Facing staff cuts, the University of Otago music department exerts a loud, proud influence on our community and culture, writes Shane Gilchrist.
Acoustic startle reflex. Though the words could comprise a band name, they describe an instinctive mechanism triggered by sounds typically greater than 80 decibels.
Little wonder then that adrenaline and rock music go hand in hand. It’s a response to threatening stimuli. And it could apply to the University of Otago’s music department, where more than a few people are jumpy.
Eight or more of the 24 people who work in the department could lose their jobs as the university restructures its humanities division (history, anthropology and archaeology, languages and culture, English and linguistics are at different stages of the process).
In music vernacular, that’s a major third.
Not all 24 are full-time. They include technical and support staff as well as academic staff, of whom eight (including a professor and three associate professors) would have to apply for just six positions.
In cello, it is understood the senior lecturer role would be replaced with a 0.25 professional practice fellow.
"Some people have been told their positions are safe but others will be affected," a department source explains, adding staff met humanities pro vice-chancellor Tony Ballantyne on Thursday as part of an ongoing series of discussions.
"We were given three weeks to come up with counterproposals. Management are very open to that. I think they’d rather that we restructure ourselves.
"Everyone involved has been very emotional. There is no certainty about anyone’s job. ... It’s horrible," said the source, who asked not to be named.
"We have been told the university is just streamlining or trimming the music department, but the proposals make for a very harsh pruning."
And the reverberations could well be felt beyond the walls of the department’s Sale Black House headquarters.
The music department is one of the university’s — and Dunedin’s — most culturally prominent institutions, a ringing, singing connection between gown and town.
The cohort of talent at lectures and lessons includes instrumentalists, singers, composers and songwriters, and those honing technical skills through the various papers offered, using the state-of-the-art production facilities in which the university has invested.
As another source comments: "The music department connects to so many musicians in Dunedin. They could be a high school music teacher, a live sound engineer, a recording engineer, the band playing original music, the musicians playing covers at your wedding or at the local bar on a Thursday night; they might be the busker you walk past on George St.
"The department’s influence is everywhere."
That includes, in no small part, the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra, of which about 40% of its musicians have learned their instruments "at one stage or another" at the department, according to general manager Philippa Harris.
The DSO also has many connections within Dunedin’s musical framework. In short, what affects the orchestra flows on to other organisations.
"The whole department contributes to the community and is involved in everything from bands through to operatic to choirs to the Calder Prescott jazz orchestra. Everybody has a link to somebody else," another source says.
"Why was Dunedin made a Unesco City of Literature? Well, songwriting was one of the criteria, along with other aspects of cultural life.
"It seems ironic that our university, with its proud heritage, is undermining Dunedin as a City of Literature by cutting departments such as music ..."
Aaron Hawkins, a Dunedin city councillor with a strong interest in the city’s cultural frameworks, confirms songwriting was included in the City of Literature bid.
"The Unesco Creative Cities network is about more than just literature ... it gives us access to cities of film, of gastronomy, and of music, too. For Dunedin to get the best out of the Unesco designation, we need all of our various creative sectors to be as strong as we can make them."
Hawkins notes "the city is taking arts and culture more seriously than it ever has".
This includes both the council’s arts strategy and Enterprise Dunedin’s marketing of the city as culturally vibrant.
"The issue has been raised and discussed by the Creative Dunedin Partnership, which I chaired last triennium, as a concern. We need arts education to be strong. The stream of young and enthusiastic minds who come here to study are essential to our creative success, from both a quality-of-life and an economic perspective."
• Over the past six years, University of Otago student numbers are down; in the humanities division, that means about 1000 fewer enrolments; within music, there has been a 30% drop since 2011.
The bulk of the drop has occurred since 2013, humanities pro vice-chancellor Tony Ballantyne explains.Current enrolments for music are back to what they were in the period 2002-2006.
"Basically, after a period of steady growth from the mid-2000s to 2010, we have entered a period of enrolment decline that takes us back to a previous level," he says.
One factor is a drop in high school pupils studying music.
