Ed McManus Oral History, 2003

[00:00:00] Planet Glassberg:
Oral history with Ed McManus on the 30th of April 2003. Can you tell me what you were involved with before coming to Lane Community College? Can you speak about that?

[00:00:18] Ed McManus:
Sure. I taught in the public schools for 10 years before I came here. So I'm pretty well grounded in what happens in that area. And I taught two years in Yes to Cata School District. And Lane hired me away from Churchill and I've been here for the last 20. So this is my 30th year. Actually in high school, a couple of synthesizers arrived to our house one day. A couple of very first synthesizers that were small enough that could be shipped somewhere. And my father was teaching

method at the School of Music at the U of O. And this company thought he would maybe like to introduce masters and doctoral students and so forth. He had no idea what they were. So I kind of played with them one summer. There were two of them, instruction manuals. It was just a box of circuits. As a high school junior, whatever, I ended up helping him teach that college class the next summer with that particular. And then later on, I ended up writing the owner's manual for that piece of really the first synthesizer owner's manual written as far as I know. So nobody, they were just circuits and nobody really knew what to do with these things back in the late 60s. And that's kind of propelled the music technology. And I also played the French horn. That's my main instrument. It's the one I work on and try to play anyway. And so I played in Eugene Symphony for 28

years and the Bach Festival and play another ensemble. So I get to massage kind of both sides of my brain. Really nice marriage for me. So I came out to Lane in 1983. And the music program was certainly smaller than it is now. And I came out here, in fact, to teach the band, which I was doing. And there were 17 people in front to make music with the band Saks. I came part-time. And like those three, we used stripes or whatever, you know, to touch some music fundamental entry-level theory. And then took over the electronic music program. It was called The Next Year. And at that point, that class met in a practice room, half as big as this office. They were about eight by eight. And it's room for like a trombone and a slide and a piano. They're a big phone booth. And there was a couple of pieces of equipment and synthesizers set

up in this practice room down the hall. And I had 20 people that took a class in electronic music. And so every day, we'd pick up the studio and move it to the band room or the choir room or wherever. And I teach the class and we'd move it back to the practice room so they could work. And interesting, so you have to move your studio every day. But it worked. And I had a lot of students interested. And so eventually, we kind of graduated to another room over in the math. We had a small room about maybe three times bigger than my office over in the math building upstairs. And it was big enough that I could get 20 people in the same room as the equipment, but they all had to stand. And so my class stood and they were happy to stand. And some would sit on the floor, but they were the best for us. And then they would, after the lectures, we kind of outgrew that. So then

we started moving that studio down to a larger classroom in the math building for classes. And that was really probably setting things up. And so we made a proposal that we get a larger term. As far as it was actually the small, it was. And his major, if you did a discussion like this and other things, you know, we were three different quarters. I didn't teach any classes. Here we are. And so it took eight years then. So now we have a facility that, when I taught at Churchill, I started an electronic music kind of before school class thing. And that's all I would take. We set the world on fire. It was just amazing what they started to do. And it got some national attention. It turned out it was the first public school, high school music technology lab in the nation. And so people came to visit us and kind of see what we were doing

and how can you do this in a high school and what do you use and that kind of stuff. It was just kind of natural for us because I've been around it a lot. And there's several people that, from those days, it's just, we did that for several years. I ended up hiring one of those people. So what else? Let's see.

Primarily a theater, I would say it was theater focused and, which is a good thing. It's not a value judgment. It seemed like the public image was the performing arts, which was a theater program that just had music and dance was part of it. And so music was sort of subservient to theater and

[00:09:49] Planet Glassberg:
mostly supplied musicians for, we kind of grew up in the, you want to go past her? No, no. I was gonna ask you, like how did your teaching evolve? Like in what ways from the time back in 80? You mean personally or? Personally or? Is it department? Yes. I think musically, we started getting together as a music

