[CAUT] CAUT position announcements, CAUT Academy

[Ed Sutton]

I would suppose that those lawyers and doctors passed the usual exams to become lawyers and doctors.
Their knowledge and skill is well recognized in our society, and there are thousands of them establishing standards of practice.

A common college situation is this: "Tunings" are contracted at the lowest bid to anyone who claims to be a tuner. He works for cheap in private, and also for schools. When there are problems, the lead prof's piano and recital hall pianos are re-contracted to a competent technician, usually at the going rate for private work. The rest of the pianos are tuned once or twice a semester by the low bid technician, and receive no maintenance or repair.  I'm sure no one is surprised by this story.

A few years ago I knew of a well-recognized, private university in which all the piano professors were allowed to contract their pianos to their technicians of choice, at the going rate. All the other pianos were tuned on contract at a price so low that no honest technician could afford to do a tuning for that price.

I agree with Fred and Eric that the direction which may offer some hope involves educating the piano teachers and department heads about the economics of maintenance, and perhaps that well-maintained pianos will produce better students.

Ed Sutton
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jeff Tanner 
  To: College and University Technicians 
  Sent: Friday, August 22, 2008 3:39 PM
  Subject: Re: [CAUT] CAUT position announcements, CAUT Academy



    Wim Wrote:
    Eric

    As far as a salaries are concerned, perhaps the best way to approach this is to say how much competent self employed piano technicians make. Perhaps include the upper range of some of the better schools.  Law professors at UA make significantly more than the rest of the faculty, due to the fact that they have to offer competitive salaries lawyers can make in the private world. On the other end of the spectrum, secretaries also have wages comparable to what they can make in the private sector. 


    Wim


  Exactly.  Business Profs, Med School, etc., same deal.  The reason we have such a hard time convincing MUSIC school admins of the same thing is that there is no alternative "private world" salary to compare a music prof's salary with (at least none that I am aware of).  All music professors work at colleges.  And so, they can't comprehend that there is another world where piano technicians can make a living!

  Tanner
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