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Letters
To Whom it May Concern:
I am a Music Therapy Major here at UWEC, and am disappointed that once again this wonderful program is facing a recommendation to be cut. When I toured the University last year, after already being accepted into the Music Therapy program, I was shocked to hear from a student tour guide that Music Therapy was in danger of being cut.
I don't understand what the University stands to gain if this program is cut. The way I see it, it only stands to lose an incredibly caring, devoted, and hard-working professor, and skilled students who truly desire to help people through their gift of music. Professor Lee Anna Rasar is one in a million, you don't find people like her who truly love what they do and genuinely want to help others. In one of my classes, we walk to the Syverson Home every Monday to play songs on the piano for people with Dementia. I can tell that they look forward to us coming on Monday and singing for them, and I've heard stories about one woman who didn't speak to anyone, but when Nobu Yasuda, the Orchestra Director at UWEC, played Amazing Grace, she sang all the words!
We have only been in class for five weeks and already I know so many different techniques and ways music can help literally hundreds of populations of people! I really do look forward to going to class and taking down pages and pages of notes that describe music techniques for children with autism, expectant mothers in the delivery room, people with Parkinson's Disease, Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and so many more. We watched a slide slow in class of children at a hospital in Louisiana who Lee Anna had worked with long ago. Lee Anna had a story about every single one of them, and how she used Music Therapy to help them learn to walk with prosthetics, to learn to play the guitar with only one hand, and to take their mind off the pain of treatments and wounds.
UW-Eau Claire is the only public university in the state of Wisconsin that offers Music Therapy as a major. This is perplexing to me, especially since I daily receive e-mails from Lee Anna about Music Therapy positions that are offered all over the country, and even internationally! Everything I have read about Music Therapy says that this is an up and coming field, so why would you limit the already limited training there is for students dreaming to become Music Therapists? I know students who have toured universities offering Music Therapy in other states, but chose instead to come to UW-Eau Claire because of the integrity of the Music Therapy program, and because of the incredible training they would receive with Professor Lee Anna Rasar.
I have heard so many stories about how Music Therapy creates miracles and life-changing experiences in peoples' lives, please don't take that away from the Chippewa Valley and UW-Eau Claire.
Thank you for your considerations,
Jordyn Kreitzer
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing this letter in regards to the future of the Music Therapy program here at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. I am currently one of the students studying under Lee Anna Rasar, as well as one of only three recipients of the Blugold Fellowship Scholarship working with Professor Rasar.
I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to attend such a great university. I chose to come to UWEC for its Music Therapy program and was pleased to find that the values of this university stand out among other colleges. With an emphasis on a liberal arts education, I felt that this was where I needed to go, not only for my choice of major, but also for the expectations for students' learning.
Every class I have been enrolled in here at this university has specifically mentioned the importance of the Goals of the Baccalaureate. By cutting the Music Therapy program, I believe you will be getting rid of a program in which every class targets every one of the Baccalaureate Goals. All of the classes I have been involved in through the Music Therapy degree program place an emphasis not only on music therapy, but the importance of becoming a fully functioning individual in a learning community and being able to apply these skills after graduation.
After being awarded the Blugold Fellowship Scholarship, I contacted Professor Rasar to see if she was interested in working with me during my first two years here. She didn't take long to reply. Although she is a busy woman, she always makes time to get to know her students and help them grow to their fullest potential. I have worked with Professor Rasar and other students on developing a percussion techniques course suited for our major, and I am now working on another course required for graduation. Along with this, I have the opportunity to travel to Regional and National Conferences, presenting my work only as a freshman and sophomore undergraduate. These experiences are not only unique to my study at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, but they represent the great opportunities the Music Therapy program has to offer here.
I cannot think of another major at this university that reaches out to a wider population in this community - elderly and children, healthy, sick and handicapped, law-abiding or not, and finally student or adult. It disturbs me that only after fully understanding what a great program I had stepped into, there is a chance that after I graduate, there would no longer be a public university in Wisconsin where you could earn a Bachelor of Music Therapy degree. I have read time and time again that this program is nationally and internationally recognized for its outstanding graduates who have exceed in the classroom, on their certification exams and out in the field. I am proud to believe that one day I will also be one of these people, and I can expect others to continue to be admitted and to graduate with honors from this program.