[00:10:20] Ed McManus:
faculty at some point. As a matter of fact, when Ed Regazino hired me, his first word, our first conversation was, I mean, I thought he meant it. So I did suggesting some changes, you know, and he did mean it. I think everybody was comfortable. He was working pretty well, happy to serve with the theater program. It was kind of, it seemed to me like it wasn't gonna go in. So we started having some kind of, can we challenge ourselves to do things that are scheduling? And that actually kind of turned out to be my role for a few years. It was just to ask those questions, not to really answer them, but just brainstorm ways we could. And so we've been doing that ever since. And I think because we've committed as a music faculty, we set, we actually schedule it on that board. You'll see music meeting. We don't schedule any classes during that. Just

don't have anything. And so I think that's the biggest thing is that we just aren't. Now, three years ago, things were working really well, but I think they're working better now because we instigated a lot of thought and reconsideration. I think we've all taken on, so the music program, physical education, so just kind of working as a group and yet it's just as valued. And

performing spaces. And so I think in this very time, dance and music here has

[00:15:09] Planet Glassberg:
sort of, can you speak about the electronic music? How it came about? When did it begin? And has this program evolved since? How has the program evolved? One of the questions I'd like to ask, when do you suppose the first electronic instrument was invented in 1972? We kind of work our way back. We

[00:16:00] Ed McManus:
found out, probably called the teleharmonia, which was a big, big, giant music machine in New York City that was designed to, was like a subscription service. And it took, this one instrument was a warehouse. Never really got off the ground in six boxes Massachusetts. And so the first gig bag was, you know, six, six box guard. Things have gotten smaller and cheaper and forces to be true. It's very expensive. So we couldn't really add new tools very often, sensitive to temperature changes and all that kind of stuff. And then over the years, so much has been reduced. They're lighter, they're better. You don't need six box guards to take your axe to a gig anymore. So I guess I'm the recipient of the benefits of that

of some type. It's changed. And just that it's gotten the equipment is easier to be creative now. And sometimes that's not a good thing. They can send it to Toronto and interactively perform with somebody in Toronto and then send the mix back so we can work on it. And so I mean, things are so portable now based or something. Did the

[00:19:57] Planet Glassberg:
performances in the 80s and 90s until now reflect the times? I guess so.

[00:20:08] Ed McManus:
There's, I'm thinking when I was doing the band and the jazz band and great person was doing a very large choir, there's kind of standard literature you want to do that is kind of pedagogically correct the music and easier to do seasonal music do certain musics. Now we didn't have to worry about essentially they're doing the same music now that we were doing. We were doing 20 years ago is a transcription with a band of 1812 Overture. It's going to be 1812 Overture now or then. So Lane has unfortunately a very small music library. Typically a college will have five. It's not really easy on other high school buddies that might have it in North Eugene High School or Elmira High School or something and she'll bring it out. We'll sign a loan set and we'll use the parts for a term or something. So we're working on that still and it's a we've built a library. We

have a room now a good staff. We have fine cabinets in there that was here and then I brought this notebook along. I thought it'd be interesting in the in the middle and middle 80s and early 90s. I started a series of concerts with electronic music called Electronic. We we thought a long time about the title and we came up with the title. They wanted the

so we started this series of concerts with they included our students in the electronic music program as it was called then and and some local guest artists and then some national artists. I just thought it'd be fun to do this. Nobody that I knew of had written so I just started calling people.

Seeing design involved. We'll have a slideshow and commission a movie. The spots was over around the stands. Busy

five studios set up five recording studio set up on the stage. Used to fame in Hollywood is that he is a temp producer seeing the rough cuts of this movie for the first time without any sound. Goldstein well to make it more. He's very gifted at doing this site. So and he's done. So I called him and said what if I screen it in front? I guess I could do that. They were asking me to do that before. I said well I've got a former student who and we set up a so after intermission after students we filmed it and producing and fine tuning over because he liked it so much. Arts and entertainment which has held us into this whole series of annual concerts called electronic artistry 87 and had different each year we had a different artist and stick which is a midi. First time that was done. And again our students have something new. Nobody rose and I

