Students Against Budget Cuts to the Arts

I mean, Students FOR The Arts

(always make your cause about a positive rather than a negative. point out what people SHOULD be doing, not the incorrect behavior

New facebook group upset budget cuts wow exciting news~  (actually try to get into the group to take a look for yourself because they discussions they are having are pretty interesting. really interesting to examine how a group self-organizes and self-regulates, group conflict, evolution of leadership roles, etc. pretty cool if ur into 'anthropology)

Kinda hard to join now tho since they made it private (which kinda brings up issues of visibility and transparency but w/e #youdoyou)

So the group is mostly upset over budget cuts, specifically to the Music department, specifically changing Brian Ganz from Faculty & Artist in Residence to just Faculty

I don't even speak other languages, but I'm pretty sure that would translate to "Live the Ganz"... pretty sure it should just be "Viva Ganz"

Anyway here is their basic argument/platform

Here is some basic information about what is going on with the music department. If you have any information regarding the other arts departments please feel free to share. Thank you!

Basically, certain members of the current administration are looking to restructure the contracts of both Brian Ganz and Jose Cueto. As of now the college pays them to both teach and perform because they are our artists-in-residence. These budget cuts would mean cutting their artist-in-residence status, which means no more concerts and only paying them to teach private lessons. This would likely mean that it would be financially impossible for Jose and Brian to remain with us. Our aim is to fight against these budget cuts to preserve the jobs of two integral members of the St. Mary's Community. 

The worth of department is often discussed in terms of Full Time Enrollment or FTE. This basically means the number of credits each student produces. As you all know, the music department has many 1 credit classes as opposed to other departments which primarily offer 4 credit classes. This means that the number of credits produced by each student is not a fair way of assessing the amount of the student body that is involved in the music department. We actually serve as many people as other medium sized departments at the school.

Another argument that is frequently employed is that Maryland taxpayers should not have to pay the cost of private lessons, which are a large expense of the music department. However, music students pay $190 extra a semester for private lessons which partially covers the $490 a private instructor is payed per semester per student. In addition, music majors and minors often overload on credits because many ensembles are required for the major and minor, which means paying another fee to alleviate the cost of paying teachers. 

And finally, there's Brian, who is estimated to have brought in a substantial amount of money from donors. The Zamanakos family that funds the Double A Cabaret has donated between 500,000 to 1 million dollars mainly in music but also in history because they fell in love with Brian Ganz's performing. Anyone who has been to Brian's concerts will know that these experience encompass much more than a passive listening experience; they open new horizons for students and community members. Everyone has something to learn from watching such inspirational performances. 

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this in support of the music department! I hope we can make a difference.

So IDK I can see why they are upset but

Budget cuts need to happen. And every department is making them. And the school is letting the departments make their own cuts, because, obviously, they are the ones that know best what they can cut. So, the Music/Arts department has, more than likely, made the decision on their own.

But it will be interesting to see how this plays out. They also planned a protest but it got cancelled. I don't understand how a protest gets cancelled but w/e~

As Goodpastor said "But what do you think?" Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Budget Meeting 6/5/2013 PANIC

There was a Budget Meeting yesterday. Urgo was not present, and probably won't be for future meetings and discussions, so as a "campus community" we should "mentally move on." Dad (via Urgo) went out for cigarettes and hasn't come back since (via seasons 16, episode 19 of the Simpsons when Nelson explains that his Dad went out for cigarettes and said 'smell ya later', but then he never smelled Nelson again #sad #bullies).

Anyway, Dorothy Fisher (who I have never met but she has cool lipstick) was there and transcribed a bunch of the questions and answers which is super rad. They are below~ thx bb #grateful(dead)

[Editor's Note: The Q&A is in live-blog format, so it's in reverse order, so read it from the bottom up plz. I bolded some 'cool' questions]

Meeting over everyone go home

friendly reminder to submit q’s to the budget committee via that google doc

Q- can there be a schedule of alumni weekend, or should we just go to the waterfront for 48 hours?
A- ok yeah we’ll send that out to faculty and staff

Q- will admissions committee be present during alumni weekend?
A- yes

Q- think about alumni who are also staff when thinking about branding because they know some shit
A- yeah

Q- why the fuck was there a shortfall?
A- idk but we need to look at data and self-evaluate

Q- hesitation about branding?
A- what are ‘authentic’ messages of St Mary’s? How do we communicate those messages?

Q- is board looking at branding’s relationship to budget shortfall?
A- we have a consulting company (which is obviously pretty shitty?) but this is so sudden (??) that no specific conclusions have been drawn

Q-What is happening with the gallery? (Who asked this? It wasn’t me…)
A-Reduction in operating budget. Cristin will have to decide how the gallery is maintained. The art storage facility has needs that need to be addressed. Selling some of the art is possible, but very complicated and would require we use the money to support the collection. The gallery will probably be kind of open.

