(no subject)
they sent it out during the wind ensemble concert, of all things. damn john roberts and his sneaky ways. while most of the music department is at the grand opera house downtown, our e-mail inboxes are getting word that everything we had planned on our Mercer careers being is changing. whether it was intentionally deceptive or not, sending it out then seems to send the message that J.R. was a little worried about our reactions and wanted to give everyone the weekend to cool off, making sure we didn't get it til after we'd finished with him and the rest of the music faculty tonight.
if they change the curriculum, i may transfer. honest to god, i will fight it with everything i have. the rule is that your 'contract' is whichever bulletin you came in under, and those are your requirements and obligations for graduation, no matter what curriculum changes are made within a department. but this isn't within a department. this is creating an entirely new school.
and they all had to know it was coming. dr. sapp and dr. thompson had guessed it wouldn't happen at least til underwood took office, and underwood himself had said when he met with SGA that he was considering it and would like student input, but that it would be a while before anything changed. i wasn't promised my four years here to be free of this change, but i sure was led to believe it wouldn't change this quickly. especially without any student input. and this morning to have class with dr. johnson, this afternoon with dr. hillyer, and to have a concert tonight directed by dr. hill and featuring two of the faculty... and no one said anything. no mention of it in concert practice yesterday during john roberts' announcements or anything.
i chose mercer over furman, rice, oberlin... i didn't want a conservatory or even a school of music. FYX and great books are the greatest foundation for a college education i can imagine, and they're unique to mercer. i don't know that the new music school will cut those programs completely, but i'm betting they'll try. four years of hardcore, nothing but music. so that if you change your mind, you're completely starting college over. forget double majors--it'll take you 6 years because you have to get in two sets of core curriculum. i wanted a college that was college--college life, time to still be a typical teenage college student, time to take other classes that interest you, time to better yourself in a much broader way than what would be allowed by an all-music curriculum.
i'm sure i shouldn't jump to conclusions like this, assuming what life after the change will be like for me and the incoming classes. but i'm honestly worried.
now i'm not even sure i would recommend mercer to hoover's music kids or any of mrs. alice's students. john roberts talked about our music program being one of the best in the region, and that we need to step it up and make it even better... but there are already so many schools which commit students solely to music. mercer was the exception, the balance between crappy state school programs and too-intense school of music programs. the one where you got that great college education, that foundation to be a well-rounded, knowledgeable person. just enough of everything so you're not burned out on music but not swallowed up in classes distracting you from lessons and practicing. but apparently we want to be like everyone else, no longer unique. given the choice again, i'm not even sure i would choose mercer.
if they change the curriculum, i may transfer. honest to god, i will fight it with everything i have. the rule is that your 'contract' is whichever bulletin you came in under, and those are your requirements and obligations for graduation, no matter what curriculum changes are made within a department. but this isn't within a department. this is creating an entirely new school.
and they all had to know it was coming. dr. sapp and dr. thompson had guessed it wouldn't happen at least til underwood took office, and underwood himself had said when he met with SGA that he was considering it and would like student input, but that it would be a while before anything changed. i wasn't promised my four years here to be free of this change, but i sure was led to believe it wouldn't change this quickly. especially without any student input. and this morning to have class with dr. johnson, this afternoon with dr. hillyer, and to have a concert tonight directed by dr. hill and featuring two of the faculty... and no one said anything. no mention of it in concert practice yesterday during john roberts' announcements or anything.
i chose mercer over furman, rice, oberlin... i didn't want a conservatory or even a school of music. FYX and great books are the greatest foundation for a college education i can imagine, and they're unique to mercer. i don't know that the new music school will cut those programs completely, but i'm betting they'll try. four years of hardcore, nothing but music. so that if you change your mind, you're completely starting college over. forget double majors--it'll take you 6 years because you have to get in two sets of core curriculum. i wanted a college that was college--college life, time to still be a typical teenage college student, time to take other classes that interest you, time to better yourself in a much broader way than what would be allowed by an all-music curriculum.
i'm sure i shouldn't jump to conclusions like this, assuming what life after the change will be like for me and the incoming classes. but i'm honestly worried.
now i'm not even sure i would recommend mercer to hoover's music kids or any of mrs. alice's students. john roberts talked about our music program being one of the best in the region, and that we need to step it up and make it even better... but there are already so many schools which commit students solely to music. mercer was the exception, the balance between crappy state school programs and too-intense school of music programs. the one where you got that great college education, that foundation to be a well-rounded, knowledgeable person. just enough of everything so you're not burned out on music but not swallowed up in classes distracting you from lessons and practicing. but apparently we want to be like everyone else, no longer unique. given the choice again, i'm not even sure i would choose mercer.