DARTMOUTH
-- Members of the UMass Dartmouth Faculty Senate yesterday added their
unanimous support to the chorus of voices already backing a bachelor of arts
degree in music. Senators also voted to
express their "outrage" at the phasing out of the school's bachelor degree in
music as part of a mandated restructuring and urged Chancellor Peter H. Cressy
to reopen admission to that program until the new degree is in place. In a meeting with scores of students last week, Dr.
Cressy said he was putting forth the bachelor of arts in music degree under
the auspices of Sachem, a consortium among UMass, Bridgewater State and
Stonehill and Wheaton colleges. Faculty
members expressed concern that a proposal to create a four-campus music
consortium could mean limited local control over music programs and made it
clear they supported a program run by the university and staffed with local
faculty. Provost Benjamin Taggie said Dr.
Cressy believes the Sachem proposal may be the best way to gain approval of
the Board of Trustees and the Board of Higher Education for maintaining a
music program, especially since Bridgewater State, 35 miles from Dartmouth,
offers a similar degree. The exact form
the music consortium would take has yet to be worked out, he said. But history Professor Frederick Gifun said the
cutting of the music faculty from its peak of five full-time faculty to just
two under the new proposal should satisfy the reallocation mandate handed down
from the office of UMass President William Bulger. "He has halved the department and lowered the cost.
If that's not reallocation, I don't know what is," he said. During nearly an hour of debate and discussion,
about 30 faculty members became the latest group to weigh in on the
music-program saga. On Monday night, the Student Senate voted unanimously to
support the bachelor of arts degree as well, said President Sean Carpenter.
The university closed admissions to the
12-year-old music major program late last year and while Dr. Cressy has
promised to expedite the new program, it will likely take at least several
months to win all the needed approvals.
Several faculty members noted the value of music to the core mission of the
campus said the debate was as much about the internal politics of the
university as about academic programs.
Chemisty Professor Bal Ram Singh said on other campuses faced with losing
music programs, faculty galvanized and quickly became part of the process.
"Those campuses were able to retain music
because the faculty got involved," he said. "We haven't done that yet, but now
we have this chance to."
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