Music Therapy and The Strategic Plan of the University

 

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The mission statement of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire describes its purpose as being “to foster the intellectual, personal, social, and cultural development of its students”. The curriculum for music therapy involves students in the development of
Personal Professional Growth Plans which allow them to not only see connections between their intellectual studies and social pursuits but to personalize these plans. The settings in which the students engage in clinical work represent clientele from diverse cultures and backgrounds, and the students learn the music from these cultures as well as  cultural traditions to design treatment plans that integrate ethnic considerations to best elicit therapeutic responses from the clients.  Students who take the music therapy courses for general credit who are not music therapy majors as well as non-majors who choose to do service learning work with music therapy  benefit from these experiences.

The mission statement further describes the role of the university as providing “an academic environment designed to encourage faculty-student interaction and promote excellence in teaching and learning, scholarly activity, and public service”. The Music Therapy Program combines research, teaching, and community service in the delivery of courses. In addition to clinical courses which are taught in community settings such as hospitals, nursing homes, forensic settings, public schools, and private homes, students go into nursing homes, hospitals, and forensic settings one day weekly for academic courses when being graded on their music and clinical skills. This involvement is a win-win situation for everyone as the facilities/agencies benefit from free programming, the students gain real life experience and broaden their education, and the patients/residents/inmates receive the services they need to respond in meaningful ways. The community involvement of our music therapy faculty and students includes seeing over 1000 clients each week, making a deep impact on the Chippewa Valley and its connection to the university.

Another portion of the mission statement which the Music Therapy Program showcases is the “special emphasis on experiential learning activities, such as international studies, faculty-student research collaboration, internships, and community service”. The course structure described above which involves experiential learning in community settings integrates community service with teaching and research and represents 53 grants involving faculty-student collaborative research to develop these courses.
The select mission of the university is “to provide undergraduate education in a broad range of programs, based on a strong general education component emphasizing the liberal arts and sciences, offering degrees in the arts and sciences, allied health fields, business, education, nursing, and other areas that grow clearly from university strengths and meet identifiable regional and state needs”. Music Therapy is an allied health discipline which applies scientific applications for the art of music, bridging the arts and sciences to serve people with needs in our state and region.

Another part of the select mission of the university is “to provide graduate education, at the master's and specialist levels, in select programs that grow clearly from undergraduate strengths and meet identifiable regional and state needs”. The undergraduate program has strengths in the areas of our research and its resulting curriculum that take our students into the community to meet the needs of people in such settings as the Wissota Regional Vent Center, the Northwest Regional Juvenile Detention Center, the Eau Claire County Jail, and local long-term care centers and hospitals. The graduate program is a natural next step to build on this research.
The Music Therapy program additionally matches the focus of the mission “to support and encourage scholarly activities, including research and creative endeavors, that enhance its programs at the associate and baccalaureate level, its selected graduate programs, and its special mission” through the noted grants involving students and faculty and the subsequent 51 presentations with students and faculty at national and regional conferences and through the professor’s interdisciplinary teaching with faculty from Nursing,  Communication Disorders, Humanities, Theatre Arts, and Dance in addition to Music and Music Education.

Perhaps one of the most public contributions the Music Therapy Program does to reflect the mission “to support the cultural, educational, and economic development of the immediate region in a variety of ways, including its outreach and community service programs” is through the services provided to over 1000 people in the Chippewa Valley on a weekly basis.