In 2015, for example, the number of year 11-13 pupils studying music as a significant part of their school activity was at its lowest level since at least 2011.
Given government funding of universities is based on equivalent full-time student (EFTS) enrolments, any decline has direct economic implications.
However, staff say that while the downward trend in music-related enrolments was identified several years ago, the university’s only strategy to deal with it is to reduce staff.
As one source says: "If you are restructuring a business, before you cut staff, you’d normally look at ways of increasing income. Our income is the student numbers."
However, Prof Ballantyne says management has attempted to address the issue in a range of ways.
"Our initial response to declining enrolments has included increasing the level of internal cross-subsidisation provided to music. In short, we sought to buffer music from the effects of falling rolls.
"The issue we have now is that level of cross-subsidisation has become unsustainable," he says, noting music enrolments in 2013, while lower than in 2012, were a little higher than in 2011.
"It was not until 2014/2015 that it became clear there was a major long-term issue in respect of music."
Prof Ballantyne says adjusting staff numbers to reflect "long-run changes" in enrolments is not unusual.
"If we look back, the period not so very long ago when music enrolments were rising quite quickly, academic staff numbers rose to match this increase in student numbers. If one accepts that this was a reasonable thing to do, then one must surely accept also that in times of sustained and significant enrolment decline, a reduction in staff numbers is reasonable."
Prof Ballantyne points out other strategies aimed at addressing music enrolments: more scholarships; expanding the university’s Hands-On residential programme (for high school students) to humanities departments, including music; and supporting events such as the Big Sing national choir event and National Concerto Competition, through advertising, judging and staff expertise.
It is understood those within the department have examined all aspects of their programme: from classical and contemporary performance papers, to ethnomusicology, to technology and production-based papers.
"But it’s hard to gauge what strategic vision the university has for the music department," a source says, pointing out that the department has proven its ability to be flexible.
"We introduced the contemporary music course in 2000 and it grew. From 2005 until 2011, they were heydays. We were making money for the division. We needed no extra support beyond our EFTS-based income."
• Molly Devine, who completed a master’s degree in music earlier this year, offers a long list of reasons why she holds the department in high regard.
All of them are people.
"The department is full of incredible musicians who are also passionate teachers and mentors. As a student who benefited immeasurably from my time at Otago, I’m really sad to see the department put under so much pressure."
Attracted to the university’s contemporary music programme, the Queenstown-raised vocalist and songwriter embarked on a bachelor of music degree in 2011, completed an honours year, then set about her master’s project, which involved writing and producing an EP.
Despite loving her time as an undergraduate, Devine began noticing changes at the department.
"I don’t know exactly what it was," she concedes, "but I think the department’s financial issues made my postgrad incredibly difficult. Gradually, as the year went on, my programme kept getting changed.
"In fact, it ended up costing $5000 more to finish my master’s. I was fortunate to have a scholarship but wasn’t prepared for the extra financial burden of having to pay for studio time and an engineer. Initially, I was told all that would be part of the course, but those hours got cut and cut.
"I don’t think you can blame the music department. They have so little to work with. I think it is a funding issue."
Fewer staff in the department was unlikely to help. Indeed, others say cuts could threaten its credibility.
"I think any department needs an opportunity to grow and progress in a way that corresponds with their field of study ... by cutting funding and staffing, I don’t see how that will benefit either staff or students," a postgrad student, speaking on condition of anonymity, says.
"When the department got that new recording console in 2010, that got a lot of great press and attracted some people to enrol ... but when numbers started to fall away, surely that was a sign content needed to be kept current, that the university needed to invest in new programmes or update its current ones to appeal to prospective students."
Investment is planned.
The university intends to build a $15 million recording studio and production facility, replacing the Albany St studios and practice rooms, which have been undergoing asbestos remedial work.
One source says opinion is divided on the proposed music production facility.
"For many of us, it’s a mixed message. For some, it is a sign that the university sees a future in performance.
"But, clearly, we have to adapt. And I don’t think our staff lack any adaptability."
