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<DIV>David Skolnik asked why we try to compare our various situations to other
schools when we have no idea if comparison is even possible. Most of the
time, the situations are not comparable. The type of students are
different, the programs, the administration, the environment, etc. A
"Workload formula" is indeed not a good way to measure ourselves. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Unfortunately, the administrators want this kind of information.
While it would be nice if they would evaluate the schools needs by playing the
pianos and deciding that they are either "good enough" or "need more care"
that's not going to happen. Even the accrediting agencies are not a good
indicator. We recently had our NASM decade inspection and I was hoping
that they would urge more maintenance but it didn't happen. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Frankly, one of the main reasons I keep documenting our maintenance
shortfall is "CYA". If some people decide that the pianos are not really
good enough for a music school they can come to one of two conclusions: the
technician is not doing a good job, or we're not spending enough on
maintenance. The administration would much rather blame the technician
than their management of the funds. Therefore if we haven't
documented our budget restrictions (yes, often by comparing ourselves to other
music schools) we will be blamed for the situation. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As long as I've been doing this here (14 years) it is still difficult to
compare music programs. SMU would not be the first school you'd think of
as a performance institution, yet a month ago, one of our people won the Leeds
International Piano Competition, and the next week two of our violinists were
finalists in the Paganini Competition. Now, how do I compare our budget
with a comparable(?) school? Each of us has to do what we can to improve
our situation and document our budgetary shortfalls. If a "Guide to
Institutional ......" is not a good way to do this, we should surely find some
other method(s). </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Ideas????????</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>dave</DIV></BODY></HTML>
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<FONT size=3>David M. <FONT color=#000000
face="Times New Roman">Porritt</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3><A
href="mailto:dporritt@swbell.net">dporritt@swbell.net</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3>Meadows School of the Arts</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3>Southern Methodist University</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3>Dallas, TX 75275</FONT></DIV>
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