There are demonstrations planned this weekend outside Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Mass., where all pre-college level teaching is to be stopped from the summer.
Here is what the staff are being told in their union journal:
What is at stake here
The decision will affect more than 83 members of the Longy faculty, who are listed on Longy’s website as teaching in the Community Programs division, along with their nearly 1000 students. The majority of these teachers will lose their jobs at Longy entirely (54 according to Longy’s press release), although a number will be able to continue at Longy with less work, because they are also on the Conservatory faculty. As a result of the reduction in hours of work, some of these Conservatory faculty members who have been teaching in Community Programs may also lose some benefits as well.What could be lost if we don’t act now
The Community Programs division of the School is currently offering lessons and classes to non-degree-seeking adults and children in Composition and Theory, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, Early Music, Percussion, Piano, Strings, Voice, and Woodwinds and Brass. Community Programs class offerings begin for students as young as one-year old, and extend to our oldest students in a special program at Cadbury Commons Assisted Living in Cambridge. Children of all ages come to Longy to study; some eventually become professional musicians, and others find interesting new ways to incorporate their love for music into their lives as amateurs (see Ten Years: The Michael B. Packer Award, LFU News, April 23, 2012). Some adult students in non-musical professions fit music lessons and classes at Longy into busy lives. Other adults who study at Longy may have degrees in music, or play professionally already, but they return to Longy to polish and round out their skills and musicianship in an environment that has been both friendly and marked by excellence.Community Programs students have come from many socio-economic backgrounds. They have included, among others, both Harvard professors and students at Cambridge public schools, some of whom have attended Longy on scholarship. A number of students take lessons and classes with more than one teacher, or have family members who take lessons with a second teacher. Following each of their teachers to different new locations may cause logistical difficulties for families of these students, or cause some students to disrupt beneficial student-teacher relationships.Non-degree students of all ages have come to Longy for many decades from Cambridge and surrounding towns, from out of state, and from many countries around the world, in order to take advantage of the School’s well-rounded and world renowned faculty, many of whom have advanced degrees and considerable performing experience locally, nationally, and internationally.Many members of the current Community Programs faculty were also members of the Conservatory faculty prior to the “faculty realignment” (see Voices of the “realigned”, LFU News, June 10, 2010), which was then announced as a one-time event. Some of these faculty members helped the School gain accreditation for the Master of Music degree. Many current Community Programs faculty have served the School for decades, often giving extra hours in service to the School, because they were inspired by the idea of offering excellent, well-rounded music education to students of all ages and levels.The Community Programs also currently offers a recently introduced Pre-College Academy for children grades 9 through 12, as well as the Young Performers Program, which was founded by former Longy Director and eminent violinist Roman Totenberg in 1977. The Young Performers Program is currently open to students, ages 8 through 13. There have been no provisions announced to students who are now in the midst of these programs regarding the certificates that they were expecting to receive from the School in the coming years.Funds for numerous annual awards intended for students in the Preparatory or Continuing Studies programs (which comprise the Community Programs division) have been donated to the School over many years by people who particularly valued the kind of musical education provided to non-degree students. These awards include the Sosman, Kotok and Packer awards among others. What will become of these awards and the funds attached to them?The role of the Union
The LFU Executive Board itself will also be severely affected by the School’s decision to close Community Programs, as four of its current members teach solely in Community Programs. Three of these four members were also on the Conservatory faculty prior to the faculty “realignment” of 2010. For the Union to continue after the announced closure of Community Programs, it would have to elect four new members to the Board from the Conservatory faculty, to take office as soon as the division closure occurs.While the School has the right to make certain types of strategic planning decisions without bargaining with the Union, under the National Labor Relations Act, it is not at all clear that their decision to close Community Programs is such a decision. The School may be required to bargain over this decision with the Longy Faculty Union. Furthermore, in any case, the School is required to bargain with the Union over the effects of such a decision on the Collective Bargaining Unit (CBU) members. Effects bargaining typically includes issues such as severance pay, benefits, timing, and potentially many other issues.The facts
While the School claims that space concerns are motivating their decision, the facts say something completely different. On March 17, 2009, Karen Zorn wrote to the staff and faculty, “Last semester our Concert Office and Operations Departments conducted a room use survey to help us understand how we use our space. After analyzing our data we discovered some interesting findings, the most important being: Longy does, in fact, have enough space. Currently, our buildings are only being used 66% of the time. Another way of saying this is: Longy is unoccupied 34% of the time.” [emphasis from original email]Since that time, Community Programs enrollment has declined by approximately 200 students, and Conservatory enrollment has not changed much in the last four years, hovering around 200 students. Furthermore, the School recently acquired a new building. So the space situation is considerably better than when Zorn declared that Longy “does, in fact, have enough space.”
