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nahenahe
Aloha
USA
21 Posts |
 Posted - 04/23/2009 : 09:01:09 AM
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A brief clip on the impact of some of Peter Medeiros' slack key classes being cut from UH for budget reasons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02emizvdnTs
Uncle Peter does some speaking and playing with a student.
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Tim Dang
Sunnyvale, CA |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 04/23/2009 : 11:08:47 AM
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Oh my. You know Auntie has plenty to say about this, especially since Petah made me an honorary Portagee princess.
Sometimes you don't know what you got 'til its gone. Everytime I talk about slack key guitar, I tell people , incredulously and in awe, that "can you believe you can MAJOR in slack key at UH?" Looks like it is still ok if you want to major in it, but if you take it as an elective, then...
Is something similar going to happen to all the "Hawaiiana" related classes?
But I am saying all this from the perspective of someone from outside looking in. What do the UH students, who are the actual customers of the product that UH is selling think. We heard from one student, but I sure would like to hear more.
Is it a matter of supply and demand? |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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keoladonaghy
Lokahi
257 Posts |
Posted - 04/23/2009 : 4:28:34 PM
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It's rarely a matter of supply and demand or popularity. Few if any classes generate enough tuition to cover the cost of providing the class. Decisions like this are generally made at lower level academic units - within the colleges and divisions and not at the upper levels of the university administration. Those units will get their budgets and have to make their decisions regarding where to swing the axe. Classes that are required for majors are less affected, though sometimes they may be consolidated or even sometimes cut as well. Though popular and required, a lot of general education classes like survey courses in humanities and the sciences will be cut back to the point where sometimes students cannot get into all the classes they need to fulfill GE requirements. Usually classes that are taught by lecturers are among the first ones targeted, and tenured and tenure-track faculty required to teach some of those courses. Of course it all varies from unit to unit, their priorities, and the intra-campus politics play into it a lot as well.
I don't think the UH administration is targeting Hawaiian language and studies classes, but those units are going to be looked at as well regarding belt tightening. I thought I read last year that the new School of Hawaiian Knowledge was going to be spared some of the cutbacks that other units faced, but not sure if that is correct or if circumstances have changed. I don't remember if Peter's class is taught under the music dept. or under Hawaiian Knowledge. I can't comment publicly on what's happening at UHH, other than to say all units here are having to constantly reevaluate priorities. |
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Peter Medeiros
`Olu`olu
546 Posts |
Posted - 04/27/2009 : 11:12:03 AM
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Okay so I haven't posted in a couple months. This 90-second clip was done by one of my students for his journalism class. His "news team" needed to come up with a story line for a hypothetical newscast. I was surprised to see it posted on the net. Don't be alarmed by it I am still at UH Music and as far as I know I am still the director of the slack key ensembles that are in Ethno Performance. I have been with this department since 1982.
This is what I also talked about and that you didn’t see as part of that 45 minute interview. One of the facts of life is that we go through economic cycles – there are good times and there are bad times. And as you know these are the bad times. Because of budget concerns the course section(s) are in hiatus for this semester. If the economic situation was good than I might be really concerned over the status of the course and that the move could be political. Than yes I would be screwed. But I don’t believe that this is the case. Especially since I have just completed a comprehensive text of nearly 350 pages for the course and publications usually are looked upon with favor by an institution. This is because it raises the profile of the institution and is good PR. A move in the opposite direction would probably make the institution look bad.
I have been teaching for years and I look at it as a reprieve. I am a cancer patient. This particular course requires me to be on my feet for two hours. The last two semesters just wiped me out; it would take me a couple of days to recover. As of today I just teach private students, its not as strenuous.
Yes there is a possibility that the course may be taken out, as the guitar and music history majors have and there is the possibility that a part of the graduate program may also follow. But when we take into account the overall budget picture those University courses and programs that have taken a hit are for the most part not essential as part of an undergraduate major. They are manini and can be replaced or put on hiatus. They do not meet the most immediate and essential need of under grad students who are going to graduate.