guess come. He came back and did some local artists art. Former high school student and I start working on the next one. Everybody always wanted to be just I

know we can't relax and students did a couple of items in the schedule and anymore at this point. But we made this very exciting time. So yeah there's been a lot of evolution in that field. I've just been kind of besieged by students so it's been harder and harder from how we're doing on the list. So can you recall any difficult situations and how you resolve them. I remember in the early my early years at Lane we had electronic music program that met at a very small facility and it was too small to actually teach the class and so we had to move the equipment down to a classroom for each each course. It kind of be like a chemistry lab having to pick up all their beakers and stuff and moving down to another room for the chemistry lesson and then picking up all the beakers and moving back to the storage cabinet for after classes. So that it was pretty challenging

because there are a lot of cables and so forth involved that the students were real cooperative with that. We had an interesting time setting up for class and tearing down each day but a lot of smiles and we managed to make it kind of a teaching situation a teachable moment. So in another space we were in with that course we had way more students than we had space so students stood for class and they were happy to do that. The last room we were in was actually a normal sized classroom but I still had more students than we had we had 12 desks and about 35 students in the class. So I had students sitting literally in a magazine rack and on the floor at my feet and on listening tables and on garage sale stools and chairs that we were able to squeeze in there and they were they were still happy to do that. Typically the first day of class they were sitting outside the door some students were

because they couldn't even get into the room. So we always found a way to accommodate them. If they were willing I was willing and I just had to make sure I had everything close at hand because once we started class I couldn't move and that was about that's been the scene for about 10 years out here and until we just built this new facility. So once the class came in I was really trapped in the room. So we tried to make sure the fire marshal didn't come during my. Let's see. Oh see it stops when you don't keep talking. That's okay. So what were what were some challenges and how did

[00:34:03] Planet Glassberg:
you overcome them? Well I think that's what

[00:34:04] Ed McManus:
I was just addressing and just some of the some of the space challenges and equipment challenges and we sort of pieced our program together with with garage sale purchases and so forth until we were able to get get to the point where we could build a new facility. So it wasn't the most attractive facility in the department but it was probably the best used. We had a really good time with that. Could you describe how your students evolved through years through the decades through the eighties

[00:34:35] Planet Glassberg:
nineties until now? Yeah I think one of the

[00:34:40] Ed McManus:
joys of probably for all of us that teach at Lane is that our students are are come from lots of different backgrounds and age spectrums and interest levels and educational levels and that hasn't really changed over the years. We we still have senior citizens sitting right next to 16 and a half year old students that dropped out of high school in Pleasant Hill you know that kind of thing and that's the case this term is why I use that situation and that hasn't really changed. I guess one of the things I've noticed and it is a concern I think for more than just me is that students aren't quite as literate as they were maybe 20 years ago when I first came out here. By that I mean their written materials they prepare and turn in and concern me a little bit. Sometimes we don't get full sentences and grammar and punctuation seem to be a secondary importance to them.

And so I think all of us in the music department have stressed kind of intentionally that our students need to to try to keep their writing skills as high as possible. I mean after all if we can't communicate in a written form of our culture then it's going to be really hard to keep it alive. So I've noticed just in the last 20 years there's been a big change in the way the students come prepared as far as their writing skills. I can't, there's nobody to blame but it's just a difference I think and maybe it's more of a society now where students learn from watching tv or learn from you know going to movies or you know whatever and they maybe don't read as much and they aren't asked to write as much and I hope that maybe we're doing our small little part to make that that turn around.

Can you comment on students commitment to mastering an instrument or creating a

[00:36:43] Planet Glassberg:
piece?

