Sounds of Change</h1> <article> <h1>Sounds of Change</h1> <p>eburnett — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 19:03:49 +0000</p> <span>Sounds of Change</span> <span><span>eburnett</span></span> <span><time datetime="2023-11-10T14:03:49-05:00" title="Friday, November 10, 2023 - 14:03">Fri, 11/10/2023 - 14:03</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>By the time <a href="/node/30061">Chris Jenkins</a> got to �鶹��Ƶ, he had already experienced conservatory education from just about every angle you might imagine.</p> <p>The year was 2014, and the conservatory’s new associate dean for academic support was stepping into a role nobody had previously held—at �鶹��Ƶ or just about anywhere else. A classically trained violist, Jenkins earned a bachelor’s degree at Harvard, which he followed with graduate studies at New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, and Columbia University. Today, he’s completing a DMA in viola performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music and a PhD in musicology at Case Western Reserve, with an emphasis on African American musical aesthetics.</p> <p></p> <p>Jenkins works closely with �鶹��Ƶ students experiencing challenges of all shapes and sizes. Often, they are people of color—like Jenkins—or identify as LGBTQ+. And often, they share frustrations Jenkins himself can trace back to his own conservatory days.</p> <p>For generations, music conservatories—like the outstanding schools Jenkins has attended and the one where he works—have clung to ideals of the Western classical canon at the expense of other musical traditions. For some students, this pervasive lack of diversity and inclusivity leads to feelings of marginalization.</p> <p>�鶹��Ƶ is not immune to these challenges—and the criticisms invited by them—says Jenkins. But he also praises �鶹��Ƶ’s proactive, <a href="/dean-of-the-conservatory/racial-equity-diversity-action-plan">ongoing initiatives</a> aimed at bringing equity to the conservatory experience—moves, he notes, that align with the institution’s historical commitment to expanding access. In recent years, �鶹��Ƶ initiated a significant rethinking of its music theory curriculum, created a minor course of study in <a href="/news/oberlin-establishes-minor-african-american-music">African American music</a>, established <a href="/news/courtney-savali-andrews-appointed-newly-created-faculty-position-oberlin-conservatory">new faculty positions</a> that focus on these traditions, and significantly expanded repertoire selections to be inclusive of a multitude of cultures and experiences.</p> <p>Jenkins himself teaches two courses that once might have seemed unimaginable: one on the racial politics of classical music and another on hip-hop. And his �鶹��Ƶ experiences inspired his new book, <em>Assimilation v. Integration in Music Education: Leading Change Toward Greater Equity</em> (Routledge Press/College Music Society), which examines longstanding issues among U.S. conservatories and recommends strategies for addressing them.</p> <p>We caught up with Jenkins recently to discuss the book, his motivations for writing it, and his reasons for optimism in the future of music education.</p> <hr> <p><strong>You have experienced pre-professional music education as a student, teacher, and administrator. Across those experiences, how did your passion to pursue research—and to be an agent of change—in this area take shape?</strong></p> <p>My desire to talk about how conservatories should change really comes from my experiences with students at �鶹��Ƶ. It was �鶹��Ƶ students, and to an extent other faculty and staff, who encouraged me to think differently about conservatory education and consider the negative impacts of this educational model on students. I will say I never had any thought that I would become a musicologist, which probably speaks to the extent to which that field is generally unappealing for people of color.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>In the book, you assert that the issue of diversity should be approached through the lens of aesthetics. In conservatories, that generally refers to musical ideals that are directly related to Western classical music—everything from how a note should be played to how a musician should dress. It’s about what various groups value about art over time and why. How can examining aesthetics lead us to a more equitable and inclusive educational model?</strong></p> <p>I started working with the <a href="https://aesthetics-online.org/">American Society for Aesthetics</a> in 2016, thanks to Professor of Africana Studies <a href="/node/4981">Charles Peterson</a>, who invited me to be part of a panel at one of their conferences. I feel obligated to take a moment and point out the importance of Black people supporting other Black people in academia because, literally, everything I’ve done professionally since is a result of Charles’ invitation to present at that ASA conference.</p> <p>I subsequently won a grant from the ASA to write about the aesthetics of African American classical music. It was because of that publication that I was invited to apply to be a musicology doctoral student, in addition to earning a DMA. But this was also the impetus for me to begin viewing conservatory education through the lens of aesthetics.