By Julie FrenchThe Daily Northwestern
The School of Music’s jazz studies major has been cut for next year, students learned in a meeting Tuesday with Prof. Charles Geyer.
The meeting was arranged when Music freshman Brett Johnson heard a rumor about an earlier faculty meeting to decide the future of the program and approached Geyer for more information. Seven students attended the meeting.
“If I hadn’t heard that through the grapevine, none of us would know until next Wednesday, ” Johnson said, referencing a meeting planned with Music Dean Toni-Marie Montgomery on May 23. “It was wrong that she is withholding this. Tuition-paying students deserve to know what’s going on.”
Montgomery wrote in an e-mail to The Daily that she would not discuss the issue until after the May 23 meeting.
“I feel it is my obligation to provide the students with comprehensive and factual information regarding the future of jazz studies at Northwestern,” she wrote.
The future of the program has been uncertain since the former director Don Owens left in 2005 after serving for 26 years. At the time, Montgomery told The Daily that the school had received a gift that would solely benefit the jazz studies program.
“We look forward to strengthening the jazz program and redefining the role of jazz in the School of Music,” she said then.
A search committee was established to find a new director, but no one was hired. Deborah Truschke, who works in Music admissions processing, said there are “no more than two dozen” students in the program now. Enrollment has hovered between 12 and 14 students during the past two years.
“We thought it was kind of an influx maybe,” Johnson said. “We all thought there was a very good chance it was going to be cut, but it’s been decided now apparently for a couple weeks.”
Geyer explained that “the goal of the administration was to improve the jazz program by getting rid of the jazz studies major,” said Brad Jepson, a fifth-year Music and McCormick senior. “In the minds of faculty, jazz is not a legitimate art form. To them, a jazz program should be on the side for the benefit of classical majors but should not be a full program in and of itself.”
The jazz program will still exist in the form of a jazz minor and a jazz band, Jepson said.
Johnson, who is one of two freshmen in the program, said he was assured that he would still receive his degree, but he said he is still concerned about his future at NU.
“It’s been really frustrating,” he said. “They act like ‘Oh, don’t worry, your degree is going to be protected,’ but you have to immerse yourself in jazz and that style. With no other peers to look up to and learn from, it’s going to be difficult for me to develop as fully as I should. Jazz essentially is communication, and they’re cutting off people for me to communicate with.”
Ben Zoll, the other freshman jazz studies major, who also attended Tuesday’s meeting, said he was disappointed but planned to stay at NU to finish his dual degree in jazz studies and economics.
“If this school did not offer a jazz major I wouldn’t have come here,” he said. “I’ll be able to graduate with a degree in jazz, but in reality, if there are no incoming members for the ensembles, then I’m not going to get the same education,” he said.
Joel Spencer will continue as the interim director of the program next year, said Michael Burritt, the chairman of the former search committee.
Reach Julie French at [email protected].