NLRB investigates Longy once again
In the meantime, what Longy did not tell you is that theNational Labor Relations Board is, once again, deep into a lengthy investigation, now more than seven months old, of charges filed against it by the Longy Faculty Union for numerous violations of the National Labor Relations Act. The NLRB has told the LFU Executive Board that it has found merit with approximately ten different allegations and there are presently two separate amended sets of charges pending at the NLRB. We expect the results of that lengthy investigation within the next few weeks and we will keep you apprised.
How you can help
We have been grateful to hear from supporters offering help, and have been gratified to read comments on various public forums in support of Community Programs faculty over the last two days. We feel shock and pain over the abrupt administrative decision, and the way in which it was conveyed to faculty, students, and the community. Anyone who has read the LFU News from the beginning knows, though, that we have had cause to feel similar emotions in the past few years.It has been and continues to be our ambition to take the high road as we respond to the disrespect and dismissiveness with which the administration has treated us and our students. We invite our supporters to contribute to public forums so that the wider community understands the massive extent of the potential loss here. We encourage you to do any or all of the following that you feel comfortable doing to support our cause:
- Write to Leon Botstein, President of Bard College:president@bard.edu
- Write to the Longy Board of Governors: Matina S. Horner (Chair), Virginia Meany (Vice-Chair), Melinda N. Donovan (Secretary), Peter C. Aldrich, Sandra Bakalar, Leon Botstein, Thomas M. Burger, Gene D. Dahmen, Patricia H. Deyton, Robert S. Epstein, Harriet E. Griesinger, Charlotte I. Hall, George F. Hamel Jr., Timothy J. Jacoby, Ruth M. McKay, Louise Ambler Osborn, Patricia Ostrander, Dimitri Papadimitriou, Kalen Ratzlaff, David E. Schwab II, Charles P. Stevenson Jr., Marilyn Ray Smith, Robert B. Straus, Jeannette H. Taylor, J. David Wimberly, Gary Wolf, Karen Zorn.
- Write to the Longy Administration: Karen Zorn (karen.zorn@longy.edu), Wayman Chin (wayman.chin@longy.edu), Kalen Ratlzlaff (kalen.ratzlaff@longy.edu), Miriam Eckelhoefer (miriam.eckelhoefer@longy.edu)
. - Post on any of the blogs linked above.
- Post on the Longy School Facebook page here.
- Post on the Longy Faculty Union page here.
- Contact Mayor of Cambridge Henrietta Davis atmayor@cambridgema.gov or call 617-349-4321.
- Contact Cambridge City Council Members E. Denise Simmons (dsimmons@cambridgema.gov), Leland Cheung (lcheung@cambridgema.gov), Marjorie C. Decker (mdecker@cambridgema.gov), Craig A. Kelley (ckelley@cambridgema.gov), David P. Maher (dmaher@cambridgema.gov), Kenneth E. Reeves (kreeves@cambridgema.gov), Timothy J. Toomey, Jr. (timtoomey@aol.com), Minka van Beuzekom (minka@cambridgema.gov).
- Contact State Representatives Stephen F. Lynch (email or 202-225-8273) and Michael E. Capuano (email or 202-225-5111).