[00:36:44] Ed McManus:
Oh wow, that's something we all work on in the department and nothing really is more important for a musician than working on it on their craft working on like a dancer would work on on their craft or an actor would work on their craft and so every music major in quotes really must have an instrument, must have an instrument that they're in love with that they wake up in the morning and can't wait to play and it's the last thing they do before they go to bed and they think about it all day long and when they're in theory class they're relating what they see on the chalkboard to their instrument and when they're in sight reading they're relating what they're hearing and trying to recreate to their instrument and when they have little holes in their day they're running into a practice room to practice their instrument and try to get better and they want to impress the faculty at the end of

the term and do a really good jury on their instrument and our whole curriculum is set up around that kind of that element and that focus and that's true of all traditional music programs and a student is responsible to really do their best to master an instrument and some of them we have some really talented students that maybe play string bass, upright string bass in the orchestra and maybe play electric string bass in the jazz band and that's always really great to see students kind of cross over a little bit we have some students that are very accomplished at piano and sing and and we so we try to encourage those kind of combinations as well that most of our students struggle to learn one instrument and and kind of develop the work ethic that it really takes to to get where they want to go and those students that kind of follow our suggestions and and take us seriously about how hard

they have to work do very well they they go off to four-year school and get a degree and they're off doing what they want to do with their instrument and playing in studios or playing in an orchestra or teaching it or teaching at a college or wherever it might be and and that's the way you do it so our whole curriculum is just designed to and we have to remind ourselves that that it's about making music and it's not just about Siri and it's not just about your training and it's real easy for theory teachers to just think about theory and it's really easy for history teachers just to think about history but really the our ultimate goal is to make music and I think that's one of the joys for me working in this department is that we all share that that vision for our students so we don't get lost in our own

I think I'm gonna stop this yeah um can you share how the music department collaborates with the theater and the dance department and is there any particular performance or several that stand out a couple of areas one is an area that I was responsible for in the late 80s and early 90s and that was with the electronic artistry programs and they were completely multi-department programs focused on music technology that we brought dance in nearly to every every composition and we brought in theater in some cases so there were lots of visual elements and lots of motion and projections and so forth those are very very multi-medium used every ounce of our technical staff to pull those off um the other area that's probably more traditional is the the traditional broadway musical where we have you know kind of song and dance on the stage with actors and and that in fact is really the kind of the

the was the focus of the department in the founding days as a program when Ed Ray DiCino was out here we really found that music was invited into the department because they needed musicians to support the musicals which were essentially theater productions at that time and then many years later we sort of invited dance in from the PE department to also join us as artists and so now it's much easier for us to do those kind of performances so the musical the traditional musical that includes musicians and dancers and actors and you know directors and producers and so forth are used today and many of our dance concerts are multimedia type events as well you know student or faculty composed or perform music with for sharing the stage and sometimes theatrical elements as well certainly lighting effects and so forth so I think we're equipped really well to

do those kind of productions we have one of the greatest stages in the state to do them on and we're one of the few performing arts buildings where all three disciplines share a share of building and a stage and so forth so we do collaborate kind of natural besides the amount of time actually teaching classes I would think that it takes a lot more time much more time in preparation and of course with learning an instrument and rehearsing and performing can you speak about that

[00:42:09] Planet Glassberg:
sure a couple elements one is my main

[00:42:12] Ed McManus:
instrument we were speaking a little bit ago about having a focus and mine was the french horn and I played professionally for eight years something like that and I'm lucky enough to play in lots of professional ensembles but it takes it takes daily even at my stage it takes daily attention to the instrument and I do the same old warm-ups I did when I was in college and do the same kind of lip push-up so to speak you know that that any athlete would have to do and it's not always you know easy to find that time but I have to make that time if I'm going to continue to do it and it it brings that element into my classes which is nice you know like my classes I can back up with my instrument that kind of thing but the other thing that of course all the music people and dance and theater for that matter spend many hours outside of class in this building and prepare two or three

years for me have been pretty much non-stop and I knew this about three years ago there was going to be this spell as we built the building and designed the building and then built the building and then equipped the building and then set up the equipment and configured stations and so forth so I'm

