In these tough economic times, everyone must make sacrifices; this includes universities such as MSU. But making sacrifices and losing your entire degree program are two very different things, and it is a difference that music therapy students understand all too well. 

“They’ve told us that we are the first of many,” said junior psychology major and aspiring music therapy major Josh Chapin. “There are going to be plenty of other programs that are going to be cut the same way.” 

MSU’s program was the first of its kind, and remains one of the best music therapy programs worldwide. Only three universities in Michigan offer a music therapy degree, and of those, only MSU offers a grad program. In fact, there are only two graduate music therapy programs in all of the Big Ten schools, with Iowa having the second, and no universities west of Kansas offer a doctorate program in this field.

It is a program that sets MSU apart and draws in students worldwide. Without it, MSU’s College of Music would look very similar to any other schools’. With the addition of a jazz program, the music school at the University of Michigan, for example, now offers almost all of the same programs that MSU does...with the exception of music therapy.

“It’s a shock in the music therapy community because we are a pioneer program,” said Frederick Tims, director of music therapy professor. “Everyone is saying, ‘What a loss.' Our students are all getting jobs. We have positions that we aren’t able to fill.”  

He added, “We really have trained a lot of the leaders of the profession and our doctorate students get to apply for jobs before they graduate, so it’s hard for us to understand that if our services are so demanded in these horrible economic times and people are begging for music therapists, and not just around the country, but in Michigan, why would you cut a program like that?” 

Tims is not the only one confused by the Provost’s decision, but at least he was told about the possibility of a cut. As an administrator, he learned at a meeting that the university was holding admissions a full week before the students found out about the decision. In the past, the music therapy program had been discussed as a program to be cut if budget constraints were placed on the college.

Tims could not warn the students about what was to come, even if he already knew and had suspected this might happen as soon as budget cuts were imposed.

Students instead got an e-mail from Tims, telling them to attend a meeting with the deans of the College of Music on a Monday night

“Nobody knew what this was about," music therapy junior Kaylee Grettenberger said. "I think there was one sentence about a budget meeting or something. It was like, why are we going to a college budget meeting? You started thinking, it can’t be good, but we didn’t know what was going on.

"And Monday night, they sat us down and they told us that [the College of Music advisory committee] had put a proposal forward to the Provost recommending a moratorium on the music therapy program. It was just like, where the heck did that come from? Nobody had any idea. There was no warning. That was what was so frustrating.” 

Frustrated or not, the students wasted no time trying to salvage their program. In fact, they requested additional meetings with the advisory board who made the decision, as well as with the Provost and Deans, in order to discuss the situation further and try to find a solution that would allow the program to continue, even if this meant reducing the current two faculty staff down to only one faculty member.

The students actually submitted a number of alternative proposals for review and consideration that would greatly reduce the program, but at least keep an undergrad. However, these proposals do not seem to have made much of an effect and the moratorium has remained in place. 

One of the main worries that the students have expressed about losing the music therapy program involves the music therapy clinic that is a crucial element of the program. This free clinic provides music therapy services for about 120 people from the Lansing and East Lansing area, services these families cannot receive anywhere else, with the exception of the Community Music School, and certainly not free of charge.

“There have been clients that have been coming here for 10, 20, 30 years,” Grettenberger said. “It really felt like they didn’t consider the clients when they made this decision.” 

In response to these concerns from the students, the College of Music suggested that clients could go to another local music therapy location, the Community Music School (CMS), for treatment. However, the music therapy students calculated that in order for CMS to accommodate all of their clients and maintain their current level of care, they would need to raise $62,000 per year and would most likely have to charge clients for their sessions, a price much too high for the families in need. 

But Chapin speculates that the effect of losing the free clinic could have a much greater effect on the community than anyone might have imagined. 

“This is going to have a financial impact to the community because once you take away these services from special needs people, if you can’t help them function inside the community and assimilate them," Chapin said, "well, what do you do with someone who has severe autistic disorder and you can’t help them to improve their abilities? You send them to an institution which costs the state even more money than helping a program like music therapy.” 

It was this mixture of concern, shock and outrage that the students presented in their first meeting with the advisory board the week after the initial decision was announced, but this meeting failed to answer their questions any better than the initial meeting had done. But Chapin at least came prepared. He recorded all of the meetings to make sure the program could respond effectively. 

“There are things coming down that are going to affect every student and faculty in the College of Music for a long time,” said composition professor Mark Sullivan during this first requested meeting. Sullivan is a member of the current advisory board and one of the people responsible for the moratorium decision. 

“The university is not giving us the option to do everything we want to do,” he said. “They are pressuring us continuously and severely to prove that the things we’re asking for are of national and international problems.” 

Maybe the university will realize this once it starts checking the return addresses on the hundreds of letters that have poured in in response to the cut from around the world. Students have been writing to music therapy alumni, starting petitions and, most importantly, fundraising in an effort to reach the amount needed, a staggering $5 million endowment fund, according to the Provost, to maintain their program.

If that number seems a bit high, the advisory board did state that students could save the program with only one faculty member for a mere $1.5 million.

This still daunting task has not discouraged the students from at least trying to raise funds. 

“I have to admit I am very proud of the students,” Tims said. “They asked some very good questions, to the point, and they say we want this program to continue. I think the administration has been shocked by all the support and where the letters came from and everything. I mean, you have to pay attention to that.” 

The program’s main student fundraiser occurred just this past Saturday: a 5K run/walk for abilities for music therapy put on largely with the help of music education junior Michael Woodward. All of the money raised from the event will go to try to save the program, but if the number falls short, then it will contribute to a fund to be used for scholarships to help the current music therapy clients receive free treatment from the Community Music School. 

“We feel like we have to try at least,” Chapin said. “Maybe we won’t save the program, but we have pretty much decided that our goal is to at least get free services for those clients that we have because that would just be heartbreaking for them not to have music therapy, especially when they are all doing so well.” 

While the music therapy program has not been cut yet, only seven programs out of 77 in the past ten years have had their moratoriums overturned and escaped being disbanded.

“I feel that if the will is there we will be able to put our heads together and come up with something that would be able to save this program,” Chapin said.