- Contact Governor Deval Patrick (email or 617-725-4005)
The demonstrators are having to overcome two feet of snow to make their point. Not optimum conditions for a protest.
One division of Longy is being shut down. Not the whole school itself.
Longy is a third-tier music school. They want to get better. This means cleaning house. Other schools will step forward and fill the void for preparatory/adult amateur education.
What, exactly, is the problem? The Board of Governors is in charge of the school. They’ve hired Karen Zorn to run it. She’s aligned herself with Leon Botstein and his vision and ambition with regards to conservatory training. She is changing the school with board approval.
Were the community music school faculty meant to be guaranteed a job for life? Why the feeling of entitlement? Times change. Longy’s reputation for quality is not good. They’re just trying to improve that.
Ummm your facts are wrong.
The Longy Community Programs division is widely regarded as one of the top in the country. Including top-level instruction in all areas and being world renowned for its Dalcroze and Early Music departments. World-renowned performer/teachers, a first-rate theory program, Suzuki, orchestral, chamber music, choral and many other elements comprise one of the best music programs in the world for children under age 18. The Continuing Studies program serves not only adult amateurs, but professional players who come from around the world to hone their craft with some of the best teachers in the world.
If there is any weakness at Longy, it is not in the faculty or in the Community Programs. That is abundantly clear to anybody who knows anything about the music business.
As someone who spent almost 30 years of my professional life as an administrator in a conservatory, I heartily agree with those who say that there are too many of them in the USA cranking out high level grads for whom the future is bright for only a select few. Bard has its own conservatory (founded within the last 10 years !) and Boston hardly needs another one with NEC, BU School of Music, Berklee for jazz, Boston Conservatory, etc, etc (sorry if I forgot anyone).
Longy has a proud reputation of serving its constituents with a diversified community program. The community and not the blogosphere must decide what the future holds for Longy. Programs for children under 18 and for adult learners is where the action should be, IMHO.
Amen to Mr. Fitzpatrick’s observations, above.
Robert – totally in agreement with your points. Particularly as there is so much evidence going around that music education for children helps them do better in many other areas of learning and indeed that adults who learn and keep playing a musical instrument later in life are less likely to suffer from dementia.
Are there any statistics available documenting careers eventually followed by US music graduates, i.e. percentage who actually end up in music etc?
I can only comment on the Curtis stats with some degree of accuracy. It’s about 80% of grads who after 10 years are still earning a significant part of their living from music (a very few solo careers, orchestra, chamber music, teaching in that order, or all of the above combined for many). I’m sure Juilliard is similar but where does that leave Longy at the Conservatory level? Or Bard?
Thank you for speaking up, Mr. Fitzpatrick!
Can anyone say whether Bard now owns the building and school as is implied in some of these posts?
If so, what was the transaction? Meaning, is it really possible for Bard to do a real estate flip?
An Open Letter to Karen Zorn and Wayman Chin:
It’s time for you to go. The vote is in. There is no remaining confidence in you — not from the faculty, not from the students and not from the entire community of Longy alumni, parents, and neighbors. With your latest actions you have squandered every little bit of confidence that was left. It’s time for you to go.
It began as a hopeful, if somewhat risky, experiment by the Longy Board in 2007. They hired you, Karen, a recently terminated middle manager from Berklee School of Music, to be the new President of Longy. Many faculty were skeptical, given your lack of experience, but some decided to give you the benefit of the doubt.
Soon after you were hired, you appointed a new Dean, Wayman Chin, with no search, no faculty input, and despite the fact that he had no experience of any kind related to academic management at any institution of higher education. Many more faculty were skeptical of this decision, but some continued to give you and Wayman the benefit of the doubt and support you both.
At this point, Wayman Chin simultaneously held the titles of Academic Dean, Chair of Chamber Music, and Artistic Advisor to the President. Many in the Longy community (faculty, students, and parents) felt that the Conservatory was, in essence, being run by one person who oversaw every aspect of students’ lives and who was involved in every important decision affecting students’ time at Longy, starting with their scholarships, through to their chamber music assignments, and even their grades. Many faculty felt and feel that this concentration of so much power in one person is inappropriate at an institute of higher education. You lost some confidence here.