[00:43:29] Planet Glassberg:
right now

[00:43:30] Ed McManus:
um at the end of may 2003 at the end of uh absolutely continuous run of two years uh pretty much can't be out in this building I haven't I there may be three days maybe four days and two years I haven't been up here that includes every weekend almost every evening every vacation every summer day every summer night trying to complete the installation so it's luckily it's stuff I enjoy doing or I wouldn't do it just been able to take that on but I'm really ready for

and I feel really good that at this stage you know the facilities and equipment and the studio and I tested and you put those together yeah and I redo them every term I update them every term as as the technology changes so they're they're big uh big demands of my time and I do that kind of as a service to the students the college duplicates these books at their costs I don't take any money for them and it saves the students having to buy lots of different textbooks at a very high fee and what's nice about these is that they're absolutely current to the day or at least to the term and so all the procedures and techniques and software and hardware are fully documented and I just make it a priority to keep them updated so I feel really good that I'm I say we're 99 percent complete now and I I'm really glad to be at this end of the process at this point I was going to ask you um I know this

says music technology midi audio one for lab um what class is this book the book you're holding is uh the the book for the course of students who are just entering the music technology program and so it's called music technology midi audio one and then there's a music technology midi audio two course that follows that and um both those courses have

considerable documentation involved so they can succeed and work at a very very high level in those classes without having to have a tutor with them 24 so these are two classes that used to be called electronic music and we changed the name when we built a new facility to music technology because we're able to do more than what some people just view electronic music is kind of like rave music or something and there's quite a bit more we do they're they're creating soundtracks for movies and they're some of them are realizing you know orchestral scores and some of our composing with the tools and I just had a student two minutes before I saw you as we were walking down the hall come in with his md recorder and he wanted to record wind chimes which we can do in that facility and uh so he's off to do that right now and we just it's a really fully functional so more

than just electronic music so uh these books whatever and there are about 500 pages here of details that I update every term so this is a 51st edition or something like that of this book and next term will be the 52nd edition and and it just keeps going out but it saves the students a lot of a lot of grief as they sort through the learning curves so it's kind of my labor of love again for me so preparation is huge I I have students come from roseburg I have students come from band I have students come from florence currently and I think about them every morning when I'm getting ready to come into work that they're driving down the freeway when they get here they expect a really great experience and the worst thing I could do as an instructor is walk in and not

the reason we have to wrap this up at 20 minutes till is that I I've got 21 students that are going to be waiting for me with white eyes and and they're going to expect something special and it better be special and I always try to make it that way for them so I had a couple instructors when I was a young college student that would come into their classroom and they grew up their eyes and kind of yawn and ask us what we wanted to talk about today in theory and I never really appreciated that that they weren't prepared so sometimes we learn from watching others but not to do it I just kind of made it my you know personally I prepare a lot I guess we can go on um with all the budget cuts occurring how is the music department able to continue to exist as it is our department this this year and in this term I think is is larger I'm speaking of music in particular because that's the numbers I

know larger than it's ever been and as far as student numbers and fte that the way they calculate enrollments on the campus and so forth so we have more students in more classes than we've ever had in 30 some years of existence and that's all kind of tabulated by administrators in the state and so forth so they send us the numbers we don't we don't massage them in any way so we're obviously serving a need and and feel good about that our classes are bursting full and we just have very few classes that aren't full right now in the entire music program and uh because of that I think you know we're we're essentially paying our own bills by by having full it would in our opinion of course be foolhardy for the college to consider cutting us because we do serve so many students as long as we can continue to demonstrate that there's a huge need for what we do and maybe even more so with all the

current state budget cuts and so forth students are looking to us as a place to

uh at this point we have an extremely healthy program we have a vital staff it seems like all the cylinders are are really working well you know we're kind of hitting on all the cylinders and and it's great to see we I think I mentioned last time I chatted with the music people get together weekly and we just schedule into our lives a chance to talk about what we can do for students I've seen that in 10 years just um do amazing things for our students when they get here and how we can tweak the schedule to make it better and so you know if you're a freshman and you're here how does it feel to be in your second term and get through your daily schedule and so forth it feels really good that so um I think that's how we continue to exist we're we're working hard where students are performing helping us pay the bills along the way you know so so far so good because you threw out

