URGENT!! Budget Cut Bloodbath at San Diego State Music Department--PLEASE HELP!!

[Nikki Stone1]

A dear friend of mine from San Diego is involved with the music department at San Diego State. Most of you know that California is going through its worst budget crisis in years. The Cal State system is being put through terrible cuts, and the arts are taking the brunt. The current Chancellor, a physical education major, doesn't understand why the arts are important at a university. My friend's email, below, was a call to action for me and I am asking for your help as well. Please take a few minutes to cut and paste and send.

MOST OF THE PERFORMANCE FACULTY TO BE CUT!


Dear friends and fellow alumni,

I was just informed that CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reid wants budget cuts of over a quarter of a million dollars in San Diego State's Music Department. This amount represents all of the part time budget and most of the performance faculty.

Music Chair, Donna Conaty, has been ordered by Chancellor Reid to let the part-time faculty go! There has even been talk of abolishing the vocal department entirely.

This is serious bloodletting, even in today's economic climate. Chancellor Reid, whose undergraduate major was physical education, has said that the university can exist without the arts, which is why he has reserved some of the most draconian cuts for music and art.

These cuts NEED TO BE FOUGHT. As alumni know, most of the lessons are done by part time, adjunct faculty. Most of the full timers and tenured professors do not give lessons, they teach theory or composition. (The part time budget is around $250,000. The full time and tenured faculty budget, $2,100,0000, and these positions cannot be cut. )

The tenured faculty, some of whom have not taught lessons in YEARS, are being asked to teach performance to fill in the gap left by the mass part timer firings. This will greatly bring down department standards and will result in many instruments simply not being taught . The vocal program, which will be entirely part timers after June 2010, may be cut completely.

PLEASE HELP!

Take the paragraph below and email it to the addresses provided. JUST CUT AND PASTE.
Or, if you prefer, FAX it to the phone numbers listed at the end of this email.

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TItle: Budget Cut Bloodbath at San Diego State Music Department

CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reid has demanded budget cuts of over a quarter of a million dollars in San Diego State's Music Department. This amount represents all of the part time budget and most of the performance faculty. A music department cannot exist without its performance faculty to give lessons, and most of San Diego State's performance faculty is part time. There has even been talk of abolishing the very popular voice department, which is almost entirely staffed with part time, untenured faculty.

Chancellor Reid has been deaf to appeals and does not understand or care about the devastating effect of cutting most of the performance faculty in a music department. Chancellor Reid seems to have a low opinion of the arts and seems to believe that the university can exist without music, dance, or visual arts courses.

SDSU music faculty are already on furlough, which has resulted in a 15% salary decrease for this year. The department budget has been cut to bare bones levels. But these further cuts will destroy the music department's very reason for existence, the transmission of musical skills to students.

Please help us by asking Chancellor Reid to reconsider.

Thank you.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


SEND THIS EMAIL TO THE FOLLOWING:

1. CONTACT EMAILS FOR CHAIR, BOARD OF TRUSTEES (Jeffrey L. Bleich), CSU Chancellor, Charles B. Reed, and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass

[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

(Just cut and paste these into your email)


2. EMAIL CONTACT PAGES FOR EX OFFICIO TRUSTEES:

These trustees need to be contacted through special email web pages. The links to these pages are next to their names. PLEASE CONTACT THEM. It will only take a few minutes of your time.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California : http://gov.ca.gov/interact#email
John Garamendi, Lieutenant Governor: http://www.ltg.ca.gov/index.php?option=com_rsform&formId=2&Itemid=99999
Jack O'Connell, State Superintendent of Public Instruction: http://www.cde.ca.gov/re/di/cd/ap/mainpage.aspx


3. If you can, follow up your emails with a call or fax:

PHONE/FAX NUMBERS

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone] ( new number )

John Garamendi, Lieutenant Governor
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Jack O'Connell: State Superintendent of Public Instruction
General: 916-319-0800
TTY/TDD: 916-445-4556

Charles B. Reid, CSU Chancellor
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Karen Bass, Speaker of the Assembly
[phone]
[phone] (fax)


4. SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU CAN THINK OF, YOUR WHOLE EMAIL LIST. PUT THIS UP ON YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE. GET THE WORD OUT!



Thanks for the help. I wouldn't be writing if things didn't look dire.