The recommendation calls for major changes in the music education program as it is now constituted. Faculty members in music education would continue to teach education courses over the next four years to students currently enrolled in the music education degree program. This would allow them to complete their studies under the existing structure.

The current music education program would be replaced with one in which students who want to be music educators would earn a bachelor of music degree in performance or a bachelor of arts degree with a music major. They would take education courses through the Graduate School of Education to qualify them for New York State teacher certification.

The three full-time members of the music-education faculty may transfer to the Graduate School of Education (GSE), where they would instruct education courses required for teacher certification through the GSE's Buffalo Research Institute on Education for Teaching (BRIET).

David Felder, professor and chair of the music department, said, "This particular recommendation would bring the department into common practice with the rest of the departments in the arts and sciences.

Discussion has been ongoing

"At this time, the Music Department is the only one that integrates undergraduate teacher-education courses into a degree program," he said. He explained that in other departments, undergraduates who want to teach are required to complete a degree in their content area-history, art or biology, for instance-and satisfy course requirements for the New York State teaching certificate offered through BRIET.

Felder said the department would continue programs leading to a bachelor's degree in music performance and a bachelor's degree in music, essentially a liberal arts degree with a music concentration.

"The discussion about this issue has been going on between the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Letters, the provost and the music department faculty since 1992," Felder pointed out.

"The music education program attracts students," he said, "but there have been problems with it for years. The provost's 1997 reorganization plan for the arts and sciences specifically cited the music education program, said that it 'is not a program of distinction' and proposed that it be limited or eliminated."

The recommendation to eliminate the program was developed with the Music Department Executive Committee and submitted last spring by Felder to Dean Kerry Grant and then to Provost Thomas Headrick for consideration, along with other proposed changes. These recommendations are now under review by the Faculty Senate at Headrick's request.

The proposal has caused some controversy, with some part-time faculty members, the local musicians' union, the United University Professions and members of the music-education community expressing concern. Public discussion tied the recommended changes in music education to the non-renewal of several part-time faculty members, which, Felder stressed, should not be confused or conflated with the discussion about music education.

"Students who want to teach music will still be in an excellent position to graduate from UB as music educators with strong performance backgrounds," he said. "They can receive a bachelor of music degree in performance or a bachelor of arts degree with a music major, then qualify for New York State teaching certification. If they wish to pursue pedagogical studies further, they can do so through the graduate teacher-preparation program in the Graduate School of Education.

"For those who prefer an undergraduate music education program with pedagogy courses integrated into the four-year curriculum," Felder said, "Fredonia State College offers a very good one, as does the Eastman School in Rochester. UB simply is not, and has never been, primarily a teachers' college," he added, "nor are we a music conservatory.

"I think virtually everyone in the department agrees that we can't continue to offer such a broad palette of music programs with the budget restraints we face," he said. "We can't afford it and we can't afford to duplicate very good programs offered by other SUNY colleges in such close proximity to the university.

Accent will be on strengths

"When the UB Music Department was founded," Felder said, "it emphasized programs that drew on the strength of its faculty in performance, theory, history and composition. The department is now reformulating itself with the approval of the faculty, the dean and the provost to reflect the department's strengths." He said the changes are expected to decrease the number of undergraduate music majors, "especially in the short run because a substantial number are currently working toward a bachelor's degree in music education."

Those enrolled in that program eventually will be replaced, he said, by a larger number of students in music performance working toward a bachelor's in music, with or without teacher certification, and by new enrollment in the bachelor of arts degree program, now under revision, which, may offer tracks in music administration, criticism and computer music.