[CAUT] U. of Northern Iowa position

Dennis Johnson johnsond at stolaf.edu
Fri Aug 13 08:40:18 MDT 2010


Hi-

The question of music degree requirements for CAUT's will unlikely ever be
agreed upon between us, and for better or worse it's really not our call.  I
can't say if it's actually true or not, but it is a fact that established
people in the department seem to like knowing that the staff have
experienced at some point in their lives the similar experience we are
expecting of our students.  We believe you can identify better, but this is
something that can't be quantified in precise terms. Just is what it is. For
what it is worth, almost all of our staff including secretaries, excluding
custodians, have music degrees.  Both music organizations secretaries have
graduate degrees in music.  The ensemble music secretary teaches piano
privately on the side, but I don't know her degrees.  The music admissions
coordinator is an alumni and still actively performs on the side.  Even the
rebuilder I contract soundboards and pinblocks from is an alumni. I could go
on, but that's just the world we work in here.  Could they, or I, do our
jobs without the degree?  Probably....   but you can't fault the school if
they take advantage of qualified people with similar experiences in addition
to the basic skills.  Especially in this job market.  Rightly or wrongly,
the piano faculty also believe that a music background will enable the piano
technician to understand their perception and expectations better than one
who doesn't have that background.  Granted, we could probably give some
names in the industry that might challenge that belief... but I'm not going
to.

cheers,

Dennis Johnson
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