Q- what about short-staffed staff depts?
A- this is a tricky one. no deets yet. concerns have been heard

Q- is college’s ‘branding’ changing?
A- short answer yes. Long answer not sure how this will need to change

Efforts to strengthen transfer pipeline for the base and others

Reduced personnel is not going to mean increased workload for remaining personnel. If anything, reduced services

Aaaaand there is now a new student/ family helpline, and admissions is trying to get out the message for first years that everything is stable

Also there is some kind of roster for enthusiastic alumni

Q- what about implementing alumni interviews? Not even as screening but as a persuasive tool
A- this is a great idea, which will be given to admissions

Q- can we harness the alumni to get a lot of energy and also dollars?? Specifically alumni weekend is like tomorrow, so hop to it
A- St Mary’s is all about people, community, stick to our talking points, ask alumni for money this weekend and also ideas

Q- wtf is up with budget increases in specific disciplines?
A- specific alumni gifts (I was wondering this too)

Q- are we asking Rich Edgar to come back??
- long applause-
A- it has been proposed, but isn’t currently in the cards

Also we’ve gotten an assload of donation money recently. Not sure if this is the same $$ mentioned in the email about jurgo or whether this $$ goes toward budget shortfall

Q- continued support for admissions while it reevaluates etc?
A- we need everyones good energy used for publicity and be tactical about reducing budget for fund raising and admissions

Q- is there alumni involvement w/ budget issues??
A- idk
(Beth Rushing is going to take the issue of Alumni back to budget committee for discussion)

also there was a weird discussion about pins that i didn’t understand

Q- will eliminated positions come back when things get better?
A- proposals for all new positions come to budget committee, which is transparent and recommends to president which new budget expenditures get put in place—it sounds like eliminated positions are really gone?

Q- why is the block grant a good thing?
A- it provides a tremendous amount of autonomy and has preserved us through many times of financial hardship—we might tweak block grant but it is here

Q- what about facilities improvements
A- 10% cut to projects this fiscal year. Long term facilities master plan was just completed, basically everything is going to be put off and the plan will be reevaluated and adjusted
A- Anne Arundel hall is state money so it’s going ahead anyway

Q- (convoluted) but I think it was about bloated administrator salaries?
A- no one has thought about this yet but they need to and it will definitely a topic of consideration

Q- why aren’t staff eligible for wage increase?
A- because the state doesn’t earmark money for that specifically and it just comes in a block grant which is different from other colleges and now that we have no money we can’t? Someone also shouted out that they would rather have less or no raise than have people lose their jobs

Q- WHAT CHANGES IN ADMISSIONS ARE BEING PLANNED
A- independent and committee reviews are underway, no actual changes yet

Q- how has commitment to academics actually played out?
A- filling vacant faculty spots, more proposed reduction of academic dept budgets than is necessary to best optimize what comes from where (this didn’t make sense to me)
A- also everyone on the committee wants to hear what you think about budget cuts

Q- dept chair budget cuts were proposed
A- they did a good job and if they have more ideas Beth rushing wants to know about them?

Q-enrollment data
A- final numbers won’t be real until the fall, but we need to plan for 3.5 mil
A- this is a problem that will be with us for a few years, and once we solve this in the short term we will need to keep thinking long trtm

Chip Jackson chokes up: “These are tough times for the college. Don’t let it be divisive.”

Discussion of living wage and furloughs etc: there will definitely be furloughs. there will also not be the recently state-mandated 3% cost of living increase but there will still be wage increases? Lowest end of pay scale gets highest increases. Same with furloughs. Low end of pay scale will get fewest furlough days.

20 vacant positions will “not not be filled” and 18 vacant positions will not be filled

Personnel: it’s possible to solve shortfall without layoffs???

Consistent discussion about implementation of transparency

4 principles for budget reductions:
1) preserve core academic principles
2) focus on teaching
4) work on unfilled positions rather than cutting people
(Sorry, I missed #3)

Budget stuff now:
enrollment level def means 3.5 million budget reduction

Kate Chandler is on budget committee! Also a lot of cool faculty! Also staff, students and administrators! Good.

Q- new/interim pres needs to be willing to conduct internal review and understand ‘soul’ of the college

Q- why doing pres search and admissions reevaluation simultaneously?
A- issues are complex but a ‘course correction’ can still be executed in the short term

Q— why are we using an organization to find a candidate for an interim president rather than looking at internal candidates?
A— we are looking for someone with wide range of leadership experience, not just student life or faculty or fundraising

Q— what is the long term efficacy of these presidential searches—this is the 3rd in 4 years? we need to think longer term than this
A— small, efficient, transparent committee? They’re not sure yet? Counseling with other people who do these kinds of searches (that’s a job?)

Q-  student/faculty involvement in search for short and long term presidents?
A- “A representative” from student faculty staff each. Balance of inclusive and efficient

External agency is seeking interim president. Expect person by July or August. “Not just a placeholder” —not an internal faculty/admin person then

Increasing board involvement on campus. Seeking ideas about how to interact with students more.

liveblogging budget meeting commencing