"The Role of Collegiate Faculty and Administrators in Addressing Musicians’ Health"

College Music Society Committee on Musicians’ Health
Gail Berenson, Chair

Faculty of Color in a World of Pink and Blue

A 1984 essay by Larry Wolz features a digest on the association, over time, of the color pink with the music discipline and its evolving role in the history of academic ceremonial attire.[i] My interest this month is our collective effort to increase the number of faculty of color whose regalia incorporates the pink velvet trimming. In actual fact, my reference to the color pink as a denoter of affiliation elides the varied backgrounds of those who comprise our faculties of music, including Ph.Ds whose velvet trim may be blue.  My point, however, is that the numbers of faculty of color from underrepresented minority groups are not keeping pace with the increasing diversity of our student bodies at the undergraduate level. Last year as I was speaking with various groups about faculty inclusion and belonging in music, administrators said they appreciated the statistics I shared from that year’s HEADS report, the annual update completed by all NASM institutional members.[ii]