</p> <p>Basically, the realization I arrived at was that the aspects of the conservatory environment that many people find alienating—that I find alienating, for sure—relate to the concept of aesthetics: what people find ideal or most beautiful. Music students are always oriented toward a type of aesthetic idealization in their performances. But that idealization extends beyond music into our speech, dress, bodily movement, and all aspects of personal expression and conduct, on stage, in studio class, in lessons, and in peer-to-peer interactions. It is the pressure to align with these unspoken aesthetic codes that cause a lot of distress for students of color in conservatories.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Associate Dean Chris Jenkins wrote the book on conservatory reform.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2023-11-10T12:00:00Z">Fri, 11/10/2023 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Erich Burnett</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2356">Conservatory</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2564">Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/musicology" hreflang="und">Musicology</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Chris Jenkins, the conservatory's Associate Dean for Academic Support, has played a key role in a wide range of initiatives aimed at increasing equity, diversity, and inclusion at �鶹��Ƶ.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Jacob Strauss</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-32110" class="paragraph paragraph--type--pb-el-bq paragraph--view-mode--default"> <blockquote class="blockquote--quotemark" data-text-color-red data-text-size-giant> <p>If the intention in any given conservatory is to increase its percentage of Black students, then perhaps our musical language should also change to reflect the cultural backgrounds of those students.</p> </blockquote> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-27881" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p>The general theme of the book is that the aesthetics of conservatories do not resonate with many members of communities of color, and that if we aim for demographic change—to recruit more students and professionals of color into orchestras and conservatories—we’re essentially approaching diversification as a project of assimilation. We actually have to change our institutions—to change not just the repertoire, but also how we think about making music, to include other traditions, harmonic and melodic languages, and ways of approaching music. I don’t mean this in an appropriative way, but rather, for example: If the intention in any given conservatory is to increase its percentage of Black students, then perhaps our musical language should also change to reflect the cultural backgrounds of those students. Right now, conservatories are trying to make those demographic changes without changing internally.</p> <p><strong>Your book might be considered an examination of music education aimed primarily at those in charge of shaping and delivering that education. What would you hope a student of that education might take away from the book?</strong></p> <p>I actually address this issue in the third chapter of the book, by saying that students have far more influence and power than they perceive, but this change is usually beyond the horizon of their graduation. Change in academia is really slow. This is true and not just a stalling tactic by the faculty and administration. But change is possible; it’s just on an extended timeline. �鶹��Ƶ has been around for almost 200 years, so the reality is that nothing substantive and irreversible is going to happen in a timeline of two or three years. Students—especially undergraduates—sometimes struggle to fully exploit their potential as change agents because it’s hard to spend time agitating for change that will not affect your own student experience.</p> <p>I’d say that it is important for students to consider how to improve conditions explicitly not for themselves or even their peers, but for future students whom they will never know. I’m not saying students don’t ever do that—just that it’s not the most common approach, in my experience. Students are capable of exerting significant influence over the institution if, through the leadership of student groups and continual peer education, they can sustain activism for a single goal and cooperative negotiation with the administration over a timeframe of five, 10, or more years.</p> <p>Also, I would love for students to take away from the book the message that people who work at their schools can experience long-term growth and change from interactions we have with students. When presenting about this book, I talk about the journey that I went through to arrive at the place where I am now, and my own journey was very much precipitated by conversations with students. I can definitely think of situations nine or 10 years ago that I would handle completely differently now, and that’s because of the long-term impact of my experiences with generations of students. That’s a big part of why I wrote this book: to impart some of what I’ve learned from those experiences. And I would invite faculty and administrators not to be reflexively dismissive of student input and activism.</p> <p><strong>How have you seen the key takeaways of your book taking shape at �鶹��Ƶ?</strong></p> <p>Especially following the summer of 2020, there were several exciting developments in the conservatory. There are many aspects of the curriculum that have changed fundamentally, especially in the area of music theory. And it wasn’t that I was leading those efforts or that my book was responsible; key members of the faculty and administration perceived they had a vested interest in doing things differently. The new African American music minor is one such example. It’s exciting for me because at industry conferences, there are conversations that focus on �鶹��Ƶ and what we’ve been doing.