Au Revoir to the Digital Audio Recording Arts

Photo credit: Mars Angulo

Envision getting the chance to pursue an artistic passion– perhaps you love to dance and feel movement through your body. Maybe you love to lay words down on a page and write. Or direct a movie and create your own world. Maybe you’re driven by every note and measure in a song. Regardless, there are many fields, especially within the arts and humanities, that can be described as being fueled by a level of passion and angst that is unique.

Unfortunately, we have been witnessing the long time death of the arts and humanities, which has been a recurring grief for years. Most recently, we have witnessed the University of Chicago announce “it was reducing Ph.D. admissions for seven departments—among them art history and English language and literature—and outright freezing admissions to others,” which The Atlantic attributes to the vendetta the Trump administration has against higher education. 

We also witnessed the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) discussing the possibility of “dissolving its School of Literatures, Cultural Studies and Linguistics in the coming weeks and terminating all of the school’s nontenured faculty at the end of the academic year.” 

The Chicago Tribune reports that this announcement was made to faculty on February 7 of this year, and although there is no certainty, the university appears prepared to move forward with the closure.

Similarly, the University of St. Francis (USF) has been forced to meet the same fate with many of its programs. There isn't exactly a surplus of English majors, the music department has already been stripped away, relinquished to the remaining electives, lessons, and choirs. Most recently, the Digital Audio Recording Arts (DARA) program has been suspended on campus. 

In case you’ve never visited the fourth floor of the tower, at the end of its hall you can find a plethora of mics, sound boards, recording equipment, musical instruments, and aspiring musicians, technicians, and entrepreneurs at work. 

DARA began its journey in 2009 when Jeff Jaskowiak, former DARA director, began to write coursework with interest to teach live sound at the higher education level. It was well embraced by the school board and became a concentration under the music department. From then on, Jaskowiak worked zealously to seek out donors, apply for grants and build a reputation with regional music instructors. Soon after, Jaskowiak gained a close colleague, Alby Odum, a former DARA instructor who now teaches at Joliet Junior College (JJC). Together they continued to develop DARA further by building more courses and working with the business department to add more business centred classes, such as music marketing and music survey. By 2015, DARA was taken under governance and became its own major. 

Jaskowiak shares how they aimed to cover all three pillars of music, audio and recording technology, and entrepreneurship with the goal of DARA to provide people with “a well-rounded education and increase their chances of making a living in music.”

After years of development, DARA has in some ways, met a series of unfortunate events and is now suspended for at least the next five years. 

The university's Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, Beth Roth, provides us with some insight on the decision made. She explained that the “changes in DARA faculty [in reference to Jeff’s retirement and Alby’s new position] precipitated a consideration of the sustainability of the program.”

Administration had to weigh out its costs taking into consideration its “enrollment, graduation rates, curriculum, equipment maintenance, market demand, projected labor statistics, and finances from the inception of the program until now,” she said.

Roth explained this five-year suspension means the university “will not be admitting new students into the [DARA] major.” 

However, Roth clarified that they will assist current students to finish their degrees at USF with the Dean of the college of arts and sciences, Dr. Elizabeth McDermott, working closely to map out the courses needed to “complete the degree and a timeline for when those courses will be offered.”

Of course, with such a large and impactful decision being made seemingly so suddenly, there is a widespread worry from students. Especially for the first-year students, who recently enrolled in DARA with little to no knowledge of what would occur. 

“I had no knowledge this was even a possibility. I had no clue Alby was leaving or that Jeff was retiring this year,” said first-year DARA student Chris Falkiewizz, who also goes by CJ . 

CJ and Shelby Walsh Duckwitz, first-year DARA students, walk us through how they learned about the program's fate. They explained that, along with Razi Spencer, another first-year DARA student, were requested to meet with Dr. McDermott during the first-year transition program (FYT) and were alerted of the program’s suspension. 

CJ recalls how the room went “quiet and kinda awkward… My heart sank cause I just committed to this college and I paid my tuition deposits and tuition.”

They continued to explain how they wished USF would have at least shed some light on the situation before they committed. 

They later voiced worry that their major may be weakened, as they understand that DARA classes would be pushed forward to fit a two-year span. 

“We were told that we will still graduate with our degree and they promised us at least two years of DARA, which would be our freshman and sophomore years.” … said. 

Duckwitz communicates her sentiment about how their degree is set up.

 “I'm scared I'm gonna forget everything! Having to learn everything in two years. I’m scared one class is gonna get dulled down because I’m focusing on one class and not focusing as much on the other one,” she said. 

The concern of time is one no student is a stranger to and with only two years students feel an additional stress. CJ added how they “really would’ve like to do the four years, so that it's not so rushed and not have a sort of mental pressure to learn everything so quickly” 

Their concerns are justified, especially since such a significant change in the curriculum's structure can impact student learning. Rather than learning in a linear and sequential manner, students may be forced to learn in large and sometimes unstructured jumps.      

Aiming to reassure students, Roth shared how “one of the highlights of the DARA program is the internship experience. We will continue to assist students in finding an internship that gives them hands-on learning experiences,” which usually occur during a student's junior or senior year.

However, some students remain wary, sharing that although they were guaranteed two years of DARA classes and an internship their junior year, they feel as though “they [the administration] might pull the rug from under us again.” 

Especially, since they felt as though there was a limit of transparency. They alluded to the DARA meeting on Aug. 20, which was meant to be a chance for all DARA students to ask any questions they had, but felt as though they weren't met with clear answers and everyone “beat around the bush.”  

Students understand the situation is much larger than any singular person, however, that doesn't change the circumstance. CJ shares how the situation “felt like an illusion of choice,” where administration acknowledges the sunsetting of the DARA program but leaves students with no say for their degree plan or what they can do.

“They just told us how we’re gonna do it without any say. Kinda saying, ‘this is what you paid for.’” they said.

They added how the situation leads them to worry about feeling regretful when they graduate “... and I'm afraid of that. I really don't want that to happen because this is such a great program and it's sad to see it go this way.”

Through the years, DARA has been able to cultivate not just great music, but a positive environment that allows students to learn and collaborate. 

“The music here is incredible, especially compared to anywhere else I looked at. So it’s really sad to see the arts go– especially since we are a liberal arts school.” 

Students, take a moment to advocate not just for DARA, but the arts as a whole. 

“The day and age we live in feels so sterile! Not to sound corny, but I feel like there’s no more creativity.”

Spencer continues to share how she feels, saying “if we marketed it more we would’ve had a chance, and it’s a failure of the school to get rid of it… Many schools are getting rid of programs like this, we should be the underdogs and keep it.” 

CJ emphasises this point by addressing how schools are shutting down music programs and the arts. He continued to express how “the arts are so important to individuality and self-expression” and that it feels like life is going to become mind-numbing or soul-crushing without the arts.  

To build off CJ’s topic, Duckwitz shared a similar sentiment, saying “I feel like we need DARA now more than ever.”

Roth explains that “USF believes in the value of a liberal arts education, and to that end continues to provide opportunities for students to complete coursework in a variety of disciplines.” 

She added that “after the five-year suspension the decision is made to enroll new students or delete the program,” but with no ability to market or enroll students to this particular field, the decision appears to be final and we will slowly start to bid a grief-stricken au revoir to the DARA program.