[CAUT] cutting departments

Dennis Johnson johnsond at stolaf.edu
Tue Oct 12 16:59:09 MDT 2010


You would think something has to turn around soon with so many expanding
programs.  Some people say the significant difference is public vs. private.
This small town is home to 2 private colleges though and the other school,
Carleton, has always had a larger endowment and higher tuition but they have
also recently downsized.  Word is that they were used to decades of relying
on their huge endowment, which took a major hit.  My understanding is that
we rely more on a balanced year to year budget, which is ok.  Not
impressive, but ok.  No raise last year but this year I got a decent 2.5%.
Nobody has  lost a job here due to recession.


Dennis Johnson




On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 3:15 PM, Paul T Williams <
pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu> wrote:

> Ours is expanding rapidly as well.  We did, 2 years ago eliminate one
> position in SOM;  instrument technician, which scared me to death!! it's
> outsourced to a local dealer and seems to be working well.  They also
> eliminated the house manager for the main- School of Music Recital Hall,
> Kimball Hall, which shocked everybody after her 17 years of service; the job
> duties were dived up amongst our SOM general manager, and several GTA's to
> control the set up and tear down of the stage. This also made me very
> nervous on my position.
>
> The communication to get things where they need to be at the right time is
> still a challenge, but is getting better.  For instance, I moved the
> harpsichord, by my self this morning from our music building to Kimball to
> find that the previous evening's set up was still on stage, and the Steinway
> D that was supposed to be there for that day's rehearsal tuning first thing
> in the morning was not there..  It, of course, wasn't there, but I at least
> had time to tune the harpsichord.  This sort of thing has happened many
> times, where it never happened before. I had no time to tune for 3 faculty
> recitals last year due to this stuff. (I'm still batting 95% of getting
> everything ready, so....not bad)
>
> Our former instrument tech is doing better independantly now than he did
> here!  Just no benefits.  So it's probably a wash, but at least he didn't
> lose his home, Harley, or new car he bought just before the hammer came
> down!  (Too far extended, I thought even at the time)
>
> The former stage manager, however, is having a hell of a time getting
> something going.  I wish her luck!
>
> Above all, our School of Music has been growing in leaps and bounds since I
> started here in 2006.  We just added a new Digital Arts Professor position,
> reconstructed several areas to expand this venture, and did a lot of
> reconfiguring spaces to make this happen;  And, the Jazz Dept has really
> made some great strides in expanding, which I really like! You should hear
> our new bass professor, Jeffry Eckles, from North Texas:  Outstanding!!!
>  It's been a great success so far. I'm busier than ever, so I guess that's a
> good thing! (no raises for two years now.....)
>
> Paul
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  From:
> Fred Sturm <fssturm at unm.edu>
> To: caut at ptg.org Date: 10/12/2010 01:40 PM Subject: Re: [CAUT] cutting
> departments
> ------------------------------
>
>
>
> On Oct 12, 2010, at 8:07 AM, Laurence Libin wrote:
>
> > The linked article and comments have important implications for
> > techs. Be prepared!
> > Laurence
> >
>                 Here at UNM it seems like the liberal arts and humanities
> may be
> stagnating or shrinking, but the performing arts, especially music and
> film, are expanding rapidly. Studio art as well.
>                 What worries me is the collapse of the dealer networks and
> retail
> market. When I started in the business 30 years ago, Albuquerque had
> several full size dealers: Steinway/Wurlitzer, Baldwin (two stores),
> Kimball (two stores), Yamaha, plus smaller concerns selling Young
> Chang, Everett, Lowrey/Story & Clark (shopping mall), not counting
> some folks selling used instruments. All were locally owned and
> reasonably prosperous. Today, the latest Steinway dealer is going out
> of business, and once it is gone we will be left with a fairly new
> store selling Yamaha, Schimmel and generally top end grands, a mall
> store selling Chinese product, and a small concern selling digitals
> and stocking one or two Kawai acoustics. Period. No used, no nothing
> else. In those 30 years, Albuquerque metro has at least tripled in
> population. That is downright sobering.
>
> Regards,
> Fred Sturm
> fssturm at unm.edu
> http://www.createculture.org/profile/FredSturm
> http://www.youtube.com/fredsturm
> http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/FredSturm
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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