Editor’s Note: Below is a transcription of responses collected from various interviews I conducted with music faculty. The majority of these interviews were conducted last Friday, before it was announced that campus would be online for the entirety of the spring semester. Not all faculty were given the same questions.
Faculty interviewed: Dr. Timothy Oliver (director of bands), Dr. Marika Kyriakos (former music department chair), Dr. Ryan Sullivan (director of choral activities), and Beth Robinson (administrative specialist).
Have you ever experienced a virus scare (such as swine flu) like this before? What was that like?
Oliver: Yes, we have. There were some similar precautions, such as emphasis on handwashing. However, the scope, scale, and possibly the severity of the current viral outbreak are different.
Kyriakos: Fortunately, I have never experienced anything like this, not only as an administrator, but in my life this far with strong connections to higher educational institutions (either as a daughter of faculty, student, faculty or administrator).
Sullivan: Yeah, actually. Somebody I know had the swine flu in 2009. Society’s reaction was not nearly as drastic as what we’re experiencing now, but also the symptoms and dangers were also not as drastic. It really caught that person off guard. I remember they were on a vacation, and they just spent their whole vacation in bed in their hotel.
Robinson: Nothing on this level have we seen in my lifetime. This is like a hundred-year pandemic, so this is all new territory for all of us.
What can you tell me about how the administration is handling this?
Robinson: It seems that we are mostly waiting on direction from upper administration about cancellations, but I know that there’s also a lot of discussion within the department about cancelling things and we are being proactive about certain things. For example, the wind ensemble concert that we had been approved to proceed with on Tuesday night, Dr. Oliver decided that we are not gonna do that and we are having that concert today* in the band room and I think they may be livestreaming it because there are graduate students whose degree program hinges on their conducting that so it was important to go ahead with that. But they’ve now decided to cancel next month’s standing wind ensemble concert and combine it with symphonic winds and concert band so that will all be one final band concert at the end of april assuming things don’t change. So those are the kind of things we’re trying to figure out, how we can consolidate performances. As far as student recitals go, like junior and senior recitals and that sort of thing, we don’t have a clear answer on that yet. I would anticipate that most of those would be canceled for the next month, but I don’t have official word on that yet.
With classes shifting to being online, how will band/choral activities need to change to accommodate this?
Oliver: As with all classes at the university, the A-State Bands will shift their delivery method to protect the safety and welfare of our students, and by extension, their families and friends. Currently, we have three concert bands that rehearse and perform during the spring semester. A concert scheduled for Tuesday, March 17, was rescheduled for Friday, March 13. We are exploring ways to combine other concerts scheduled throughout April so that they may hopefully take place before the end of the semester. Our athletic bands have concluded their performances for the academic year, so no alterations are needed for those bands.
Sullivan: The red letter event, the April 7 performance of concert choir and chamber singers, is off the table. I’m gonna be communicating to students today about how we’re gonna have a way to move forward involving individual practice time, at least with the ensembles that I teach…they’ll submit their practice to me, and I’ll say “Okay, great! Take a look at measure 41, you’re still singing a G flat instead of a whatever,” so we can still do the individual learning (of the) piece, which is important, because learning and education is still ultimately a personal responsibility, and always has been and always will be, it’s just gonna look a little bit different right now. … Unlike some other campuses, for example University of Arkansas, (which has) suspended in-person classes for the remainder of the semester, and for the moment that’s not our situation.** So we do have performances on April the 21st. We’ll have a combined choirs performance on April the 21st, so we’ll still have to get ready for that. And because this two-week hiatus of in-person classes follows spring break, that means three weeks of consecutive not meeting in-person as an ensemble, and we can’t go three weeks without having some sort of learning happening in preparation for our concert.
How do you expect/assume students to react to all this? Do you think students will continue to come to the building to practice, despite classes being online?
Oliver: The students of the A-State Bands are resourceful and resilient people. I expect that many of them have already considered options that will allow them to continue their musical and academic progress despite a period of online-only course delivery.
Sullivan: I expect students will handle it in a variety of ways. Just like we handle grief differently, people respond to major events like this differently. I hope that they will respond with calmness, and practicality, which includes measures to protect their safety and their health, but there’s a fine line between precaution and fear, and I hope that our students take precautions, but that they don’t operate on fear. Having said that, I know that a lot of our students struggle with having adequate resources off campus. A student may be in a position where they need to move home for a couple of weeks, and they may not have a good internet connection, or they may have this or that. Just in the last 24 hours there are a lot of companies that are making available services and products that they wouldn’t otherwise do for free, for example I just saw Comcast is providing free basic internet access to anybody for 30 days. So, those kinds of resources that aren’t always available could be available. I think UHaul is offering students free storage for students that have to move out for some reason, not that we are there yet, but those kinds of things, I would really encourage students to take advantage of them, just to help with the cost and the inconvenience of all of this disruption.
