This year, I have had the opportunity to attend some Utah Valley University classes and to be on campus there on many occasions. The unprofessional attire by the staff there is sub par. Recent articles in the Daily Herald and other media hail the “all Steinway campus” and the dreams and visions for the music department, yet many of the professors and other staff look like they just finished mowing the lawn or feeding their horses.
Dreams and visions are accomplished with hard work, perseverance and proper presentation. If I were to visit the Juilliard School of Music or Yale’s School of Music, I am sure a dress code would be in place and would be strictly enforced. I suggest the comparison of Utah Valley University’s music department to these schools just because they now have expensive pianos is laughable.
Expensive pianos and Ph.d’s earned by performers do not make a music department successful. UVU has exercised little business sense with its recent changes. Highest regard to the donors who made the all Steinway campus possible, but their donations were invested in vain as long as the cavalier attitude by UVU’s music department’s (mis)managers persists.
– Bob Womack, alumni