In closing, I would like to say that I would love to have you understand the importance of this program in the University community, as well as the Eau Claire-Chippewa Valley area, the United States, and the world. There would be many people that would suffer if this program was cut. I would like you to keep in mind that the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire's motto is "Excellence," something that cannot be easily achieved. I'm sure if you were to ask any student, faculty member, and member of this community, they would tell you that this program has long past exceeded in accomplishing "excellence" and is continuing to improve in every way possible, reaching out to more people every day.
Thank you for your consideration and time in reading this letter. If you would like to contact me about anything, feel free to e-mail me at hoffmaml@uwec.edu or call me at (715)853-9612.
Sincerely,
Megan Hoffman
Music Therapy
University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
Hello,
My name is Mandy Alvar, and I am both a current and returning student in the Music Therapy program, having graduated in 2001 with a degree in another major. I changed majors because I was not mature or committed enough at that time to make the full investment that is essential for every student in this discipline. I am presently taking music therapy courses to become board certified as a music therapist. Despite bowing out of the major early on, music therapy remained an integral part of my life. What I have been exposed to through the Music Therapy program at this University is beyond words, so this letter truly does not give justice to the impact this program has had on my own educational and personal development. I have seen with my own eyes what music therapy means to all of the other students, past and present, and especially to those individuals who receive the services of music therapy, their families, as well as the staff and administration in agencies and facilities where music therapy is present.
From the beginning of my initial studies in Music Therapy ten years ago, I was given opportunity after opportunity to not only observe, but engage with several population groups and settings, ranging from the local jail setting to nursing homes, private patients, and hospitals. This exposure led me to become involved in volunteer work which I have continued over the last ten years, demonstrating the sustainability of what I learned in my early classes in music therapy. The inspiration was so strong that it continued to motivate me even when I was no longer in the major. My early experiences, studies, and the influence of my professor, Lee Anna Rasar, were never wasted during my initial time in this major. At the beginning, that direct contact with every type of population initiated the kind of preparation I would need in the professional world, but it also prepared me for so much more. I worked and studied in India and found that the international connection with music therapy was undeniable. Music is a universal language, and I could use it to build relationships and connections with children in an orphanage and to help them educationally as well as therapeutically. Furthermore, I realized that when I was taking the initial music therapy courses, I did not have to just listen to a lecture or read a text book or memorize mere information--I was immediately immersed into the lives of those who are directly affected by music therapy, and in addition to Lee Anna Rasar, those people became my teachers. Professor Rasar also personally trained me in anger management which allowed me the opportunity to work with juveniles at the local detention center, even though I was no longer a music therapy student. Again, the sustainability of my learning is evidenced through my long term track record with this programming. I have been able to lead that programming to enable the detention center to maintain its certification, and for the past few years I have had the priviledge of supervising the music therapy students in their practica and clinical experience courses. I also volunteer with music therapy at Sacred Heart Hospital on the behavioral health floor and have witnessed the power of music therapy for those patients who struggle and do not find help in their treatment in any other way. It is interesting that I had volunteered there previously, and again, I was drawn back to that setting. Indeed seeing how music works when other techniques fail is what led me to return to the field of music therapy.
For over a year now I have had the opportunity to work with a stroke patient who last year was featured in an article in the Spectator with a description of her involvement with music therapy. We originally began to work with her at Sacred Heart following her stroke. I have watched her regain her speech, cognition, motor skills, physical coordination, strength, emotional wellbeing, and complete restoration, rehabilitation, and rejuvenation for life in spite of facing numerous obstacles; all through the application of music as therapy. When she was in despair and was not making progress in her alternate therapies, music therapy gave her a second chance at life. Within two weeks after her stroke, she lost her mother, for whom she had been the primary caregiver. Music therapy provided the only means of expression available to her emotionally and physically and served as a primary coping mechanism for processing her grief.
I do have one serious concern regarding the University's position on the fate of music therapy at UWEC. I do not understand why the rationale for cutting the program included a statement that the strategic plan of the university is being followed. What has developed through the music therapy program looks like it was modeled on the strategic plan, from the international initiatives with international internships and with students from other countries coming here to study music therapy to the many students who benefit from service learning through their work with music therapy. If it is then a question of resources, why would it be cost-efficient to eliminate an entire program, consisting of only ONE faculty member, which generates so much community support, contributing consistent positive publicity and recognition to the university, while simultaneously attracting international attention through programming that is being developed in countries such as Jordan, Kosovo, and Cambodia. It is a farce to say accreditation is threatened if a second faculty member is not hired when so many university music therapy programs do have only one faculty member and maintain NASM accreditation. So many blatant errors were made in the NASM report that should be corrected and exposed. I do not understand why the university does not value this program. When the general public looks at your strategic plan and mission and then examines this music therapy program, it is like the tale of the emperor's clothes for you to claim that this is your rationale for cutting the program. It is obvious that there is some hidden agenda at play here.
