Almost 18 months ago a Voice cover story trumpeted the rise of a program in digital music making led by Adjunct Professor Robert Fair. Our optimistic feature seems to have jumped the gun, as the music department is currently doing everything it can to run Fair’s program into the ground.
According to Fair, the department has neglected to provide him with the necessary funds to maintain sound editing equipment in the Gelardin Media Center, which has left his 15 students with only one working editing station, hidden in the bowels of New North, to split amongst them. What’s worse is that each of his students paid $85 in lab fees to maintain the equipment, of which Fair said he has not seen a penny.
According to University Assistant Vice-President for Communications Julie Green Bataille, funding for the department in total has actually increased in the last year; however, that money seems to have been lost in the black hole of university bureaucracy.
Fair said he began to face funding concerns for his equipment from the music department administration after the departure of the popular former department chairman Jose Bowen. He said that he has aggressively lobbied higher-ups in the University for attention to the issue throughout the year. Many of his students have joined in the fight, even meeting with College Dean Jean McAuliffe earlier this year.
The two sound editing courses that Fair teaches have been tremendously popular since their creation three years ago. In that time, he said, he has taught 250 students, and each year he faces the difficult prospect of turning away between 10 and 15 students because there is simply no space for them.
Unfortunately, Fair said, “the bottom fell out” last year and now two of students’ favorite classes have been put in jeopardy. He said that his outspoken dissent probably lies at the heart of why his name has been quietly removed from the course schedule for next semester.
The music department has to get its act together and ensure that student lab fees are used to maintain equipment in class. That the University would attempt to shortchange these classes just as it is putting the finishing touches on a multi-million dollar performing arts center is particularly ironic. Put into context, spending a few thousand dollars in upkeep for a proven success is a drop in the bucket compared with the risky investment of $30.8 million to house a theater program that does not yet exist. It is time the University sorted out its priorities.
