The Bachelor of Music in music education degree (BME) has undergone changes in the past year that make it so incoming students can easily finish the major and gain more experience in a timely and affordable four years. Upperclassmen who are currently working on or are close to finishing their majors in music education, however, have struggled with the changes. Some have decided to change their majors because they would not be able to meet all the new requirements in time to graduate.
Senior Jeff Dyal, a former music education major, believes the changes are drastic and are not benefitting returning music education majors.
“Originally it was a four year plan and at the end of the four years you did two internships and graduated with a Bachelors of music in music education,” Dyal said. “It is now a Bachelors of Music Education and will require me to stay an extra year and a half. They decided in the spring of my junior year (spring 2014) that I have over 100 hours of observation required to graduate as well as a whole new list of classes I needed to take. Since I originally wanted to graduate in the spring of 2015, this was unfeasible.”
Dr. Bradford Blackburn is the Chair of the Department of Music and Dr. Jeffrey Traster is the Coordinator of the Music Education Degree Program. They explained collaboratively via email that the changes were implemented in fall of 2013 in an attempt to lower credit-hour tuition and help students complete the music education degree in a shorter time which was a concern at the time for music education students.
“The best way to fix this problem turned out to be making the pedagogy courses in the BM in Music Education degree music specific, and teaching them in a more streamlined manner that still met state certification requirements,” they said.
Previously, music education majors were tackling music theory as well as classes taught by the general education department. With the changes the classes are now taught solely by music professors.
“Because the degree is now increasingly focused on music, the students graduating from the program are better prepared for their work as music educators in the future. For example, music education majors at UT are now taking part in regular observations and practical teaching experiences beginning in their first semester and continuing throughout the four years of their degree,” they said.
Dyal believes he has not had adequate assistance from the administration in solving his degree concerns and has decided to change his major to a Bachelor of Arts with a minor in psychology.
“So far they have not offered any solutions for me or any of the other music education majors and have only said that we should stick it out and as well as switched us to the 2013-2014 catalog, which is obviously not the catalog we were admitted with,” said Dyal. “I will be the seventh person to switch out of the major in the last semester alone.”
Junior Christa Kondraciuk has also decided to change her major to a Bachelor of Arts in music in response to the changes.
“I am now working on a BA in music because I can’t finish the degree in time for me to graduate in four years. Now I am having to find some other way of becoming a teacher like an independent certification,” said Kondraciuk. “The degree change has made me wish I attended another school and I probably would have if I had known all that I do now.”
Blackburn and Traster along with the rest of the music department recognize the problems the students are facing and are seeking to aid them.
“The music faculty care deeply about all of the students in the program, and are committed to doing all that we can to help students make timely progress towards achieving their degrees. There is never an easy way to make substantive degree changes while students are enrolled, and the students who were in the music education degree program when the revisions were implemented have been our biggest concern,” they said. “We have been offering courses on an expedited rotation and have granted course waivers and substitutions to those students affected, whenever possible and appropriate. Although the transition has not been entirely seamless, we believe the music education students at UT are now benefiting from a much improved degree, and one that is more affordable as a consequence of the positive improvements that were made in Fall 2013.”
Mia Glatter can be reached at mia.glatter@theminaretonline.com