![[OLD] LEO Union](http://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b5a13e725bf029794d28c39/1534298030237-3ER637M0NANF1HYFTPGA/LEO+Logo+Horizontal+teal-2.png)
UM-Dearborn Lecturers and Students speaking at the 10/23 Regents Meeting
Excerpts from UM-Dearborn Lecturers & Students
What follows are excerpts from UM-Dearborn lecturers & students speaking at the 10/23 Regents Meeting regarding the elimination of the Applied Music Program and calling on Admin to support 1U initiatives. The Youtube video of the meeting can be found HERE. There are direct links to the timecode of each speaker so you can hear their words as they were spoken.
October 23rd Board of Regents Meeting
“Piano and music add space for creativity that has far-reaching applications for student productivity and their overall personal successes. We, the music faculty, request that the piano program be reinstated as a cornerstone of quality music education on the Dearborn campus.”
Lisa Caron-Gatto at 1:06:26 minutes in https://youtu.be/Bb8bZPTxzxc?t=3986
“My name is Lisa Caron-Gatto. I have been teaching piano as a Leo Lecturer II with the University of Michigan-Dearborn for 13 years.
At the exact time that I went to submit my complete and revised virtual syllabi prior to the July 13th deadline this summer; I received the message that the piano classes had been cancelled. This news was devastating since class registration was still at a strong 14 students out of a possible 24 for full enrollment, other years during open registration have had less enrollment but would eventually reach capacity by the 2nd week of each semester. Additionally, teaching piano is one of the easier classes to go online, not preferred or ideal of course; but, still very effective.
In August; without my knowledge, the department removed the technology of those 9 keyboards, pedals, headsets, cords and wiring that were intricately taped and bound in both piano rooms. I spent 13 years and many hours in taking excellent care of those keyboards for students to have quality equipment for the best educational setting.
The actions of the department in cancelling piano classes with strong enrollment numbers and dismantling the keyboards represents a detriment to the actual continuation of music at Dearborn. It will be a great loss to students in not having diverse elective courses to include within the curriculum. Piano and music add space for creativity that has far-reaching applications for student productivity and their overall personal successes.
We, the music faculty, request that the piano program be reinstated as a cornerstone of quality music education on the Dearborn campus.”
“The Applied Music instructors at Dearborn are incredible and it’s clear that they are taken for granted. It was disturbing to hear that music classrooms are being dismantled by the University without permission or even consultation from the already underfunded music department.”
Michael Mchahwar @ 1:09:45 minutes in: https://youtu.be/Bb8bZPTxzxc?t=4183
“My name is Michael Mchahwar. I recently graduated from the University of Michigan - Dearborn.
I’m not here to tell you all the great and important benefits that music can have on an education, all benefits that are supported again and again through research; as leaders of an academic institution, you should be aware of the necessity of music. Instead, I want to take a moment to thank my applied music instructors at U of M Dearborn. I took two classes with the Applied Music department; piano and guitar. Biology is a difficult and demanding STEM major that requires 15-plus hours of study a week; given that, I spent at least half that time alone playing my instrument every week. I would avoid doing my course work just to practice and play the music I was learning. This is because my piano instructor helped me to believe in myself and my ability, encouraging me and motivating me to play music that I never thought I would be able to play at my level, like Beethoven and Debussy. This was a level of self-exploration and expression that I could never experience in my STEM classes, and what I still consider to be invaluable. Thank you Professor Caron-Gatto.
The applied music instructors at Dearborn are incredible and it’s clear that they are taken for granted. It was disturbing to hear that music classrooms are being dismantled by the University without permission or even consultation from the already underfunded music department. It is disappointing to hear that during an international crisis, there is less transparency than ever at the University of Michigan - Dearborn. As an alumnus, you can imagine my embarrassment when I hear about a Whites Only ‘cafe’ to have conversations on race while the country is in uproar about Black Americans being lynched in the streets, and then I hear that the music department is being deconstructed without a word of notice.”
“Applied Music is meant to be a part of a student’s overall training. From my 35 years of experience as a classical guitar and piano teacher I have observed that students who learn to play an instrument also learn the discipline and patience required to master any subject they wish to pursue. Applied Music also develops the mind.”
Vera Flaig @ 1:13:12: https://youtu.be/Bb8bZPTxzxc?t=4392
“My name is Dr. Vera Flaig and I have been teaching music history and theory courses in CASL since January of 2010.
Music is an integrative discipline. Our music history courses draw from and contribute to the disciplines of: anthropology, history, social sciences, Journalism and Screen Studies, psychology, women’s studies, and even Math and Engineering. While there are students who choose to take a minor in music, the majority of our classes are filled with students from across these disciplines. This is most true of our applied music courses which are largely populated by Engineering students. The applied piano course functions as an important foundational class within the music department. Similar to labs in chemistry, biology, physics, and other sciences, the applied piano class brings students a “hands on” understanding of how music works as a science. There are also many important real-world applications for piano skills. Keyboards (along with computers) are used to input notation when writing or editing music for film, television, or for Rap and Electronic music, to design and input music for computer games, and to help bring about a deeper understanding of music theory. In all of these ways, the piano course has important applications within the career goals of our students.