</p> <p>And it’s not a matter of that usual line that I really hate: We’ve made some changes, but we acknowledge we have much further to go… Obviously, the general conservatory environment remains alienating to many students. But also, some of the changes that have happened over the past few years are really fundamental and unprecedented in conservatory education. I don't see any of our peers doing analogous work. And some of the changes that are still in the works are, frankly, even more disruptive to that standard model in really positive ways.</p> <p>These changes are especially exciting because they link the process of creative development, of becoming a creative musician, to diversity. There is a tacit acknowledgment that the standard model has evolved to inhibit creativity, partly by suppressing the individual artist’s connection to their own culture and promoting cultural assimilation and homogeneity.</p> <p><strong>What gives you hope that the state of music education in America is improving and will continue to improve?</strong></p> <p>The two driving factors in the evolution—or stagnancy—of music education and classical music performance are ideology and finances. It’s ironic, because there are deep conversations that have been proceeding for years on both of these tracks, but the tracks are completely parallel and non-intersectional. It’s difficult to nurture ideological change when doing so seems to invoke existential financial risk, and it’s difficult to invest in new areas when there is ideological opposition. As long as financial models aren’t failing, the incentive is to stick with them, and I totally understand this impulse. Somebody has to be responsible for keeping the lights on; that’s the definition of the bottom line.</p> <p>However, because America is diversifying rapidly, tastes are changing. As that happens, more conservatories and orchestras will feel sufficient pressure to experiment with new models. If those models are more financially successful than the old one, the old model will be jettisoned. I think the ideological currents have evolved faster than the financial pressures, so there is all this pressure and frustration built up behind a dam.</p> <p>It’s still not certain what will happen. People have been predicting the demise of American orchestras for decades—actually, since at least the 1950s. Most of these orchestras were founded in the late 19th century, at the very earliest. That means that we’ve been expecting them to go under for the majority of the time they’ve been around. But the demographic change predicted in this country over the next few decades is more radical than anything we’ve seen before. Maybe the change that overtakes conservatory education over that time period will be just as radical.</p> </div> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Consent Awareness 101: It’s Not Always About Sex</h1> <p>anagy — Fri, 30 Nov 2018 19:43:37 +0000</p> <span>Consent Awareness 101: It’s Not Always About Sex</span> <span><span>anagy</span></span> <span><time datetime="2018-11-30T14:43:37-05:00" title="Friday, November 30, 2018 - 14:43">Fri, 11/30/2018 - 14:43</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Sometimes it seems like the work that comes out of the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion is only about sex.</p> <p>Rebecca Mosely, director of the office and �鶹��Ƶ’s Title IX coordinator, will be the first to tell you that it’s hard to talk about sex, but the matter of consent isn’t just sexual.</p> <p>A year ago, Mosely’s office launched �鶹��Ƶ’s first consent awareness campaign. The slogan, “Let’s Make Consent a Conversation,” has a multitude of meanings: make consent a conversation with yourself; a conversation with your partner; a conversation at home with your parents.</p> <p>Although a majority of students were aware of the college’s sexual misconduct policy, there were just as many who had questions about how to practice clear consent.</p> <p>“Being on a residential campus, college is the first time where you’re not going home at night to somewhere your friends are not,” says Mosely, who began her �鶹��Ƶ career in residential education before transitioning to her current role.</p> <p>“At home, if you wanted to avoid a person or not hang out with them, you just went home. Here, you’ve living, dining, and going to classes with them,’’ she says. “Really understanding how to ask for and gain consent in a relationship is more important than it has ever been before in students’ lives.”</p> <p>In spring 2017, Mosely and Suzanne Denneen, program coordinator in the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, attended a training workshop offered by the Ohio Alliance to End Sexualized Violence, a statewide anti-sexual violence coalition. With the training came an opportunity to receive grant funding for a consent awareness campaign. They immediately started brainstorming ideas on the car ride home.</p> <p>“What they talked about at the training really resonated with us,” says Denneen, noting some of the market research they gleaned from the conference.</p> <p>“We feel like there’s new energy coming in with this generation of students. For Gen Z, the digital world is very noisy, and they’d rather be invited to be a part of something instead of being told what to do. This sparked ideas about how the campaign should be more print-focused and more in-person.”