Singing the song of quality

As a high school senior, Nora Colwell was lured to IU by the prestige of the School of Music. Colwell, now a senior studying music education, wanted a place where she could receive comprehensive, competitive musical training without sacrificing experience on a large Big Ten campus. She wanted to meet new people, students with interests and majors different from her own.\nBut she wanted personal attention. And Colwell found it within the 1,650-student School of Music, where she said individualized instruction has been instrumental in developing her skills as both performer and teacher. Her drill sections range between 15 and 20 students.\n"In order to make sure I'm grasping the concepts being taught, I need someone to observe my work and correct my mistakes as they happen," Colwell said. "It\'s all about finding your weakness -- with a small class, an A.I. is available to give personal attention to every student."\nThe downside to that great strength, Colwell said, is a tightening budget, which particularly effects students in the School of Music. She said she's personally observed the effects of budget cuts in the School throughout the past four years.\nMany materials and facilities are worn-down, and most pianos in practice rooms are past their prime, Colwell said. Additionally, she said stands, chairs, mirrors and new audio equipment are needed in the music buildings.\nThe discrepancy arises because of the campuswide system of routing dollars through administrative and instructional units. Since 1990, IU has allocated spending between schools and departments utilizing a system of Responsibility Centered Management, in which each school's income is contingent upon the number of credit hours it generates. Departments with high enrollments fared nicely, garnering large percentages of budget allocations. Smaller schools found themselves in deficit.\nThe School of Music is one such example. In December 1999, the School was facing a deficit of nearly $2 million. Former School of Music Dean David Woods told the IDS in 1999 this deficit resulted from faculty salary increases. He said any budget system would have created similar results.\nThe School has found itself in a somewhat unique financial situation this year -- it's facing a surplus, the first in recent years. The extra funds will be applied to the standing deficit, and School of Music Dean Gwyn Richards indicated he expects to obliterate a "good margin" of that debt by the fall semester.\nRichards said the School of Music operates on the philosophy that every student should be vulnerable in a learning environment. Allowing students to "put it on the line" through performing evokes a reaction from the instructor and allows teachers to address a student's individual needs.\nIn addition to private, one-to-one instruction, students within a particular specialization or major assemble once a week to perform in a group setting, a situation Richards deemed a "perfect combination" of individualized and group experiences. The School of Music prides itself on personal attention, and Richards said it will not deviate from that structure.\nBut personalized instruction often equates to higher costs.\n"This is the most expensive type of instruction," Richards said. "You don't get the economy of scale that larger departments and schools can utilize."\nThe School charges fees for individual lessons as a method of undermining costs. But that revenue did not keep up with increasing tuition this year, Richards said.\nAn obvious solution might be to increase enrollment within the School. But to maintain quality, Richards said, the School of Music cannot raise enrollment figures to more than 1,700 students. In fall 1997, enrollment peaked at just more than 1,700, and faculty and administrators realized the number was too great. It compromised the entire notion of personalized instruction and attention.\n"We have to be careful to admit only the best students," Richards said. "Students turn over more quickly than staff or faculty, and we have to attend to the quality of their education. If we don't, we'll quickly lose our reputation."\nInstead, the School has created courses for nonmajors designed to be taught at a larger scale. These classes include topics like the history of rock and roll or the Beatles, and the comparatively larger class size allows the "economy of scale" to work with the School of Music.\nState legislative officials reported IU's share of state appropriations for higher education grew at a mere 2 percent annually throughout the 1990s -- not fast enough to meet the needs of the School of Music. State appropriations account for 54 percent of the budget, while tuition accounts for 41.5 percent.\nBut the School doesn't depend entirely upon state appropriations to survive. \n"RCM is only a state appropriations tool for the distribution of funds," Richards said. "Any system has pluses and minuses, and RCM is no more than a tool."\nThe area from which Richards expects maximum growth is the private sector. Endowed chairs and professorships have the "single most direct impact on the operating budget" of the School, according to the School of Music Web site. Such programs as the University Faculty Endowment Matching Program provide stable sources of income that continue from year to year. Generally, it takes a minimum of $1 million to establish a chair, and $500,000 to establish a professorship.\nThe School has seen a marked increase in the number of endowed chairs during the past few years, said Viola Roth of the School of Music Office of Development.\n"In order to maintain the level of quality both in faculty and students, we have to have the funding," Roth said. "Fortunately, the private sector is responding."\nWhile the School is certainly not "out of the woods" yet, Roth said she believes the private sector will continue to understand and appreciate the advantages a small music school affords in the context of a larger university.\n"We're not just a conservatory," Roth said. "This is Juilliard with brains"