The community college where I teach has long relied on a small handful of volunteers to supplement the membership in our ensembles. These volunteers are non-music department faculty, alumni, and current students who have taken the ensemble so many times that their financial aid will no longer cover it. The college has recently (of course after the semester already started and membership in the groups was secured) banned all these volunteers from performing in the ensembles, even non-music facutly. Their argument seems to be a legal one rather than a financial one. (My band colleague, for example, will have to hire a bass clarinetist for the dress rehearsal and concert even though he has a former student who is willing to play for free for the whole semester.)
How does your institution handle the participation of non-registered students in ensembles? Does anyone have a waiver form that non-students must sign in order to protect the school from lawsuits?
I taught at Meramec Community College for 31 years where we always welcomed community members into Band, Orchestra and Choir (Hello, It's a community college!) I teach at Jefferson College now where Community Band and Chorale non-credit members are admitted without any fee whatsoever.
I think the term, community college and exclusionary policies are mutually exclusive concepts.
At one college where I taught we created a concurrent section of the class through Continuing Education. Anyone was eligible to enroll. We charged a small fee for the class.
Hi, Alice. Quite honestly, I think that either your administrators are idiots who have no concept of the community service aspect of their college, or they're angling to collect more tuition payments from the non-registered participants. BUT, I'd suggest trying to pin them down, not in anger but calmly. Ask whether this is based on a legal opinion, and ask for a copy of that opinion. They should also be aware that ensemble directors are having to hire outsiders, since that impacts on their budgets.
At this school it definitely varies according to the ensemble. There is no university policy forbidding non-registered, non-students from participating. In fact our Symphony Orchestra is a typical town-gown orchestra and would not exist without community participants. Other ensembles, depending on the feelings of their conductors, may or may not admit non-students. (It's related to something called Academic Freedom, which your administrators seem to fail to understand, unless, of course, there are actual legal barriers.) No outsiders in either of our TWO marching bands, of course, but we do have other bands and if someone wanted to play it's likely the conductor would make a decision, based on the precedent of the Symphony. And I know for a fact that an occasional alumna has continued to sing in our most select choral ensemble, since she has remained in the area and is also an excellent accompanist.
I openly welcome anyone into my Early Music Ensemble who is interested, from high school students to community members, and always have. On the other hand, when I directed a show ensemble that did a lot of touring I did not, because the touring introduced questions of liability (and because memebership SHOULD have been restricted to registered students, since all our contracts were signed by a university official).
Requiring a waver is a good idea, but it is basically useless. In our culture, anyone can sue anyone at any time for anything.
Our administration here is very cognisant of our mission of outreach to the community. Sounds like yours is not. And I agree with Robert: UNBELIEVABLE!!
I agree with the other comments given, though it is not clear what is driving your administration to do this: loss of tuition dollars or liability. But one additional concern was one that was raised by an over-zealous administrator some years ago who thought that community members who participated in ensembles could somehow claim that they were entitled to college credit (thus the administrator wanted to charge tuition to participants). Happily, the college curricular policy committee recognized the horrible town-gown rift that would result from this, and instead I now regularly include on my syllabus that anyone enrolled in my ensembles for credit will necessarily be responsible for more assignments and assessment processes than those who are volunteering (expectations that are both reasonable and true), thus all is well.
Regarding town/gown relations- there usually is understanding that instead of paying certain taxes to the town, as churches,- educational institutions support culture, host civic and communal events and draw from and support public schools, adding to their resources. For a community college to ignore this, it must be really discussed in detail and understood how this policy came about and how to remedy same. The administraters must be 'schooled'.
Hi Alice - I teach part time at the local Junior College here and non-registered students are not covered by the school's insurance. Personally I don't worry about it but I guess I am potentially putting myself at risk. We do however have a 'guest artist' waver. I'll check on the waver form. If need be you can contact me personally. Good luck. Dan Earl
It probably has to do with the fact that community college tuitions are heavily subsidized by the state. If they were paying full tuition for this class, it would cost each of them thousands of dollars, but they really pay much less, since the state government provides the bulk of the funding. What they mean by "legal" is probably that the state, in order to save money, has tightened up on requirements for enrollment. The silly example about the bass clarinetist is just an example of bureaucracy: the funding for expenses like hiring a pro comes from a different budget line than student tuition subsidies.