</p> <p>While there is no model or federal mandate for consent campaigns on college campuses, it’s considered a best practice. Before the campaign launched, �鶹��Ƶ was already meeting four of the state of Ohio’s standards; a consent campaign was the final piece. Mosely and Denneen were awarded a $10,000 grant to make it happen.</p> <p>“�鶹��Ƶ had spent prior years working on other best practices, such as creating solid education for our students, editing our sexual misconduct policy, and conducting climate surveys to gauge student experiences, behaviors, and perceptions. To me, consent awareness was the natural next step,” Mosely says.</p> <h3>The survey says</h3> <p>�鶹��Ƶ’s peer education program, <a href="/equity-diversity-inclusion/training-and-education/prsm">Preventing and Responding to Sexual Misconduct </a>(PRSM), trains first-years on the essentials of both consent and �鶹��Ƶ’s sexual misconduct policy. All first-year and transfer students are required to attend two PRSM-led training sessions their first year.</p> <p>The fall workshop covers the basics of consent and the second workshop in February focuses on bystander intervention—educating people on how to intervene when there is potential harm. Student PRSM trainers had already been using the slogan “Make Consent a Conversation,” but the message only existed on a sticker and a pen and hadn’t gained much traction.</p> <p>Mosely’s office conducted a focus group in summer 2017 to gauge students’ interest in a campaign and get more information about issues surrounding consent on campus. A survey with those questions was sent to all students that summer, and the responses significantly influenced how they moved forward and shaped the campaign.</p> <p>“One of the things we heard was what type of products would be useful,” Mosely says. Students told us we should use stickers and buttons, because trying to ask for or understand consent can be really awkward, and you don’t know how receptive the other person will be.</p> <p>“Having some kind of visible sign that would indicate that the other person understood consent and wanted to talk about it was a way for them to feel more comfortable breaking into that kind of conversation.”</p> <p>During the initial brainstorming, “We were hearing that some students didn’t really know how to talk to each other about sex, let alone how to ask for consent or say no,” Denneen says.</p> <p>Armed with all of that information, they created a brochure <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-file-pdf-o"></span> that was sent to all students, and they engaged with other staff members on campus to develop posters, stickers, pins, and a <a href="/equity-diversity-inclusion/campus-initiatives/consent-conversation/videos">series of videos</a>. They also sent a letter to parents of first-years asking them to talk with their students about the brochure and discuss how the idea of consent would align with their family values.</p> <p>Denneen says feedback to the brochure was positive. It even made headlines: a <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2017/09/23/limit-lessons/COcbLr9G6lZEaJEkV046WL/story.html">comic illustration</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span> about the brochure by �鶹��Ƶ parent Beth Wolfensberger Singer in the <i>Boston Globe</i> was a point of pride for everyone who worked on the campaign.</p> <p>“One of the things we’ve come to appreciate about the campaign is that we’ve been able to show how this kind of communication and consent practice isn’t just related to sexual interactions. It’s relevant to all of our interactions with one another,” Mosely says. “I think it also makes the content accessible to students who aren’t engaging in sexual interactions with one another.”</p> <p>PRSM trainer and senior Kira Findling says students’ reactions have been overwhelmingly positive.</p> <p>“Student reactions are confirming my belief that a consent awareness campaign promotes healthy relationships on campus and keeps people safe,” says Findling, a comparative American studies and cinema studies major from Sebastopol, California.</p> <p>“What I love about this campaign is that rather than focusing on what we shouldn’t do, it talks about what we can do to be kind and caring to one another on campus and beyond,” Findling says.</p> <p>PRSM continues to create and present workshops about different aspects of consent, including <a href="/equity-diversity-inclusion/campus-initiatives/consent-month">Consent Month</a> in April, observed nationally as Sexual Assault Awareness Month.</p> <p>“I feel really proud to be a PRSM trainer and to be involved in this work,” Findling says. “The posters are all around campus, so people are constantly seeing them and thinking about how to bring consent into their everyday lives. I think the next step is not letting these conversations end.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2018-11-30T12:00:00Z">Fri, 11/30/2018 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Amanda Nagy</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Students’ and parents’ reactions have reaffirmed the value of �鶹��Ƶ’s “Let’s Make Consent a Conversation” campaign.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2379">Student Life</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2564">Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">From left, Deborah Johnson ’18, Natalie Phillips ’18, Kira Findling ’19, India Wood ’18, and Joy Castro-Wehr ’20 paint one of the "founders rocks" in Tappan Square to celebrate Consent Month in April 2018.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Courtesy of Suzanne Denneen</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> </main></body></html>