Reposting Survey

[Bdshull@aol.com]

Dear fellow CAUTS:

A short time ago I posted a survey which attempts to gather information 
relating the size of an institution's piano service program to the number of 
music majors in the school.   I have received some responses to this survey, 
but I hope that in reposting it I might catch the attention of some of you 
who might have missed the last post, or might just now have the time to 
respond.  Here is the entire post:  (I will repost just the questions also)

Since Dave Forman posted his informal survey last February I have prepared 
and submitted my own report to one of the universities which I contract with. 
 I shamelessly used Dave's numbers, of course.  Thanks, Dave.

I am now asking you to respond to my own survey.  First I list the questions 
and ask you to post your answers to the list.  I will tally and post.  Next I 
explain why I believe this data is important.  I appreciate your time with 
this.

The Survey Questions:

1.What is the name of your university?
2. How many pianos are in the music program?
3. How many  piano tech hours per week?  (40=full time, 20 = half time)
4. Is the position (are the positions) contract or employee with benefits?
5. How many undergraduate music majors?
6. How many undergraduate piano majors?
7. How many graduate music students?
8. How many music minors?
9. Comments?

My explanation:

It may seem too obvious, but I believe it would be helpful if we had another 
set of numbers:  that of the total number of music majors in the music 
program.  This is the kind of number which is similar to the FTE in 
determining faculty staffing - not exactly, but close enough.  I suppose you 
could say that there are two basic factors which determine funding for a 
piano service program:  one is the contextual factor:  the history and 
prejudice that affect the sense of need for piano service at a particular 
institution;  the second is the objective factor:  how do the bills get paid? 
  Usually through enrollment.   Both overall size of the school and size of 
the music department/school of music play in this, but I bet if we limited 
the numbers to the size of the department we might learn much.  Indeed, THE 
NUMBER OF MUSIC MAJORS SHOULD BE A MORE SIGNIFICANT PIECE OF DATA THAN THE 
NUMBER OF PIANOS IN A DEPARTMENT, and we don't even have a place for this 
number in the "Guidelines." Sure, we have a way of getting at the condition, 
usage etc., but this rarified approach tends to ignore the down-home 
realities of $$, and at what point this should be coming the way of the piano 
tech's salary (neither does it quantify the extreme usage situation).  If we 
have data at our disposal which indicates a typical department's size in 
relationship to its typical piano service program, at least we will have a 
snapshot of average reality.  Unless I missed it (I have only been on the 
CAUT list for the last 5 months), we do not have this data.  It may help us 
in selling upgrades to our institutions, especially when the contextual 
factor is holding back the program due to ignorance of what is needed, and 
ignorance of what other schools are doing about meeting their service needs.  
The other benefit is that us contract techs can obtain a better idea of what 
point a program might become half or full time;  why waste our time on it if 
the typical half-time program has 4 times as many majors as our program, for 
example?   We don't know what the real-world situation is.

I am beginning my next report (my other university).   I could use this data 
for both universities, however - still trying to get the meetings at the 
first.  I will, of course, total and post all responses. 


Thank you.  I know that you are all out there tuning for juries and recitals 
(a few are already getting to dive into the private clientele and the shop), 
but I hope that you will take the time to respond.

Bill Shull
University of Redlands, La Sierra University
Loma Linda, CA
BDShull@aol.com