As the school year draws to a close, Whitman students and faculty say farewell to Catherine Gould Chism Professor of Music Dr. Susan Pickett, who will be retiring at the end of this semester. Pickett,...
Susan Pickett, the Catherine Gould Chism Chair of Music at Whitman College, discussed her recently released book on Wed., Mar. 11. The book, "Marion and Emilie Frances Bauer: From the Wild West to American...
In the past three years, the Whitman music department has undergone monumental shifts in its faculty, both tenure-track and temporary. After a recent decision to not rehire highly esteemed piano specialist Melissa Loehnig, some music students are questioning the policies of the administration and the nature of the tenure track at Whitman.
A series of end-of-year curriculum changes and hiring decisions in the music department have left many music students feeling like they don't have a voice in the future direction of the department.The academic year may be winding down, but some end-of-year hiring decisions and curriculum changes in Whitman’s music department have still managed to cause a stir among students.
Laura Curtis has been teaching piano at Whitman since 1997. She holds a master’s degree in music, instructs around 35 students per semester and is often busy from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. with lessons, rehearsals, practicing and accompanying. For this, Curtis can expect to earn a little more than $20,000 per year from Whitman.
Curtis is one of Whitman’s music teaching assistants: instructors who are hired on a per-semester or per-year contract basis to teach private lessons. Currently, students pay $300 per semester per credit of instruction, with one credit equal to a half-hour private lesson per week over the course of the semester. Music assistants receive $264 per credit they teach. The remainder of the fee covers employer related payroll costs such as social security, Medicare and worker’s compensation. An instructor with teaching 40 half-hour lessons is considered to be employed full-time by the college, and would earn a salary of $21,120 before taxes.
Following this year's upcoming final performances, Whitman College's music department will undergo several major changes. In the past two years, four tenured professors have retired, are set to retire...