Am I concerned? Sure, but I take the view that the status of my course is so minor when we take into consideration what is going on within other State agencies and services. All of the State agencies have had to cut back and will have to cut back some more in light of the economic situation. Although the worldwide view is that we are in a recession, I take the view that we are in or very near to being in an economic depression. Everybody is feeling the pain and few are spared.
The next couple of weeks are very important as the legislature closes down. Thus far, in their great wisdom the State Legislature has gutted the Hawaii State Department of Human Services that serves people who have very few resources to take care of their families or themselves. The people who are most in need of State help are not being taken care of. The Department of Education is also taking major hits. There are talks of furloughs and personnel cuts in all agencies so everybody is sitting tight.
In addition there are Bills alive proposing drastic changes to the health benefits for State workers and State retirees. The average cost for chemo treatment if I didn’t have medical coverage is close to $4000. I am no longer taking chemo but I am still under treatment with hormone therapy that is about $2100 every three months. It would basically put many of us into the poor house after we have worked most of our lives for lesser wages with the consideration that the benefits would be there when we need them or when we retired. Yet our part time legislators have seen fit to take a thirty-six percent raise this past January. But because of the public concerns have decided to take only thirty-one percent. What a crock! You cannot get this into a 90 second sound bite.
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noeau
Ha`aha`a
USA
1105 Posts |
Posted - 04/27/2009 : 11:29:15 AM
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| Hawaiʻ State lawmakers have always been greedy that way. Full time pay for part time work. Not to mention that these yahoos turn public service of this sort into a lifetime career by running forever. The public donʻt help because they keep electing them too. |
No'eau, eia au he mea pa'ani wale nō. |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 04/27/2009 : 12:21:21 PM
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One of the things about higher education that bothers me is the fact that you have to pay a lot of money for tuition, but are mandated to take classes and pay for classes that you do not want to take, that do not interest you and serve no earthly purpose. The educators/school administrators tell you that it is to make you "well rounded". That is like going to the grocery store and the little grocery man makes you buy taters and rutabagas when all you wanted was a chunk of beef roast, and all you had money for was a chunk of beef. My girlfriend had to take a phys. ed. course in college, so she took snorkeling. My brother-in-law took bowling. I took swimming (during winter quarter, which was WAY dumb). And then it takes you four years or more as a full time student to get out of college. Why -- because you have to spend your hard earned money, or at least your mama & papa's hard earned money in classes that have nothing to do with your major. What does art appreciation have to do with becoming a nurse, for example.
On the other hand, if the student, the ultimate customer wants to learn to play slack key and you have a person qualified to teach it, if you have historically offered the class, what is wrong with letting the customer choose the classes they want and not make "electives" mandatory. Isn't that defeating the purpose, then it is no longer elective, it is required. Sheesh. I don't get it.
Peter -- you have been added to the list of folks I worry about, that I think about, way before these economic woes have started, but now I worry even more. That is just what I do. When my girls were little and things made them cry, I could kiss it and make it all better. Now the stuff is bigger than that and I cannot make problems do away that easily. I would if I could. Az y hahd. |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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Uhini "Ona
Aloha
4 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2009 : 4:01:43 PM
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I don't know nothing about tuition stuff and how it is distributed amongst differnt classes, but speaking as a UH student, I have spoken to many people who have showed an interest in taking the Slack Key class. I have spoken with many students who either play music or who have grown up listening to Hawaiian music with slack key, and all of them have inquired about the class and slack key itself. But due to incorrect advertisement of course prerequisites or conflicts with other obligations, students have been unable to register for the class. As for additional reasons for the class having been dropped, I'm not sure right now.
And for wcerto, I dont' think you can major in slack key; maybe just can get a doctarate in Ethnomusicology with slack key as your specialization. Nah, I guess that's like majoring :)
And kumu, sorry if I got any info wrong. |
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