John Buccheri
Five Not-So-Easy Pieces
We have recently constituted five Task Forces to help us deal with important issues facing the profession and our Society. I'm guessing that you will have some strongly held opinions on at least one of these issues. The Chairs of the Task Forces have given permission to include their e-mail addresses in this column. I hope the brief sketches to follow will provoke you to communicate with one or all of them. Though they may not reply to all messages, they are eager to receive your comments.
• The Task Force on Adjunct Faculty. Just what comes to mind when you hear someone described as "adjunct faculty?" Do you think of the beleaguered professional teaching courses at three different institutions and putting 80 miles a day on his '84 Plymouth? Or a jet-set concert artist whose occasional appearance at school would make her hourly wage, if you had the stomach to figure it out, astronomical? The CMS Vice President, Barbara Bennett (University of California-Riverside), is Chair of this Task Force. She recently reported that "many of the comments made by the Task Force [in their month-long electronic dialogue] were shrouded in cynicism and pessimism." It is easy to guess which of the two professionals described above might have these feelings. The Plymouth owner is justifiably more vocal and vexed about his status than our world-class performer. Should CMS be concerned with the ever-increasing size of, and dependence on, the adjunct faculty population? Is this dependence indicative of what the Task Force identified as an even bigger problem: the devaluation of music as a profession in academia?
• The Task Force on Community College Faculty. Many community college teachers are adjunct faculty as well. This Task Force, however, has been charged with exploring the special character of all faculty in the community colleges and asking whether CMS serves that part of its constituency as well as it could. The Task Force's initial report, prepared by its Chair, Barbara Bowker (William Rainey Harper College-Illinois), begins with a succinct and clear delineation of its subject: "Both by temperament and job expectations, community college music faculty are primarily teachers. That is, compared to their peers at four-year and graduate institutions, they are expected to do more teaching, and less performing, publishing, and research; and they generally welcome this emphasis on teaching. In addition, the community college stands at the intersection between the general population and higher music education. This position requires community college faculty to teach at many levels, from addressing the dilettante who is curious about some aspect of some style of music to assisting the professional seeking to upgrade or refocus his or her skills." Are there ways you believe CMS could address special needs of this segment of its membership?
• The Task Force on Digital Audio and the Future. Can we draw a parallel between the shift from polyphony to monody around 1600 and the transition from pre-digital to digital music around 2000? The intriguing pros and cons of this question will not be argued here. However, as music academics, we should be as concerned about the future of the art as are businessmen and lawyers. For better or worse, the college music department will likely remain the most concentrated market for Western European music of the past three or four centuries for some time to come. The sound libraries in many of these departments comprise ever-degenerating 33-73 rpm vinyl (you remember, those thin black frisbees without the edges turned over). The big record companies, however, no longer invest in this music due to overall declining demand. I can hear the voice of the old actor/radio comedian, William Bendix, now: 'What a revoltin' development this is!" Well, perhaps not. CMS has a special Task Force devoted to exploring some of the potentials of digital audio technology for music education. Co-Chairing this Task Force are Reg Bain (University of South Carolina), Chair of the CMS Technology Committee, and Virginia Giglio (President, Global Thinking, Inc. and ARIA Project Director). Virginia was the force behind last summer's stimulating inaugural and, now, upcoming ARIA Institute [http://www.globalthinking.com/ARIA/] Give them your thoughts and ideas about how to save the Canon, how to handle and transmit all the wonderfully diverse new music that is not yet (and may never be) copyrighted, and how best to use the technology for purposes of teaching and learning.
• The Task Force on the Professional Life Initiative. Dale Olsen (Florida State University), our immediate Past President, speaks eloquently on this topic: "The College Music Society has consistently addressed the questions that emerge concerning both the common needs of college music faculty across their entire careers and the unique needs that they may have at specific times in their professional lives." Dale recently proposed establishing a Professional Life Initiative as a way to bring more focus to these efforts. A number of related questions will drive the work of this Task Force, including: What are the fundamental needs of all persons preparing for or working in the profession? What things are common to everyone in the profession? What concerns should all working in the profession continually have? What are the marks of "good citizenship" within the profession? As persons move through the profession from student days to retirement, what are the phases of their professional lives? And what are the unique needs of persons during the various stages of their careers? Dale will soon begin his work as Chair and would be eager to receive your advice and suggestions.
• The Task Force on Administration. It goes without saying that music administrators play some role in nearly every aspect of local activity in the music academy and thus affect the professional life of every faculty member regardless of specialization. Yet CMS has so far done little to address the needs of administrators as a group, nor has it provided a forum for dialogue with and among these professionals. We are very pleased that Past President Anne Dhu McLucas (University of Oregon) has agreed to lead this newest of our Task Forces. The Executive Committee has drawn up a list of questions to initiate discussion, but the group will also develop its own list of concerns and would welcome your thoughts at this time. Here's a sampling of the questions: What kinds of professional development efforts might be undertaken on behalf of music administrators? What is your perception of the state of communication between music administrators and music faculty? Do the nine Carnegie Classifications of institutions (from Research I Universities to Two-Year Community, Junior, and Technical Colleges) offer an appropriate taxonomy of music units in higher education? If not, is there a better way to group them? Is it possible to generalize about the funding processes within the categories of music units? If so, what are these processes? What are music administrators' concerns regarding the growing use of adjunct faculty? Given the mission of CMS and its desire for interaction with music administrators as a group, what are some good initiating strategies?
Now it's your turn. You can contribute to the future direction of The College Music Society by sending them your reactions, reflections, and suggestions. The Task Forces will do a much better job with your help.