Perlman agrees to keep organ music program after APC recommendations

With the University of Nebraska-Lincoln facing $5 million in cuts in next year's budget, the university's chancellor agreed to keep UNL's organ program, as advised by the Academic Planning Committee, in a statement released May 24.

On April 14, UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman detailed his budget reduction proposals, including cuts that would eliminate the organ program in the College of Fine and Performing Arts, K-12 art education programs in the College of Education and Human Sciences, the master's degree program in classics in the College of Arts and Sciences, the bachelor's degree program in the Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering in the College of Engineering, while still keeping the master's program. The recommendations went to the APC, which held hearings on the proposed cuts and made recommendations to the chancellor.

The budget with the proposed cuts will be voted on for approval at the University of Nebraska Regents meeting June 17.     

"While I believe reasonable people can disagree on how central the study of organ is to our music program and what effect termination of certain members during the budget reductions may have on future faculty recruitment, I nonetheless have decided to defer to the APC's judgment on the matter," Perlman said in the statement.

The chancellor also thanked the APC for their recommendations and service to the university.

"These are very difficult issues and the considered judgment of faculty should be an important aspect of our process," he said.

The APC recommended keeping the organ program because it is essential to the college's music program, according to a letter to Perlman from the committee.

"It is integrally connected to the music school, the university, the community and the state," said APC chair Jennifer Brand, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. "(The organ) is integral to Western music."

Brand said the cut would have been too deep to the music program if the organ program was eliminated.

"The metric people were using was that there was only one (organ) major," she said, adding that the number didn't tell the whole story.

Christopher Marks, assistant professor of organ, agreed.

Marks said he's had other students not majoring in organ take classes with him about the instrument. For instance, he said, students majoring in piano might also study organ.

"Every instrument taught in the school of music is important and relates to every other instrument," he said.

The university would have saved $68,480 with the cut, but would have eliminated Marks's job, according to the proposed budget.

"I was very relieved because that was my job at stake," Marks said. "I'm also happy from a professional standpoint because it's nice to see that the organ is still valued at this university."

In Perlman's statement, the chancellor said the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts has reassured the administration that the cost was manageable within the School of Music's existing budget.

"The College of Fine and Performing  Arts will propose an alternative reduction in its budget for consideration during the next round of reductions," Perlman said.

The committee considered the contribution of the program to the music school, the university, the community and the state, as well as possible alternatives for the organ program if eliminated, Brand said. After the hearings, the committee voted on recommendations in a closed session, she said.

The committee agreed with the rest of the cuts, but recommended monitoring to evaluate the impact of reducing on-campus mail delivery from five days to every other day and reducing stairway cleaning from five days a week to twice a week.

Brand said the budget cuts this year have been hard and will likely get harder.

kimbuckley@dailynebraskan.com