DAN School Faculty Shed Light on Budget Cuts — Kingston Theatre Alliance

The KTA is presenting this long-form article as the first of a new style of formatting. The following is a piece for which many interviews were completed in order to dive deeper into the subject at-hand. This longer style allows us to present more information, and we look forward to continuing to publish long-form articles on various content.

In January of 2024 Queen’s University became a hot topic across the country as news broke about the university’s multimillion dollar operating budget deficit. As the university grappled with how to handle its financial difficulties, the DAN School of Drama and Music (DSDM) has become a hot topic of its own amongst Kingston’s arts community as the classes, staff, and students have been noticeably impacted by these cuts. The sudden interest in what has until recently remained a rather autarkic community has led to some misinformation and a great deal of speculation as those both inside and outside the DSDM try to discern not only what is going on, but also how to help.

From speaking with members of the arts scene outside the Queen’s community, I know the public feels out of the loop as to what is going on behind the scenes in the DSDM. As a recent graduate, I can regrettably state that many students feel the same. In an effort to prevent further rumours and to create some much needed transparency, for three months the KTA editors and myself have contacted numerous former and current staff of the DSDM with questions, and conducted interviews where possible on the subject. In some cases, we collected written responses via email.

I would like to preface my discussion of the topic by stating my background and experience with the DSDM. The DAN School is where I have felt most at home my entire life. I graduated in June of 2025 with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Drama. Although I had no official minor, what time I did spend outside the Drama department was spent in Music courses for song interpretation, classical voice, and research. I was  in Theological Hall and Harrison LeCaine Hall more than I was in my own apartment, because just sitting in one of those common areas will get you enthusiastically adopted into conversations with people you have never met before. 

Speaking from lived experience, I can offer my student perspective on the School’s operations. In my first year, the DSDM was slowly recovering from the pandemic. In my second, it appeared to be returning in full force with seemingly endless options for courses. In my third, I felt as though there was a decline as great opportunities for students were cut. Prime examples were the two summer courses located at the Shaw Festival, which provided students the opportunity to immerse themselves in one of the world’s largest repertory theatre companies while learning directly from the festival’s actors and stage productions. My third year also saw the loss of the Barefoot Players, a paid summer opportunity in which students would devise and tour a Theatre for Young Audiences show, then run a youth theatre summer camp. My fourth year saw a further decline of course offerings, a smaller staff, and restrictions on student ability to rent spaces and technical equipment.

One of the faculty who responded to the KTA’s inquiry was Dr. Craig Walker, the inaugural Director of the DSDM who served in the position from its inception in 2015 until 2022, and continues to teach in the School as a professor. Prior to the merging of the Drama and Music departments, Dr. Walker also served as Director of the Drama department, and began there when he shared with us some insight into the history of Queen’s’ financial struggles. 

Dr. Walker went on to explain that in the Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS), this decision was shifted even further down to departments and schools, requiring individual units within the faculty to control their own expenditures and earnings. According to Dr. Walker, both Drama and Music were operating at a deficit, with expenses significantly higher than revenue for each. Rather than attempting to make cuts, he sought ways to increase revenue for the Drama department. Some of the means to this included the partnership with the St. Lawrence College Musical Theatre program; a Master’s Degree in Arts Leadership; a Diploma in Arts  Management; an online Certificate in Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Creativity; the merging of the Drama and Music departments; and the donation of $5,000,000 from Aubrey Dan, which gave the School the name it bears today. 

These new sources of revenue led to increased enrolment, which resulted in the department creating a sizable monetary surplus in place of the previous deficit. In addition to this, for longevity’s sake, it was agreed that the vast majority of Dan’s donation would be in the form of an endowment paid out at approximately 4% per year. Dr. Walker noted that the donation could not be used to offset operating costs: “Instead it could be used for temporary instructors and other visitors and for equipment costs—which are ordinarily the first things to suffer when a budget is under pressure.”

Dr. Walker named four issues which led the department from that period of prosperity to the difficulties it is facing today. First was Doug Ford freezing Ontario tuitions in 2019 and limiting the amount of domestic students a university could admit. The next came from Barbara Crow, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science from 2017-24, who made the decision in 2019 to centralize all budgeting within the faculty. This meant the additional revenue was no longer under the DSDM’s control, and department budgets were once again created by the FAS Dean. Dr. Walker noted, “There was no discussion or forewarning of this massive policy shift although it was clear that some Unit Heads were relieved by the lighter responsibilities.” The third contributor was the Federal Government’s 2024 decision to sharply reduce the amount of international students a university was allowed to admit. The final issue was, of course, the worldwide pandemic.

From those four issues, the one which came up the most frequently in response to the questions we asked DSDM faculty was the decision to centralize the FAS budgeting. This led to the voices of each FAS department being nearly absent from the conversation regarding the operations of their respective departments. Many of the faculty members who responded to our inquiries echoed a feeling that the cuts being made across the university were being passed down with little-to-no discussion leading up to or following the decisions. “They were coming from the top and then down through the various faculties,” one member of the DSDM remarked. “I remember one of our department meetings, someone from the Dean’s office came and explained it to us, but it was a done deal.” 