all the years and what inspires you now oh wow that's a great question when I was in college I always was inspired by performers look at some performers that play the french horn better than I did and they were you know just amazing to me and I was just so certain I was going to be a professional orchestra player and that's how I make my living and uh for a few years and um but I was smart enough and lucky enough to realize that I probably probably should have a an education degree as well and so I started teaching right out of college and hopefully from the very first class realized that is you know I could play as many high c's on my french horn and as many amazing solos or whatever and there was nothing more gratifying than looking at a class full of students and and seeing their eyes sparkle when they learned something new and you know that that would be

within for the rest of their lives and so didn't take me long to figure out the legacy you leave as a performer on the stage is really only as long as it is from that performance to the next time you're on the stage might be a week long and then they you know the 2500 people that were there to hear you play whatever last week already forgotten what you did and now if you don't have such a great concert in two weeks or whatever then your reputation is ruined right so as an educator the legacy is amazing it just lives on and hit the I think the value of what I do is an instructor and is a teacher and a mentor to the students is so much more important what I do is principal horn and gene symphony or principal horn and block festival even though that's extremely rewarding personally it doesn't even come close to teaching the class I'm going to teach in a half hour is

going to be the most important thing I do all day and until my next class and I'm going to feel really good about it I hope when I'm finished and it's going to give me a special below at the end of the day so what inspires me is a classroom full of students that show up on time that can't wait to get their headphones on or get their instrument out or get their fingers busy or whatever it might be and start making music it just really excites me so that inspires me so it makes me get up at 5 30 every morning

well I'm glad you get up at 5 30 it's a great time of day no it is it is um can you describe your community involvement you're mentioning sure I um a big part of my connection with the community is performing so I play principal horn in gene symphony and in the horegan muskart player there since the beginning of my past 33rd year in the horegan block festival and that will be happening soon that comes up every summer in late june early july and so he and I are the only two original people from that first year of the block festival can you believe that so we still we're still kind of we're in competition to see who lasts the longest he's 70 and I'm 52 so I think I'm going to win but I'm not sure um let's see I've uh I've played throughout the state primarily in various orchestras and and certainly has spent a great number of happy hours consulting with various colleges and public schools

on setting up music technology

hey pardon I'm sorry I was going to say I think I believe from our um discussion or sharing before that you write a lot of books I do and I've edited a number of like real textbooks for publishers and stuff that that's not much but I've I've for instance I've helped the university of Oregon I've helped organ state portland state ncc them set up

advice or legal and so I think I'm a good spokesperson for the college when I do that an expert here that can help you know and then as far as community involvement fun things I do just to kind of volunteer is I have a whole different world

so we do some fun things with some really small children that don't have activities after school and it's not a regular thing but in the summer I'm a little bit more kids lies a little bit more stuff that's a lot of fun

what else I guess I was wondering if there are still talent grants and or scholarships within the music department and how often are they like distributed or given out how many let's I think I'll be pretty close on this answer and if you get another answer with somebody else go with theirs because they're probably more informed that we we issue or award talent grants in will go or coral twice a year and so students audition in december for the opportunity for a talent grant winter term in the audition right before spring break in march for opportunity day and I think there are about a half a dozen maybe about a total of 12 that could be a little bit often I figured and those talent grants essentially provide a tuition free ride for the term for the stone so they have to do a little audition and prepare that opportunity and if they do and they then we asked them to do an ensemble

