U of T Music: Strategic Planning Update
Update: August 5, 2020
UofT Faculty of Music - Dean's Comments on the Recent Racist Incident in Music Theory in the Journal of Schenkerian Studies
Dear Members of the UofT Music Community:
In a recent memo to faculty, staff, and students, I announced the establishment of an ad-hoc Workgroup on Anti-Racism, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. The memo acknowledges the importance of these issues within the Faculty's renewal of its Strategic Academic Plan 2016-2021 as well as in Calls to Action from faculty and staff, current students and alumni for active response to profoundly disturbing public events and chronic injustices, particularly against members of the Black community. The Workgroup is now underway and we look forward to its deliberations and recommendations for immediate and longer-term actions to be taken by the community and the administration.
Notwithstanding these important steps, we continue to face disturbing incidents of racism in higher-education in music. Most recently, music theory—a discipline that is making efforts to grow beyond and overcome its traditional, white, canonical, colonial roots—was rocked by an appalling instance of racist commentary in the recent issue of the Journal of Schenkerian Studies. The issue purported to be a “Symposium on Philip Ewell’s 2019 SMT Plenary Paper” (see also his subsequent article “Music Theory and the White Racial Frame”) and solicited comments from a number of individuals without including Prof. Ewell in the discussion and also failing in multiple ways to adhere to expected scholarly editorial standards. The result led to a condemnation by the Board of the Society for Music Theory, which this statement by our Music Theory colleagues (of which I am one) strongly and unequivocally supports.
Particularly upsetting for a number of us in the Faculty of Music were comments made in a submission to the Journal by our colleague, former Dean and retired Emeritus Professor David Beach, comments which have caused offense and with which we strongly disagree. Moving forward, the Music Theory Area and the Faculty reaffirm our commitment to action on anti-racism within our teaching, mentorship, and scholarship. We support and look forward to the efforts of the current Workgroup and the participation of all of our faculty, staff, students, and alumni in improving our response to and actions on issues of anti-racism, equity, diversity, and inclusion across our programs and community as we build our better future together.
With best regards,
Don McLean
____________________
Update: July 27, 2020
U of T Music - An update on Calls to Action
Establishment of ad-hoc Workgroup on Anti-Racism, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Over the past six weeks, there has been a great deal of activity, associated in part with the Faculty of Music’s current and ongoing consultations on the renewal and extension of its Strategic Academic Plan 2016-2021, and also associated with the broad desire for active response to profoundly disturbing public events and chronic injustices, particularly against members of the Black community. Within the U of T Music community, there is strong advocacy for us to focus our collective attention and action on matters of anti-racism, equity, diversity, and inclusion. A Call to Action from Alumni (June 4) and its initial administrative Response (June 5) were followed by Calls to Action from a group Faculty and Staff (July 2) and from a group of Current Students (July 3). More recently, among a broad range of significant and sometimes deeply concerning testimonials in social media postings, I would also note #thisisartschool (July 17). The Senior Leadership Group [SLG] of the Faculty (Dean, Associate Deans, CAO, Manager of the Office of the Dean) has been engaged collectively in responses to these Calls and has met with a group of colleagues (July 3) and subsequently (July 10) with the Director (Jodie Glean) and Associate Director (Karima Hashmani) of ARCDO (U of T’s Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Office) to discuss best practices and suggest next steps.
At its next regular meeting (July 13), on the advice of ARCDO and others, SLG decided to strike an ad-hoc Workgroup of representative faculty, staff, and students, with additional input from alumni. The Workgroup will meet now through early fall to review the current situation, including the significant commonalities in the calls to action, determine immediate steps that can be put in place, and project structures and timelines for handling longer-term outcomes. The Workgroup will report back to SLG and Faculty Council in the fall. One outcome will likely be to establish a Faculty of Music permanent Standing Committee on Anti-Racism, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (AREDI—advice on its exact title, mandate, and proposed membership to be one part of the Workgroup’s recommendation process). A number of the proposals in the calls to action have deeper implications for area restructuring and curriculum redesign which present very valuable ideas for significant change. Although these will take more time to review, the Workgroup can begin to establish the necessary consultation and governance paths as we move forward together. We appreciate the efforts of everyone in these passionate and thoughtful communications.