The Music Therapy program partners with community agencies to provide services while simultaneously engaging the students in educational experiences and research as a part of teaching. It fulfills every single baccalaureate goal valued by this college. Students in other majors do not even know what those goals are without looking them up on the website. In music therapy, students participated in a major curricular revision that assessed and designed classes to meet those goals. All one needs to do is evaluate the results of the grants and research opportunities Music Therapy affords the students, the student success rate in the professional arena, the community involvement and service which reflects completely on the core values this university upholds, and the curriculum that is considered the national model. Our students do not just present on poster sessions, but are recruited to present seven-hour long clinical sessions with professional music therapists studying under them to receive their continuing education units. This type of respect is unheard of by graduate programs, and the faculty from other universities equate our undergraduate program with their graduate programs. I know that eliminating this program will hurt the people in the Chippewa Valley by taking away access to services that meet their needs in ways that no other treatment venues do. In making such a sacrifice, the University undermines the very goals it seeks to accomplish, contradicts the very values it claims to uphold, and dissolves the very integrity it seeks to preserve.
Thank you,
Mandy Alvar
(current non-traditional student)
To Whom this May Concern,
My name is Christine Wiggin, and I am a Music Therapy Intern at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, as well as an Activity Coordinator and future Music Therapist for both the Jewish Home and Care Center in Milwaukee, and the Conservatory. I completed my coursework in Music Therapy in December of 2006 at UWEC. I am shocked and dismayed to learn that UWEC's music therapy program is in jeoprady of being cut. I am concerned that this change could affect MANY music therapy clients of UWEC, and have a ripple affect on at least hundreds of clients across Wisconsin.
In my years of clinicals as a student, and throughout the past eight months as an intern, I have eye witnessed the effectiveness of music therapy as a therapeutic intervention. I watched a very weak, frail & ventilator dependent client of UWEC, who did not originally posses the ability to speak above an inaudible whisper, sing for not only a large audience, but the local news channel of Eau Claire. I worked with juvenile delinquents, through the Northwest Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Eau Claire, who discovered both their dangerous addictive behavior and anger management difficulties through Music Therapy. I worked with Autistic children through the University who learned how to communicate effectively as a direct result of Music Therapy sessions with UWEC students. These examples are just a few of SEVERAL touching and inspiring stories of UWEC music therapy clients who benifit from the power of Music Therapy. Perhaps the APC can meet with all UWEC clients, parents, hospitals, nursing homes, correctional facilities, etc. to justify lives being affected by this change?
UWEC is one of the last public schools in the state to offer the Music Therapy program, and this is a major selling point for prospective students. I have met with three different students alone in the past few months who are interested in pursuing a degree in Music Therapy at UWEC, and work with an AMAZING music therapist who graduated from UWEC several years ago and continues to touch hundreds of lives with Music Therapy. Please reconsider the decision to cut the Music Therapy Program. It would be truely unfortunate to see all the growth and progress all clients of the Music Therapy program come to an end.
Christine Wiggin
Music Therapy Intern for Wisconsin Conservatory of Music
Former UWEC Music Therapy Student
To whom it may concern:
My name is Jeni Olson, and I am a music therapy student here at UW-Eau Claire. I am writing in regards to the recommendation to cut our program.
I strongly feel that cutting this program would not only be a detriment to the students that are music therapy majors, but also to the community and the college as a whole. I transferred here from UW-Lacrosse because of this program. I was interested in looking to transfer to a school that offers music therapy as a major, and UW-Eau Claire, and Alverno, an all girls private school in Milwaukee, were the only two schools in Wisconsin. I then began my search outside the state of Wisconsin, and as I did more and more research, it became clear that UW-Eau Claire was the place to go. Not only did it offer Music Therapy as a major, but it also has an outstanding music department that could only make my musicianship better.
I became interested in Music Therapy because I have a brother who is cognitively disabled, along with multiple other disabilities, and I saw the impact music had on his life. Anytime I would be practicing my trumpet, piano, or voice repertoire for school, he would sit and listen to me. He would always walk away in a much better mood, and after taking note of this, I paid more attention to it, and noticed that the temper-tantrum for the evening would be much less intense, and sometimes even, not even exist. He also has a very bad stuttering problem, and when he sings, he doesn't stutter. This allowed him to participate in choir in high school and church with confidence, and he made some great friends out of it which he may not have had the opportunity to do before. This all happening because music has the ability to affect people in ways other things cannot.
