The woes of the University of Maine Theater and Dance Division have been the subject of much reporting, speculation and gossip over the last three months. Alumni/ae, administrators and students have contributed to the public dialogue, offering information, misinformation and especially opinion, well-intentioned and otherwise.

Those of us at the center of this controversy have felt obligated to maintain a dignified silence, discouraged from speaking and possibly putting the program at further risk. As individuals, we have been perhaps naively confident that our personal and professional reputations would see us through the public scrutiny of the theater program. Each of us has responded politely when ap-proached by strangers in the community, wanting to know “What’s going on with the Theater Department? Are they going to have a

theater program at the university?”

We recognize and accept that we are public figures in a sense, in that our scholarship of creativity is constantly in the public eye, where it is open to criticism as well as praise. However, we feel unable to satisfy public curiosity about a complex situation that we do not fully understand ourselves.

On Dec. 12 the Bangor Daily News demonstrated a lack of journalistic good sense in publishing a bewilderingly savage personal attack on Dr. Sandra Hardy, one of our colleagues, from a member of the community. We are responding not only to stand firm in support of our colleague Dr. Hardy, who is a highly esteemed, talented and dedicated teacher and director, but also to share with the public that the issues behind the current review are very separate from our capabilities as teachers and artists.

We are a unit with a long-standing reputation of high standards of teaching and production. Alumni who have studied with this generation of faculty can and have attested to the value of their educational experience. They frequently attribute their engagement in theatre careers, acceptance into prestigious educational institutions, and general success in life to their theatre education at the University of Maine.

We are justly proud of our degree programs, our teaching and our creative work, and we believe in our individual and collective value to the University of Maine. You could not find faculty members with more heart, dedication and concern for the welfare of their

students on this campus or any other.

Jane Snider, of Orono, Marcia Douglas, of Bangor, and Tom Mikotowicz, of Eddington, are enrolled in the University of Maine Theater Division.