5/14/09
A lack of interest from area employers and residents is not stopping Northern New Mexico College from trying to add a bachelor’s degree in jazz.
The Higher Learning Commission, Northern’s accrediting agency, has received paperwork from Northern President Jose Griego expressing interest in starting the program, according to the Commission’s Vice President Stephen Spangehl. Griego declined to comment for this story.
Marcos Cavalcante, Northern’s director of Music Programs, said the reason behind choosing a four-year degree program in jazz was because of his background in the subject.
“Jazz studies are my area of expertise,” Cavalcante said. “So the only reason I started with that, not only for the relevance that jazz has to this country, is because that’s my training.”
The degree, if approved by the Commission, would be the college’s first four-year degree in the arts. However, the decision to pursue this degree flies in the face of three surveys the college conducted in 2007.
The college based its decision to pursue a music degree on a survey conducted by the college itself. Francisco Orona, director of Admission, Recruitment and Career Services, said he was involved with a part of the survey that questioned high school students. Orona said the college surveyed 635 students in grades nine through 12 from seven rural high schools in Rio Arriba, Taos and Sandoval counties.
The students were asked which potential four-year degrees interested them the most, according to the music department documents. The students ranked music fifth out of 31 choices for potential bachelor’s degrees, according to the survey. Four-year degrees in Criminal Justice, Nursing, Pre-Medical Professional and Psychology were ranked higher than music, according to the survey. Of those top five choices, the college only offers four-year nursing degrees, according to the Commission.
However according to the same survey, a bachelor’s in music was ranked 35 of 52 programs in a broader “community” portion. The document did not specify how many adults were questioned in the survey. Orona said he was only involved with the high school portion of the survey.
Two other surveys were conducted by Albuquerque-based Research and Polling, Inc. The college asked 750 adults and 104 employers for their opinions about degrees the college may offer in the future. Those questioned were from Rio Arriba, Taos, and Los Alamos counties as well as from the Santa Fe metropolitan area.
All of the 22 employers that were surveyed and that required bachelor’s degrees for employment said no need existed for music graduates.
Among the adults, 102 expressed interest in four-year degrees. Of that group, 77 percent said they would not consider enrolling in a four-year music degree. However, 6 percent did express high interest in music. According to the survey, that 6 percent who said they were “very interested” translated to an estimated population of 1,277 potential students.
Northern Board of Regents Chairman Michael Branch said the proposal to add a bachelor’s degrees in music fits with the college’s mission to provide a variety of choices in education. According to the college’s 2008-13 academic master plan, a bachelor’s in music was scheduled to be offered by the fall of 2009.
“One thing that you need to do to become a full-fledged college or university, is to have a diversified program,” Branch said. “You have to have subjects other than primary subjects in particular degree. You need to have also some of the liberal arts and fine arts.”
Since the 2007 surveys, the college has launched four of the programs identified by employers and community members in the two professional surveys. Of those programs identified in the surveys, the college currently offers bachelor’s in business administration, teacher education, information technology and software engineering, according to the Commission. The college also offers bachelor’s degrees in biology, environmental science, information engineering technology, integrative healing, mathematics, mechanical engineering (solar energy) and nursing, according to the Commission.
This is not the first time Northern has tried to add a music degree.
Last year, the college received harsh criticism from Spangehl for advertising courses for bachelor’s degrees before getting approval by the Commission. Two bachelor’s degrees in jazz and classical guitar offered by the college were among those pending approval. In an Oct. 2 letter, the Commission denied approval for two music degrees because of the amount of faculty. The commission questioned the music department’s ability to handle upper-level music courses with one full-time instructor, Cavalcante.
According to the music department documents, the college did have “difficulty in recruiting qualified faculty.” However Cavalcante said the music department currently has 15 instructors and could handle one four-year degree in music.
According to the music department documents, the school budgeted $55,763 for a full-time faculty member to teach bachelor-level jazz courses in 2009-10. Cavalcante said the college has not hired anyone. He said since the accreditation was still pending approval from the Commission, the college was being careful in making financial decisions.
Spangehl said the Commission will forward the college’s proposal to a Peer Review Committee. He said the committee includes experts in music and baccalaureate education. If the committee approves the college’s proposal, Spangehl said the proposal would come before approval by the Commission’s Institutional Actions Council on June 15. If that council approves the proposal, the Commission’s Board of Trustee must ratify the decision, Spangehl said.
According to the college’s class catalogue, several two-year associates degrees in music already exist including jazz, classical guitar and flamenco music. Faculty Union President Tim Crone said he has seen popularity in the two-year-music programs. However, he did question the expansion of any program the college may not need.
“For things that are not critical, then we would not support a credit expansion,” Crone said. “If there was truly a demand and it would bring in revenue, then we would be in support of it.”
However Branch said the college was ready to handle the additional music classes for a bachelor’s degree. He said expanding music degrees to the bachelorette level would bring in revenue because of the existence of the two-year programs.
“It doesn’t require any additional monies,” Branch said. “(The associate’s program) is already in effect. (Four-year degrees don’t) require any additional staff. With the staff that we do have, we’re able to continue forward in the same budget that they use.”