As a former student of the Ann Arbor campus Music School, where I earned my Ph.D. between 2003-2010, and through my experience teaching here in Dearborn, I can confirm that the purpose of applied music classes on the Ann Arbor campus is vastly different than it is on our campus. Ann Arbor has a music school whose mandate is to train professional musicians for a lifelong career in music. Here in Dearborn, applied music is meant to be a part of a student’s overall training. From my 35 years of experience as a classical guitar and piano teacher I have observed that students who learn to play an instrument also learn the discipline and patience required to master any subject they wish to pursue. Applied Music also develops the mind. Playing piano enhances hand-eye coordination, and aural-visual integration. These integrate the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Music performance helps students develop effective presentation skills. All of these skills, once learned through a keyboard class, can then be applied to all other disciplines within a student’s undergraduate experience. Students who have taken piano all attest to its value within these aspects of their intellectual development.”
Briana Cruga @ 1:16:23: https://youtu.be/Bb8bZPTxzxc?t=4583
“My name is Briana Cruga (she/her/hers pronouns). I am a fourth year student at UMDearborn and am a member of the One University Coalition.
There has been a lack of authentic community involvement in Strategic Planning efforts implemented by Chancellor Grasso. The offered town halls, online forms, and listening sessions with university administration have elicited symbolic student participation rather than equitable decision making with university leaders to address our campus’ issues and create solutions for them. For example, this has been reflected by the LGBTQ+ community being moved from their space on campus during the Fall 2019 semester into the Center for Social Justice and Inclusion without any prior warning, where many no longer feel safe and now fear sharing their lived experiences on campus. The segregated virtual conversation “cafes” for students, one cafe for Black and Indigenous students, people of color, and other minority students, and another cafe for non-people of color, also highlights the lack of student involvement at UMDearborn. Although these cafes were intended to foster a space for students to discuss their lived experiences and struggles on campus, they were organized without any input from the many Diversity, equity, and inclusion or social activism student organizations that we have at UMDearborn, creating further irreparable damage to UMDearborn’s minority students that could have been avoided. Furthermore, despite the sexual assault training that students are required to complete every year, several of my peers and others in the community have been victim blamed, invalidated, or punished by University leadership for speaking up about sexual assault and harrassment at UMDearborn.
When decisions are made with the community rather than for the community, we can truly achieve the goal that Chancellor Grasso set during his inauguration of making a profound difference through collective action, creativity and determined effort. However, some of these differences cannot be made without providing continued and sustainable funding to the Dearborn and Flint communities in order to decrease the institutional barriers that a majority of Dearborn and Flint students face. Chancellor Grasso is unwilling to even consider something like a Go Blue Guarantee for Dearborn because of his understanding of the recent funds from Ann Arbor as short-term. In Flint, the stakeholders were called together and unanimously supported a Go Blue Guarantee, but again because of president Schlissel’s lack of commitment for sustainable and long-term investment, Flint and Dearborn students will lose that opportunity while a majority of the university bank interest is invested in Ann Arbor.
The 20 million dollar investment in Dearborn and Flint was a step in the right direction towards equity, decreasing the wealth disparity between the campuses, and lowering the systematic barriers that many Dearborn and Flint students face, but we need the commitment of the Regents and this administration to a long-term investment in our campuses. We are asking the Dearborn and Flint Regents Committee to meet with the One University students to talk about our experiences on our campuses. We would like to work together to address these issues, and it is essential that our university creates opportunities for the democratic involvement of students and faculty.”
“U of M Flint has started moving in the right direction by creating a committee of students and faculty to give input on spending their portion of the $20 million investment. They’ve also announced that they will be extending health and legal services to their students. However, in Dearborn, students like myself and my friends are continuing to struggle. Do we not deserve those services too? ”
Very Raft @ 1:24:04: https://youtu.be/Bb8bZPTxzxc?t=5044
“My name is Very Oliver Raft, and my pronouns are they/them/theirs. I am a senior at U of M Dearborn and serve as the secretary for the 1U Dearborn organization.
I want to start by saying that I am not here to insult, target, or place blame on any single person or group. However, there are some aspects of my academic journey that I want to highlight because I want to feel proud to graduate from University of Michigan this December. My intentions are to provide my educational experience and push for a better change for current and future students.
This semester is very different from past semesters. In my personal experience, I had a significant surgery in September, I have been living in motels and hotels for the past month because I don’t have a permanent address, and I have been completing my schoolwork in coffee shops and hotel lobbies. On top of this, my on-campus job reduced our hours to six per week, and my professor has been unable to secure funding to hire me as a TA. I want to bring this to the attention of university leadership because I truly don’t understand why my tuition would increase during the COVID-19 pandemic, yet my campus job would cut our hours and there is no funding to employ students. All while U of M has an endowment of over $12 billion. This reflects a failure of the university system.
The strategic plan is failing. I do not see it as a viable strategy to reduce student employment options, remove safe spaces for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC students, and refuse to listen to student input. U of M Flint has started moving in the right direction by creating a committee of students and faculty to give input on spending their portion of the $20 million investment. They’ve also announced that they will be extending health and legal services to their students. However, in Dearborn, students like myself and my friends are continuing to struggle. Do we not deserve those services too?
We are asking that this administration show its support for students of Dearborn and Flint by committing to a long-term investment in funding for the Go Blue Guarantee, DEI initiatives, Health and Legal services. We are asking that the Regents’ Dearborn and Flint Governance Committee meet with the One University students to talk about our experiences on our campuses and implement student voices. We are asking that Dearborn make a commitment to provide genuine inclusion in the decision making process of the university.”