USA Dance Rule Question

[wyllo]

I was looking through the new rulebook and could not find anything about collegiate divisions. Is it there and I missed it? I thought the old rulebook defined who qualifies as a student (number of credit hours, age, etc.). Has this been removed for some reason?

 

[Laura]

Very interesting. I swear it used to say "full-time student under the age of 35" but it's not in there now. I'm going to see where it used to be.

 

[Chris Stratton]

I was looking through the new rulebook and could not find anything about collegiate divisions. Is it there and I missed it? I thought the old rulebook defined who qualifies as a student (number of credit hours, age, etc.). Has this been removed for some reason?

USABDA doesn't define collegiate devisions, except for collegiate nationals where they've typically been very inconsistent about wording and enfocement. (Actual college comps make their own eligility rules, which in practice have typically meant open, but with a fee difference for non students)

There is a student dues category, not sure if the rules have changed on that.

 

[wyllo]

Some of the USABDA competitions we go to do offer a collegiate division, but do not always define who qualifies as a student. Our team usually asks the organizers for clarification, but we have run into situations where other competitors take a very liberal stance on what it means to be a student. It is then very frustrating for our members, who we have told must pay the higher adult rate and dance in adult A (based on what the organizers told us) to see people with similar circumstances who are dancing in the collegiate division. It would be easier for the sake of consistency if there were a national rule on this.

 

[Laura]

If I were organizing collegiate events at a dance comp, I'd restrict it to people who are dancing with a "Student" USA Dance membership. And the rule I referred to above was related to who can actually get a "Student" membership. Of course, in the absence of a rule saying who is eligible for a "Student" membership, my plan breaks down....

I know that some organizers restrict college events to people who are on a college team, and let the question of eligibility be up to the teams rather than some age/schooling rule such as the one I'm looking for but can't find any more.

The collegiate dancers tend to dislike any kind of "National" rules, preferring to let each college team or association of teams to run things their own way, so although you might prefer to see a consistent rule don't count on it ever coming to pass.

 

[wyllo]

The problem with the Student membership to USA Dance is that they don't check eligibilty. I know several people running around with a student card who haven't been in college for years... Although I guess you can't blame the national organization for the people who have no respect for the rules.

 

[Katarzyna]

I have 2 Usabda cards... Not sure why they sent me 2 cards. They have different number and expiration date.. One of them is a student card ( I think). They both came to my house at a different date... Strange...

I think USABDA student card shouldn't be used as a proof of being a student. All one needs to do to get one is write student on the application (if I remember correctly)

 

[Laura]

I make people who are applying for membership prove to me that they are a student. Of course, that doesn't work for renewals, which go on via mail, so that's a good point.

So, then the best idea seems to be to restrict collegiate events to either someone on a college team or someone who can show a college ID. And I also think that if only one partner is a student, then you might as well count the whole couple as students for entry purposes.

 

[pygmalion]

I always thought collegiate events were not USABDA events, but were totally separate, with their own rules. Looks like I was wrong. :?

 

[Another Elizabeth]

I always thought collegiate events were not USABDA events, but were totally separate, with their own rules. Looks like I was wrong. :?

There are collegiate competitions that are partially or wholly outside the umbrella of USABDA. And there are USABDA events that include a collegiate category. So you weren't so far off.

 

[ACtenDance]

I always thought collegiate events were not USABDA events, but were totally separate, with their own rules. Looks like I was wrong. :?

There are collegiate competitions that are partially or wholly outside the umbrella of USABDA. And there are USABDA events that include a collegiate category. So you weren't so far off.

There's a branch of USA Dance call the Youth and Collegiate Network (YCN) that never really took off. For some reason, college clubs don't want to cooperate. Any ideas why?

 

[Joe]

Because the Boston clubs want to go their own way and not be beholden to anyone else. They feel they got where they are without National's help so they don't want any part of National.

 

[wyllo]

What do you mean the colleges don't want to cooperate? I've been involved in college teams for 8 years (undergrad plus grad, I'm not on the mutli-multi year plan!) and neither of the college teams I was on was ever contacted by YCN for any reason. Of course, we're in the midwest, not the east coast. Although YCN has a new VP so maybe they will become more active in the near future.

 

[pygmalion]

I seem to remember reading in another thread that YCN itself had become fairly inactive for a while. So maybe there's more than one issue. *shrug*

 

[Chris Stratton]

For some reason, college clubs don't want to cooperate. Any ideas why?

Having uniform rules sounds like a good idea, but in practice rulesets that get formally, nationally enacted are usually not very good. They either have too many compromises, or fail to track improvements suggested by experience in running frequent large competitions. So rather than have one problematic set of rules that applies to everything, the college world has been doing quite well with inconsistency. Some competitions have serious problems with their rules, but those problems can be avoided at other competitions with different rules - especially when a competition writes it rules to correct specific problems recently observed elswhere.

The best part about this is that it doesn't matter what your personal opinion as to what the rules should be is - inconsistency means that you can find and patronize competitions that come closer to your vision. You have real choices, not simply a decisions between dancing with a single establishment (or two) vs not dancing at all.