Everyone will appreciate that we need to find a good representative balance of Areas and Individuals for the Workgroup, particularly with adequate representation from our BIPOC community. In the interests of time, requests to individuals to serve on the Workgroup have come from the Dean’s office, based on information in the Calls to Action and discussions with ARCDO and within SLG. (Requests to serve on an eventual Standing Committee on AREDI will have a call for nominations.)
For the summer Workgroup, SLG (based on its consultation with ARCDO) is recommending:
4 faculty from performance areas [Jazz, Voice/Opera, Piano+, Ensembles]:
Mike Murley, Monica Whicher, Midori Koga, Aiyun Huang
4 faculty from academic/research areas [Composition, Music Education, Musicology/Ethnomusicology/Music Theory]:
Eliot Britton, Bina John, Farzaneh Hemmasi, Ellen Lockhart
2 administrative staff [alumni & communications]:
Tyler Greenleaf, Natasha Smith
4 student representatives from FMUA/MGSA:
Undergraduate (FMUA): Priscilla Menezes, Stephane Martin Demers
Graduate (MGSA): Rena Marie Roussin, Renee Fajardo
1 SLG member as administrative liaison to the Workgroup:
Ryan McClelland as AD Academic & Student Affairs
As part of their mandate, the Workgroup will want to reach out to others within and beyond the Faculty to inform their deliberations and recommendations. The Workgroup will begin immediately, and with suitable break opportunities, continue through the summer and into the early fall, when it will report to SLG and Faculty Council. We will then determine next steps, including how the Workgroup’s recommendations will interface with our ongoing strategic planning process.
Once again, I thank all in the community for their input on these important issues, particularly those who have been so quick to respond to indicate their willingness to serve on the Workgroup at this time when we are all dealing with so many additional personal, public and professional challenges.
With best regards to all,
Don
Don McLean
____________________
Update: June 18, 2020
Dear members of the U of T Music community:
Earlier this month, several hundred members of our alumni community sent a Call to Action to the participants (faculty, librarians, students, alumni and support staff) in the Faculty of Music’s Strategic Academic Planning process requesting that the Faculty commit to and prioritize “addressing systemic oppression, racism, and coloniality [as] a strategic, faculty-wide goal.” In light of appalling recent and ongoing incidents of police brutality, armed forces response, and amplifications of ongoing socioeconomic and race-based inequities, our alumni’s Call to Action was both timely and appreciated.
In the Call to Action (PDF) and my corresponding Response (PDF), there are several short-term and longer-term actions identified that we are working on immediately. These include focused efforts in public programming, supporting issues-based public and internal events, and providing professional development and awareness training for faculty, staff, and students.
This call to action came at an important juncture of reflection and forward planning for the Faculty of Music as the goal of the strategic planning consultation process is to address the positive elements as well as the shortfalls of the 2016–2021 Plan in order to formulate an extension of the Plan (nominally for 2021–2023).
Throughout June we have heard from numerous students, faculty, staff and alumni both directly and indirectly, and I deeply appreciate being part of such an engaged, caring and insightful community. We welcome further comments on these exchanges and encourage robust participation in the planning process in the hope that a number of the important recommendations raised can be front and centre in our deliberations going forward. We must do better, and we will.
Please continue to connect with us through the Dean’s Office (dean.music@utoronto.ca) and for questions related to the alumni Call to Action letter contact the Alumni Office (alumni.music@utoronto.ca) and we will continue to update you on the Faculty’s actions and progress.
With best regards to all,
Don McLean
Music Alumni Call to Action (PDF)
Dean Don McLean's Response (PDF)
U of T expresses solidarity with the Black community
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