Soon after Wayman Chin became Dean, he and you, began targeting faculty members, attacking their reputations and firing them. The School lost many great people in the process. You lost so much respect from the faculty at this point that the faculty decided as a group to go through the lengthy and arduous process of forming a union, collectively spending thousands of hours of volunteer time to do so.
You fought against this, published numerous falsehoods, and made negative statements about the union, but you lost again. Despite all your efforts, the faculty voted to unionize with an overwhelming majority. You weren’t listening, once again. You lost more confidence here.
Once the faculty unionized, you continued to make changes without consulting the Union, and as a result, the NLRB had to investigate you and bring one of the largest federal cases against any School in the country. The Union published numerous issues of their newsletter with headlines such as “Longy walks out of negotiating session.” Only when confronted by a judge, did you finally settle with the faculty union and agree to a contract.
The School spent more than $500,000 in settlements instead of simply reinstating faculty that you terminated, which would have cost the School nothing. In the process of fighting the faculty union, the School spent $800,000 on lawyers (according to your publicly filed IRS forms). That was $1.3 million of the School’s money that you squandered on this process, Karen. I don’t think parents, students and other donors to the School were happy about you spending their money this way. You could have used this money instead on new building for Longy, if space really was an issue, Karen, but you didn’t. You lost lots more confidence here.
At this point, the faculty had very little confidence in you, but you agreed to a contract, so they hoped you would live up to your responsibilities in the contract. Soon after the signing, however, you and your administration went off course, and the Union had to go back to the NLRB with new charges again starting this academic year. The NLRB has been investigating those charges ever since, and you are well aware that the NLRB decisions are coming soon.
So now at the beginning of March 2013, you suddenly announce the closing of Community Programs due to space constraints (btw, you are the one who told the faculty a few years ago that there was plenty of space). Everyone sees through that misrepresentation about space constraints. You know it’s not true, the students know it’s not true, the faculty knows it’s not true, the entire community knows it’s not true, the alumni know it’s not true, the world of music knows it’s not true. In fact, since you determined and announced that the School did have enough space to meet its need, there has been no continuing discussion, task force, committee or overall planning of any kind at the School regarding space issues. You took it off the table four years ago, remember?
Now, even when sincere and earnest parents write to your office about their concerns over your bad decision to close Community Programs, you respond with a form letter written and signed by a new communications person (you don’t even respond yourself — shame on you!) and in that letter, you tell these long-time supporters of Longy that they are wrong, and their perceptions are wrong, and that you will set them straight. One line states, “I want to correct misperceptions about how this decision was communicated.” This is no way to talk to parents, students, faculty or any of us in the Longy community.
Karen, there are no misperceptions about how the decision was communicated. The parents know exactly what was communicated to them and how it was communicated. The faculty know exactly what was communicated to them and how it was communicated. The students know exactly what was communicated to them and how it was communicated. You don’t need to lecture any of us. The parents, faculty, students and community at large is not wrong. You are wrong.
The last time you fired a large group of faculty members in March of 2010, you held a meeting with faculty and told them that you only wanted people at Longy who were “on the bus” with you, implying to all that anyone not on the bus with you would be figuratively “thrown under the bus.” Clearly, you are attempting to do that again.
But this time, nobody is with you, Karen. There is no confidence left.
While some of us never thought you were the right person for the job, you did have the confidence of many at first. You have know squandered every last bit of that confidence. This is a vote of no confidence, and it is unanimous. It’s time for you and Wayman Chin to go.
Please step down gracefully and rapidly, and make it easier on the entire community.
Perhaps they don’t want the true reason for the shut down to surface because it might ruin the school. What they did was to at least lessen the load or burden they are carrying at the cost of the students’ disappointments.