An Iowa State dance pioneer is being honored for 40 years of service to the university.

On Sunday at 7 p.m., ISU will be formally dedicating the dance studios in the Physical Education Building in honor of Betty Toman, a distinguished professor emeritus of dance.

The dedication of the new Betty Toman Dance Studios will begin with the annual “Footfalls” dance concert in Room 196. A reception in Toman’s honor will be held in Room 123 at 8 p.m.

Toman began teaching at ISU in 1948 in the women’s physical education program. Then, each student was required to take some physical education classes to graduate and women were required to take at least one dance class, individual sport and team sport class.

Before her retirement in 1988, Toman said she saw many changes occur in both the dance program and at the university as a whole. The biggest change, she said, was in the university’s growth, from about 8,000 students to over 25,000.

Another major change was the combining of the men’s and women’s physical education programs and an expanded Physical Education Building, which allowed Toman to redesign the dance facilities now being dedicated in her name.

Toman was partially responsible for developing ISU’s dance department outside of the physical education curriculum. She has also worked to bring guest artists to Ames through endowments.

Another long-standing ISU program which has benefited from Toman’s leadership is Orchesis, founded in the 1920s. Toman said the group became the Modern Dance Club in the 1950s before settling on its current name which came from the Greek word for dance.

In spite of all the changes she has witnessed and helped along, Toman said what she remembers most has been the students who have come through the department and written her to say how much they enjoyed her classes. She said though several of her students have continued to pursue performing or teaching dance, it is those who have done it for their own benefit that she remembers.

“It’s too bad that students don’t seem to have time to get involved anymore. Before students had more time to gain more from their extracurricular activities,” she said. “I believe arts have to be a part of education for all students as a part of a true physical education program so they can learn the beauty of movement.”