There's a scholarship through the Lane Foundation that comes to the department. It's about $750, and typically dance and theater and music have split that three ways. So it's a very small scholarship that for dance or music or theater would be $250 for their student. And it's fun to give that out. It's a way for us to help one more student in a nice way. We also in music give a great deal of individual lesson scholarships. All of our music majors are required to pay an instructor for a weekly lesson and it's a pretty big expense. It's like 30 bucks a week and that adds up to about $300 a term, term after term after term. So we do our best to raise as much money as we can to help them cover that expense, and we do that through concert revenue, donations, fundraisers. They did the West Side Story musical last summer, and I think $45,000 of the money that they made for that,

leading to our individual lessons scholarship fund, so we can help support some students with their lessons this kind of year. So we never have enough that we try our hardest. The reason it's kind of spendy is that the full-time faculty typically don't teach individual lessons because we're kind of busy. Some do, but for instance, I choose not to because I just feel I'm busy enough. And if I do teach students, I do it for free. I don't charge them, but some faculty feel they must charge and that's fine. So most of our private instructors do not work for the college. They're kind of private contractors, individual contractors outside their college, but they're the best players in the community and the people that we want our students to study with. So they charge their going rate, whatever it might be, and then our students are responsible to pay for that and the tuition.

So it's a bit of a burden for music majors, and we just do our best to cover that with the individual lesson scholarships. And there may be another one or two that come up every, oh yeah, there's the John Workman Jazz Scholarship. And he was a former instructor who is no longer living and we started a scholarship in his name a number of years ago. It's a small award and I can't tell you how much it is, but I believe it's a small financial stipend for a student. And then we have some sort of non-monetary awards that we give at the end of the year as well. I think dance and theater do the same thing. Those are a lot of fun. They're just meaningful awards. So I think that's most of those anyway. If I left any out, Somebody else can fill in that hole.

[01:01:33] Planet Glassberg:
I guess I have just one more question. What's your vision for the future of the music department?

[01:01:46] Ed McManus:
It's going to continue to evolve, I'm certain, just because the arts continue to evolve. I guess my vision is that I'll be leaving one of these days and Barbara and Jim and Dan and the remaining faculty hired that are absolutely the best faculty they can find and I hope they're allowed to do so and in the process, perhaps we structure our positions a little bit so they can grow into new areas. One of the areas that we're just on the bubble of developing, I think, is a little bit stronger jazz program out here and Grombertusi has done some nice like we'll get that started and this is jazz festival and we've added a few courses in that area and I'd like to see that grow a week because I think there's a student interest certainly there in the in the area that I've kind of been responsible for, the music technology area, I'd like to

see that grow some more and just maybe when I do leave there'll be a way to restructure my position in such a way that it could be, maybe the instructor could be involved in some new course curriculum areas that we're sort of putting down on paper that aren't committing to yet because there's no way really afford to teach them. I think I would like to see music, dance, and theater continue to exist together as a department. There are some people that might like to see them split up and go their separate ways, or are separate ways, and I think one of the neat appeals for our department is that we are a performing arts department with dance, theater, and music, and I don't think we fought really hard, but we had some good discussions when we brought dance over from PE a number of years ago, and I remember supporting that very, very

strong in those days, hoping to bring that element into our department. And I don't think any of us regret that at all, and I would hate to see all that work kind of dispersed. So one of my visions would be to this day, a performing arts type of department, where There's a great deal of collaboration, and students can cross over from dance to theater or from theater to music, and, you know, so many of our students are so talented and creative that they need those various outlets or a party command with an interest in more of a one area.

I guess, just finally, to rise above everything that you have to rise above as an instructor and as a public servant to demonstrate the highest ethics and not let the politics of the state or the politics of the current administration of the college or anything interfere with how we approach our students and the students shouldn't even know that there's political strife on the college. At the administrative level, in my opinion, when we walk into a class, I would just hope that it's all about them, and it's good to be reminded every now and then that there is, you know, for the administrators anyway, that there's a reason we exist and that's for our students. As long as we keep talking about students and put that word in every mission statement and every goal and every objective, this is about students, this is student directed,

this is for students purchasing a sign in for students use whatever it is will be fine that's that's my vision for the future is it's just all about students