to DJ, and how to organize and teach others to dance so that we can further spread our love of swing and blues dancing.

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For the past 4+ years, UCSB has provided a community space for workshops with world-renowned coaches, social dances with swingin' live bands, and other events where both UConn students and people from the outside community can come together for the love of dance, most often for free. Lindy legend Frankie Manning called swing social dancing "a series of 3-minute romances," and many dancers will attest that there is something powerful about the swing and blues community's ability to bring together people of different backgrounds and perspectives.

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Recent university funding policy changes, changes that occurred without warning, have put an end to our ability to provide such community spaces to the entirety of our community. There has been an unforeseen cut to funding for events open to the public, a cut so large that we can no longer host these events, and we are not allowed to compensate for this cut in funding by charging admission to non-students.

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Our student organization is unique in its relationship to the outside community. Already, this policy change has meant a direct reduction in our community, erasing opportunities for engagement and access to the valuable dance experience and other expertise of our outside community members. The alienating impacts of this policy make it at odds with the University's goal "to further enhance a climate at UConn that fosters healthy argument, debate, and dialogue."

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Moving forward, our goal is to restore and protect the UCSB community so that future generations of dancers will have access to the same invaluable group of community dancers, instructors, mentors, and friends that we did. We want to keep our events affordable for UConn undergraduates.

 

We propose two changes:

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1. Transparency [specifically funding]

     - Notice of proposals to policy changes

     - Opportunity for organization feedback

     - Immediate notice of policy changes

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2. Community Inclusive Policy

     - Ability to charge admission for non-students

OR

     - No restrictions on who can attend events with 100% funding

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Donations on our Give Back page will go directly to funding workshops and live band social dances so that our whole community, including the public (non-UConn undergraduates), may attend.

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If you cannot donate, sharing your story about what swing and blues community means to you and the impacts of the whole community on your life, is equally as important to our cause. Because our club is unique in its relationship to the outside community, we need to demonstrate how crucial the public is to swing and blues dancing. And to do that, we need you!

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If you'd like to help us show UConn Student Government just how incredible the Swing and Blues community is and how crucial the "public" is to creating that community, or if you just want to share your appreciation for the community, please share your experience below.

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We will be posting every story on this website, as well as some on our social media pages. If you would prefer your story only be used to support our campaign to change USG's policies, please specify in your submission.

We need your support to keep this community "alive and kicking" and remain true to what swing and blues dancing stands for: sharing a love of dance and music with all who wish to partake.

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Every donation and shared experience helps our cause. Thank you!

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Check out others' stories on our Testimonials Blog!

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