Red Deer College suspending Music Diploma program

The college says current Music students will be “fully supported through 2018-19 in order to meet their graduation requirements.”

Dr. Dale Wheeler, a 17-year instructor with RDC’s Music program says three full-time staff have lost their jobs effective Thursday. Another number of part-time staff had their contracts run out on May 4. Some could potentially be re-hired for next year, a decision that will be made in the coming weeks.

“We had a meeting this morning with the associate dean and we all thought it was to talk about the workload for next year, but it was actually to tell us that we were finished,” Wheeler says. “We really would’ve hoped that administration would’ve sat down with us and said let’s put on a full court press to see what we can do to recruit for this program, to tweak the program to make it more attractive and maybe take a look again after a year. Then at least we’d know where we stood.”

Wheeler says following the meeting, faculty were locked out of their work computers and phones. Eventually, access was granted so they could recover certain files until the end of the day.

He says while the argument that enrolment has been down is accurate, some consultation with faculty would’ve gone a long way. He was also booked as a marshal for the upcoming convocation on June 1, a role he’ll no longer be fulfilling.

One person who will be at that convocation ceremony is graduating Music student and vocalist MacKenzie Shmyr, who calls the entire situation questionable.

“This is going to have negative consequences on the Red Deer and Central Alberta music and music education scenes. There are education opportunities in Edmonton and Calgary, but for some people, that could be a hard option to make work. If I was a first year and heard this today, I wouldn’t have much time to transfer to another institution,” Shmyr says.

“I also think it’s quite cruel the way they’ve treated the faculty. They’ve been there for 17 years and done lots of work, even beyond just in the Music program. They’ve gone to schools and had clinics to give students music education and to promote the program.”

In the end, Shmyr says the actions taken by the college are simply not necessary.

“I’ve noticed a lack of promotion of the music program and the music program shows,” he adds. “You can’t expect enrolment if nobody knows that we exist.”

Frizzell disputes that take, however, stating significant resources are put into recruitment for all programs, including Music.

While RDC has no intentions of bring back its Music Diploma in the future, Frizzell says that doesn’t prevent the college from pursuing other music/sound program opportunities on their path to becoming a university.

Frizzell notes that students affected were notified by phone and have received a letter so that there’s something in writing. He also says the college will continue to offer music-related electives.

There are between six and eight students who will return next year to finish off the program.

by Josh Hall and Troy Gillard

Red Deer College suspending Music Diploma program

What's Trending