This program also serves a wide range of people weekly. We are able to get out there in clinical settings and serve over 1000 people per week. We are able to make a difference in the lives of the people right here in this community, some of which are alumni, or friends and family of alumni-even faculty members. I feel that this is why the community would suffer from the cut of our program. I feel it also hurts the college because our being able to serve the community as well as we do only benefits the name of this university-it sets us apart from other universities.
I want to thank you for your time in reading this letter. I know that it may or may not have swayed how you feel about cutting the Music Therapy program, but I do appreciate the opportunity to be heard.
Thank you,
Jeni Olson
Student Music Therapist
To whom it may concern,
I could not possibly be more proud to tell you that I am writing to you as a Music Therapy major in her third year at UWEC. Originally from Belvidere, IL, I attend this University solely to be a part of the Music Therapy program. It is for no other reason that I attend Eau Claire.
In my very first semester I was already being immersed within the clinical setting. I have seen things that some people might call miracles; The things that are defined within the field of Music Therapy as achievable and possible through knowledge of the processes of the human body, consideration for its spirit and the ability to address both through music. I have seen a woman through her rehabilitation process at Sacred Heart Hospital. I was part of a session with a young man who was in a devastating car accident, and watched him begin to make huge breakthroughs in communication and emotional expression. I was at the Syverson Lutheran Home once a week to see elderly women dance, individuals having no orientation with reality make music, and those who could not speak sing. It is at the Syverson that I met a man who is an emeriti faculty here at Eau Claire. I have seen him in these later seasons of his life and have watched him lose the ability to verbally communicate, losing grasp of the world around him. In the midst of decline, I have also heard him sing a song entirely in Spanish. I have heard him on the harmonica as a skilled accompanist. I have seen him maintain his quality of life through music. I was also afforded the opportunity to work with Dorellen Haas. Although I have heard great things about Dorellen: the mother, sister, wife, advocate, spiritual leader, and more, I knew her only at the end of her life. I was there when the only thing to wake her up was music, when she had no avenue of communication but a smile, and when she amazingly sang all of the words to The Battle Hymn. As I am in the midst of my very first practicum course, I am creating and carrying out a treatment plan for a man who is developmentally disabled. I am his Music Therapist, and I am the one lucky enough to see the amazing leaps and bounds he takes in social interaction, emotional expression and communication through the music we make. I have seen Music Therapy within the Eau Claire County Jail. I have listened to the inmates sing the loudest and most heartfelt of songs. I have been moved by their trust in us, the volunteers who support them, and I have been moved by the ways they express themselves through music and music activities. I have permission to speak about the clients listed above, and am allowed to share their responses.
In about a year and a half, I will begin my internship, and will have only the greatest of opportunities available to me, due to the program from which I came; This Eau Claire program that sees 1,000 people in the community a week, whose roots exist in the excellence of our clinical settings in which we grow in the truth that every mother, father, sister, brother, grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle and friend deserve the highest quality of life. It is within these roots that we serve the Chippewa valley and beyond - in the name of Music Therapy, and in the name of the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. Every inch of our curriculum beautifully upholds the goals of the current administration's Strategic Plan. We will continue to serve the students and faculty of our campus community, and those outside its walls. I write this in the hopes that we might be served in return.
Sincerely,
Lindsay Rossmiller
Student Music Therapist
Dear Wanda Schulner,
The advocacy for promoting good health of body, soul and mind embodies the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Music Therapy Program. The amount of time and effort exhibited by the volunteer hours of Music Therapy students, in the surrounding Eau Claire community, is not just time and effort. The people (consumers) who receive the music therapy also benefit. I've only been here a year and the following places are where I have had practica and I know this is only scratching the surfaces of places served by the Music Therapy Program: nursing home, juvenile detention center, a choir for those with developmental disabilities and private home.
Music therapy is a science and an art and it is more than making music for the recipient to enjoy. There is research that supports it in neurological, emotional and physiological measures. It makes sense to me to keep the Music Therapy Program at UW-Eau Claire. The void in the community that it would make, by its absence, would be big enough for the Eau Claire consumers (community) to scramble to come up with anything even remotely close in caliber and fashion. In fact, I'm not sure anything with its stature can replace it.
Thank you for your time and energy in reading this.
Dianne Chlupsa
UWEC Student of Music Therapy(715) 855-4273
chlupsdl@uwec.edu