Robinson: What we’re hearing on a national level, finally, is that we really do need to alter our behavior, which means we can’t go around “business as usual,” and unfortunately, (for our) ensembles, we have to do that with other people. It seems like we’re hearing that the virus is not just passed from person to person, it can be airborne, and it can live a long time on surfaces. In light of that, I don’t see how we can responsibly do anything other than just sort of take a chill pill for about a month and then hopefully we can be on the other end of this and start to come back to normal at some point. But in order to protect each other, the responsible thing to do is to not have (class/ensembles). I think we’re still working through that on an official university policy level, not sure we’re there yet, but I think we probably will be by next week.
How have you seen the faculty as a whole react to this?
Robinson: I think the faculty is for the most part being really proactive and planning for ways to still be able to teach students and respond to student needs the best way they can. Most faculty in our department already have systems in place via Skype or FaceTime or other ways that they interact with their students to still be able to do lessons, and classes can usually be done remotely. We already have a lot of that going on. We have really creative faculty that’s willing to figure out the best way to still be able to work with students even if we’re all having to do it from our living rooms.
As the situation has evolved with the virus and with regards to being online, what’s the general atmosphere like amongst students?
Sullivan: My sense is that, with this, and with some other events that have happened in this building in recent weeks, that singing in an ensemble is actually a very normal thing, and that students like coming to do a normal thing. In a climate like this there is a lot of uncertainty, and online delivery of classes is a really good thing, but in my view it’s no substitute for human-to-human contact, and I think (that) while we still have the opportunity to have human-to-human interaction, a two-way street of music-making, it’s a soothing thing for students. That’s been my read on students so far.
Robinson: I think we can all feel the anxiety. We’ve got hand sanitizer all over the building, and it’s sort of a visual cue that you can’t really forget that you need to be aware of altering your behavior. We’re all feeling the burn, if you will, and not in a good way!
What recommendations do you have for students musically? How should students practice, whether in their dorms, or on campus? How should we keep a clear mind? What advice do you have?
Sullivan: Learning doesn’t stop. I encourage students to find ways to keep moving the ball forward. Some students may have a keyboard or a piano in their apartment or in their home, and that’s great. Wipe it down! Practice rooms and computer labs are gonna stay open. Wipe down the keyboards! Use hand sanitizer, and as long as you are taking those precautions, I don’t think that there needs to be fear about using those resources. Keep on keeping on, I know that professors are gonna adjust syllabi as needed, so stay on top of that. There are a lot of students who plan their lives out, they say “I’m gonna have this assignment due here, here, and here,” and really keep track, mind the details of “okay, this is getting moved two days earlier, this is getting moved three days later, et cetera…” and just really, reading your emails, as many as there are, asking questions. Even if this is all moving online and remotely temporarily, all your professors are just an email or a phone call away. We’re still working, we’re just not doing it face-to-face. Really reaching out for those resources is important.
Robinson: Students will still have access to practice rooms here, that’s pretty solitary, and if students are being conscientious about using hand sanitizer and the wipes on shared pianos and things like that and doorknobs, we can be okay with students being in the building and using the space to practice…The two most critical areas for music students would be the computer lab and the practice rooms.
How prepared do you think we are as a department to go online?
Sullivan: I don’t know the full answer…I think in general we’re as prepared as we can be. Normally, this kind of a shift to all online delivery takes months or a year, and we were asked to do it in a matter of two weeks. Some things can be transitioned and some things can’t. We’re all gonna be patient with each other, we’re all gonna do our best, and we’re just gonna do our best, and keep the main thing the main thing, which is being healthy and stopping the spread.
Any other comments?
Kyriakos: Many universities across the country have withstood varying ranges of destruction from severe weather to terrorist attacks. This is a very unique situation since it is quite foreign to us, and the time period especially is nearly impossible to determine. I will let Dr. Clark speak for the Music Department, but I think this is a time that all of us need to think very selflessly from all perspectives. Helping one another to stay safe while providing the best education possible under the circumstances is key. We have been sharing ideas with other universities and of course music units specifically. Arkansas State is no exception in making smart choices in this dire situation.
Robinson: I just hope everyone really takes seriously altering their behavior, that’s the best thing we can do. It’s short, term, it’s not forever. We can just remember, if we power through, two or three weeks, we’ll all be better on the other end.
* “Today” meaning Friday, March 13
** Since then, A-State has announced that it would be suspending all in-person classes for the remainder of the semester.
Categories: Opinion
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