The KTA team reached out to Julia Brook, the current director of the DAN School, but received no reply. We were later contacted by Queen’s University’s Media Relations Manager, Julie Brown, concerning this article. We responded with a list of 14 questions; she responded with the following statement:

Visiting the link provided, Brown’s statement to the KTA is almost verbatim what is written on the website. The FAS’s stance on the situation is firm, but there is a noticeable inconsistency between their statement and how the DSDM faculty we spoke with feel the cuts have been handled in reality. One of the questions we asked faculty members was what kind of support they received from FAS Administration. One member of the DSDM said, “Not much. When these announcements were made it was fait accompli by that point.” Another said, “It was just the way it was. That was it.” Professor Emerita Julie Salverson’s answer was similar, but continued on to highlight a larger problem:

Dr. Salverson’s warning is extremely pressing considering the consequences of our Provincial and Federal Government’s relationship with the arts. Numerous institutions have recently announced suspension of admissions for their programs like the University of Windsor’s BFA Acting program, McGill’s renowned Music Education program, or even the St. Lawrence College Musical Theatre Program, which had a partnership with Queen’s. 

A significant change the FAS implemented to combat the deficit was a reduction of courses, cutting any course with less than 10 students enrolled. With Drama being so heavily tailored to individual artistry and Music education traditionally relying on private instruction, the DSDM is seeing the immediate consequences of this decision. A retired member of the DAN School noted, “Am I capable of teaching a class of 40? Of course I am. Are those 40 people going to get the learning they need? No, they’re not. That’s impossible.” 

Despite individual lessons being a pillar of music education, the 2023/24 school year was the last time applied study courses (private lessons) were listed as required courses for Bachelor of Music (BMUS) students. According to the current academic calendar, applied study courses are now only necessary for completing two of the three BMUS sub-plans, the Contemporary Instrumental and Vocal Genres, and Classical streams. Private lessons are not being offered at all this year, rendering only one of the BMUS sub-plans (Digital Music and Sonic Arts) possible to complete.

Wolf Tormann, a recently retired DSDM cello instructor and Kingston Symphony Orchestra principal cellist since 1996, offered insight into how this decision is affecting the BMUS program. “You cannot teach music at a high level if you eliminate one-on-one instruction,” he said. “Every student needs an individual approach tailored to their needs and their capabilities. I was very happy and proud to provide that to my students for 30 years.”

Tormann also noted the department’s roster has greatly diminished, stating that Initial Adjunct professors were not informed their contracts were not being renewed, having instead to reach out personally to inquire about the status of their job. He clarified that Continuing Adjuncts like himself were not subject to the same treatment, only being dismissable through their choosing to leave (or extenuating circumstances); “It was my decision to leave because I do not want to work for an organization that treats me with that much disrespect and does not believe in applied music.”

The University’s lack of transparency extends beyond just contracts; for some members of the faculty, news coverage had become a necessity to learn what was happening at their own institution. A member of the DSDM commented that they were unaware of the extent of Queen’s budget issues until the Globe and Mail published their first article on the subject in January 2024: “I was as confused as the public. Because the press got involved—someone said to me ‘Did you hear that Queen’s is going under?’ I said, ‘What?’” 

Following the article, Queen’s made headlines with numerous major news outlets across the country (CBC, National Post, Global News, etc.). Almost two years since the news broke, Queen’s’ secrecy continues to create opportunities for others to control and distort the narrative as they search for one. Recent contributions include two pieces of sensationalism from the Queen’s Journal, the first of which made numerous alleged claims which the subsequent article restated through hyperlink without clarifying the initial claims were alleged.

When asked if there were any misconceptions about the situation at Queen’s they would like to clear up, one member of the DSDM stated, “Well, I do think the rumours of our death have been greatly exaggerated.” The university’s reluctance to share information with the public and press make it understandable that some outlets have led to publishing shaky or exaggerated claims. The complete lack of communication leads to interest, which in turn leads to speculation, and before you know it speculation becomes circulated as though it were fact. Having spoken with faculty members regarding the issues, I feel that if the department simply presented the information themselves, then the conjecture would no longer be necessary.

Aside from the need for open communication from the department, Dr. Salverson commented, “As a School we were, to my mind, far too conciliatory, kept our heads down and didn’t want to make anybody unhappy.” She thinks there could be more deliberate organizing, for example, alumni outreach, working with other Drama and Music departments in Ontario and collaborating with other departments at Queen’s. She continued, “Also, there is a culture in the theatre of ‘we are all family’ but we aren’t. Then, there is Anglo Protestant Canadian culture where anger and arguments are bad manners, uncomfortable. This held us back.” 

As the DSDM continues to navigate deficits, shifting policies, and an upper administration which does not value the importance of the DAN School’s offerings, one truth remains constant: the students and faculty make every effort to endure. In my final year at the school, I had the opportunity to interact with many of the first year students, and my hope for the program was revitalised by witnessing their passion and excitement. These students persevere no matter what challenges are thrown their way. In the absence of traditional venues, students have scattered to art galleries, the backrooms of churches, and outdoors to continue making art. 

The faculty, both current and retired, also fight to provide their students the education they deserve. Even in his retirement, Tormann continues to teach his DSDM cello students privately to make up for the absence of applied music lessons in the School. Another member of the faculty stated they continue to offer one-on-one lessons to their students during their office hours, an overtime they are not compensated for. Nine faculty members have provided information for this article, with some typing entire essays to give us further insight into the school’s operations and the DSDM’s place within them, and many faculty members offered us praise for taking up this article as a cause. Despite adversity, the faculty is determined to provide quality education to their students. “And everyone – EVERYONE – who works there cares deeply, works ridiculously hard, and does not want the ship to go down,” Dr. Salverson stated. “We may differ about how different the ship looks, but everyone cares.”

It is unclear whether the coming years bring further reduction for the department or a potential regrowth. Regrettably, it appears to be in the hands of higher administration in the FAS, which is why the need for advocacy is essential, and why transparency from within DSDM is absolutely vital. As the value of the arts is constantly contested at an educational, provincial, and even national level, the DSDM is slowly becoming a consequence of the sociopolitical perspective that arts education is a calculation rather than a cultural necessity.