Negotiating with the University

[punkpianist360]

Hello everyone, I'm going to pick your brains out a little, and I need some REAL help on this.

I would like to change teachers at my current school, because I feel I can learn a lot from this person, in a nutshell, however, she is an adjunct instructor, and with budget cuts, they aren't allowing her any new students, and once all her currents students graduate, she will not get anymore students.  Now, I really really am determined to get her, and this is my mindset:

1.  I WILL have her as a teacher
2.  There IS a way to make this happen
3.  I'm not taking "no" for an answer.


I don't want anyone saying "it's impossible" "you can't fight the university" or anything like that.  What I am asking for is advice on how to negotiate.  Here is the chain of command

Director of Keyboard Studies - said no already, no help

Chair of the Music Department - working out a good plea

Dean of the College of Arts and Letter - If necessary, go to her


My issues with my current teacher are not a subject matter of this post, as I already have changed my mind, just a disclosure.

Thank you,
Paul

[49410enrique]

it looks like you're up agaionst a basic money talks issue. if the university (administration) has made the decision, your best bet it to approach this teacher you want and hire her privately. this way you can actually affect and work around the budget cutback as you would be bankrolling her as your instructor. talk to her see what her schedule is and what rate she would charge you to study with her privately outside of the university.

[punkpianist360]

it looks like you're up agaionst a basic money talks issue. if the university (administration) has made the decision, your best bet it to approach this teacher you want and hire her privately. this way you can actually affect and work around the budget cutback as you would be bankrolling her as your instructor. talk to her see what her schedule is and what rate she would charge you to study with her privately outside of the university.

Yes, but the issue is is that they require me to take Applied lessons as a credit for graduation.

[49410enrique]

Yes, but the issue is is that they require me to take Applied lessons as a credit for graduation.

you could always finish up your program with whaever teacher is available to you then study with her privately after you finish or just hire her on the side while you study with someone else for credit.

[quantum]

Does your school have a student union or organization?  Going it alone against the politics of academia can be an uphill battle.  Find support to back your argument.  Having a student union behind you and people that are more versed in negotiating politics and dealing with administration can give you much leverage. 

I concur with the above posts.  If you really want to study with this teacher, do it privately.  Check if there is a possibility of getting credit for lessons taken outside the school.  I know of a number of students at my university that successfully obtained permission to receive credit for lessons with an external teacher. 

[iratior]

There certainly is no limit to what a university will sometimes seem to be doing with the deliberate intention of stifling the students' pianistic abilities.  It is as if the main constituency they want to please is not the students, but the parents who are determined that junior should be a doctor and not a pianist. (I've heard it said that Leonard Bernstein's parents were like that.)  To the extent pianos aren't kept with locked keyboards, they get put in rooms where they can't be played, because that would be disturbing someone else.  If the pianos are in practice rooms, then such rooms must be designed so that, since sound emanates from them, they can't be used if there is anything going on in a nearby room.  Since there is almost surely going to be something going on in at least one of the nearby rooms, that virtually precludes anybody's being able to use the practice pianos.  But just to make sure students get the message, the practice pianos will be some brand with a very muffled, unattractive tone.  So I'm not surprised they try not to let a student have a teacher he or she wants.