Conference Agenda

Nimble syllabus practices can help instructors prepare for unexpected situations and are helpful during a blissfully ordinary semester as well. Creating a variety of different assignments on any given topic, exploring online alternatives to engage students, and increasing transparency regarding student learning outcomes are all worthwhile strategies to enhance teaching effectiveness in any classroom situation.

In the initial stages of developing a course syllabus, instructors can ensure that student learning outcomes, course activities, and assessments are aligned (Ashe and Reilly, 86). In the event that classes are canceled for a week or more, faculty may be required to demonstrate that students will be able to meet the stated learning outcomes/objectives by the end of the semester. If some material that relates to learning outcomes can be incorporated into the classroom every week, things can go more smoothly in the event of an unforeseen situation.

Instructors can prepare to go online should it become necessary. Consider creating an annotated version of the course syllabus showing how course materials might go online in an emergency. Plan ahead to find online resources that are accessible and appropriate for your students; perhaps incorporate these resources into the course, with the option of leaning on them more heavily if things change suddenly. Some disaster scenarios involve loss of reliable internet access for extended periods of time. While online instruction is a valuable backup strategy, be aware that it may not be an option.

Multiple pathways through course content can be helpful in situations where students are dealing with varying levels of trauma. In the days and weeks immediately following an event, students’ ability to concentrate and focus may be severely compromised. Instructors can consider offering a variety of different assignments of varying lengths for students to complete.

Sociologists have discussed the role of social relations in creating and maintaining community solidarity following a tragedy (Hawdon and Ryan, 2011). A collective coming-together, either for a specific event acknowledging the tragedy, or to continue regular activities of established groups, can promote solidarity and heal communal grief.The collective experience is crucial. For musicians, this means participating in ensembles.

This presentation focuses on the important collective experiences of musicians participating in university and community ensembles, how music theory classrooms can relate to and enrich them, and the positive difference this work makes, especially during times of tragedy.

Music theory classes can connect with ensembles by studying the same pieces being prepared by university ensembles, thus emphasizing ties between analysis and performance, which is an established area of scholarship. Class discussions with conductors and/or faculty soloists can strengthen these ties.

Technology can provide a vital means of communication and interaction for ensembles, and for their audiences. During the pandemic, some of our university ensembles performed together in real time from various geographic locations, with the use of an online platform. This use of current technology enabled our ensembles to keep working and performing together, in spite of the difficult circumstances that kept the students apart.

Studies have found that for people ages 16-26, participating in an organization with an explicit civic aim (such as offering free public performances) enhances their sense of social well-being, which is achieved through a sense of empowerment and community (Cicognani et al. 2015). Social well-being is a dimension of positive psychological functioning (Keyes 1998). In the realm of community ensembles, Eastern Youth Orchestras is an organization for young people that provides these benefits, as well as an ongoing opportunity for musical growth. Selected music majors from ECU work in assisting roles with EYO. As a group of three orchestras for children in 3rd-12th grades who rehearse in our university’s School of Music and provide orchestral and chamber music performances throughout eastern North Carolina, EYO has fostered solidarity in times of disaster, both musically and in other ways.

In August 2021 the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that Louisiana had the highest coronavirus transmission and death rates. Criticism of Louisiana State University’s response to the pandemic focused on the lack of a strong testing mandate, and on the university’s president’s lack of action in the face of threats from the state’s attorney general, a COVID denier, that any attempts to enforce such a mandate would lead to lawsuits. When COVID vaccines became readily available the university hesitated to impose a vaccination mandate for the same reason. The result was a struggle between and among faculty and administrators over the proper response to the pandemic and to the political pressures exerted in this very Red state on public education. I present a timeline and assessment documenting this struggle.

A group of faculty activists initially formed during a struggle over curricular control in 2019. At the start of the pandemic, when it became clear that the administration was not going to institute necessary health precautions, this group sought to invoke a seldom-used provision of the university’s bylaws to convene the Faculty Council—a body consisting of all full-time University faculty, on whose behalf the faculty senate is supposed to act; on the agenda was a resolution supporting a vaccine mandate. In May 2021 over eight hundred faculty members attended a virtual meeting of the council, voting overwhelmingly in favor of a vaccine mandate.

Putting in place this basic necessity to ensure the safety of faculty and students during the pandemic required, essentially, an uprising and a rethinking by LSU faculty of how their institution was governed. As the custodians of the university’s curricula—and de facto of their students’ physical and emotional wellbeing—it was clear that in this crisis university administration had failed to side with them, responding instead to potential or actual political pressures. The LSU response is a valuable case study in how faculty must safeguard the instructional environment, and lays bare the necessarily adversarial role between faculty and administration in the modern university and demonstrates its dangers in times of natural disaster or public health crisis.

Music theory instructors at universities impacted by natural disasters must be ready to adapt and reassure their students that their education can continue, despite challenges. The music theory classroom (including written skills and aural skills) is the classroom students attend 5-days a week; it is comparable to the "home room" environment familiar to students from previous secondary schools. It is in this "home room" environment that students share thoughts about the day and respond to events that are on their minds--particularly fears and issues concerning natural disasters that are causing class cancellations or the close of campus for an extended period. Music theory involves learning and demonstrating skills that require concentration, critical thinking, application, aural response, and problem-solving; these activities can be greatly hindered by trauma, confusion, and distractions brought on by disasters that disrupt regular class meetings. The instructor's job often involves teaching the class material as well as helping students deal with fears and distractions that can impede the learning process. This can mean taking time to help students listen more carefully, repeating instructions, and giving more time to practice skills or respond to questions. One method often used in situations following a disaster is called T.I.L.T (Transparency in Learning and Teaching), in which the instructor takes more time to explain to the students the method of instruction for each topic, why the particular musical works were selected to explore this analytical approach, and the value gained from analyzing the music in this particular way (Ashe/Reilly, 2022). An instructor must evaluate the material being presented: are there items that could be omitted from the course and still satisfy the main learning objectives? Could new activities be added to help reduce stress and allow students to participate in a more game-like method? In the aftermath of a disaster, instructors can benefit from collaborations with other instructors who are facing, or have faced, similar challenges, and share strategies they have found beneficial.

Many music theorists have direct experience—as a student, a faculty member, or both—with traumatic events affecting an entire college campus. In a classroom context, where analysis can sometimes feel detached from lived experience, musical sources under study can function both as historical documents and as an emotional outlet. Classroom dynamics may also reflect deeper cultural hesitations, anxieties, or patterns of resilience, requiring educators to approach discussions with care. Adjusting expectations in a flexible and responsive way can send students a much-needed message of support and understanding. Even in cases where campus-wide accommodations or policy changes are announced in the wake of a traumatic event, a nuanced, responsive approach may be needed on an individual level. Teaching music theory in a place shaped by trauma, whether painfully recently or decades after the fact, also requires an awareness of how history lingers in institutions, communities, and individuals. The effects of past school shootings, for example, are often generational, influencing local culture, educational priorities, and students’ sense of security. While time creates distance, it does not erase the ways trauma imprints itself on learning environments. Music theoretical activities and assessments that acknowledge music’s role in collective memory—through composition, improvisation, or analysis of pieces born from struggle—can offer a meaningful bridge between past and present.