Klarinet Archive - Posting 001414.txt from 1997/10

From: "L. BORCHERT" <lborcher@-----.Edu>
Subj: Re: NASM (was statesmanship)
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 05:38:06 -0500

I certainly agree with Mr. Gholson's comments and would add
another aspect to the discussion.

Although I don't believe the specifics of internet contacts is
covered in the NASM (National Association of Schools of Music)
guidelines, they are clear in regards to recruiting students who are
currently enrolled in another NASM accredited school. It is the student
who must make the initial inquiries about transfer usually to the ensemble
director or applied professors. If this was ever tested in court, I don't
believe a phone call would hold up. At New Mexico State University, our
department head requires the request for information to be in writing
before anything is sent out or professors are allowed to contact any
students.
In addition, if the students are under scholarship at one
university, they have to be released from that scholarship by the
Department Head or Dean of the school before they can accept a scholarship
at another accredited school.
This is actually a very serious concern. The spirit of the
statements in the NASM guidelines
are to prevent unscrupulous professors or administrators from approaching
students who are committed to other institutions and recruiting or buying
them away from that school. Violations of those guidelines could result
in serious consequences for the offending schools.
So, what do these guidelines have to to with the new electronic
communications? I put forth that it is a good question to get out in the
open and discuss.

P.S. I do realize this is a somewhat long posting and that it does not
deal directly with clarinet. Nonetheless, it did come up on the list and
deserves some comment.

Dr. Laroy Borchert
Professor of Clarinet
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM 88003

On Thu, 30 Oct 1997, Gholson wrote:

> A few notes;
>
> Some time ago, students from a selected university in the east,
> posted several statements critisizing the instruction they
> received from their professor. We were all new to the Internet
> then and I was curious about how the professor, who was on the
> listserv, would handle that situation. I saw few posts from that
> institution...darned few, subsequent to that episode. I imagine
> that the professor had encouraged his students to participate
> in the group, even setting up a computer and the necessary
> accounts, for that specific purpose. If I had gone to that
> trouble, only to see my students recruited, courted, and my
> teaching openly criticised in a national forum, I would have
> thrown the computer out the window.
>
> Auguste Duques once noted that the French School is defined by
> thousands of different French performers. He laughed at the
> notion of a "French School." We all have preferential sounds,
> techniques, ligatures, ad infinitum. There are many ways to
> play the clarinet and literally thousands of equipment avenues
> to pursue. If one is NOT in the position to support, nurture,
> and interact with a given student (emotionally, psychologically,
> musically, AND theoretically) on a local basis, then I think
> it wise to defer to the instruction received locally, especially
> in an international forum. At the very least, much criticism could be
> shared on a private basis.
>
> I suppose I am talking about statesmanship and hope that
> my thoughts inspire open dialogue coupled with the discretion
> that realizes that we cannot pick up that student and escort
> her to a concert, or take him home after a lesson, in a blinding
> snowstorm. It means statesmanship even, when it comes to making
> suggestions to students online. My own strategy is to react to
> a question which could be embarrassing to a given teacher, OFFLINE.
> ..one to one, with my mail going DIRECTLY to the addressee. Even
> here, I would NOT say something that could haunt me later. In my
> opinion, this community that we call the Internet is a wonderful thing, but
> still only as collegial as we make it.
>
>
>
>
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