By Kerry Ginger, Department of Music
The Music Department applied for a CfT Department and Program Enhancement Grant in April 2026 to support a daylong departmental retreat, and we were grateful to receive funding for food. Our project, which I called “Big Ideas,” was to take stock of the Music Department’s strengths and opportunities, carve out time to consider the central curricular and programming questions facing us right now, and to build cohesion among our faculty. Since 4 of the 7 full-time Music faculty commute from elsewhere, it was helpful to have the CfT’s support for snacks and meals, which allowed for a full day on the Mountain in early May.
As an incoming chair, I’m keenly aware that there’s a lot I don’t know about the functioning of our department. For that reason, I wanted to listen to my colleagues and ask big-picture questions about the state of our program. We agreed on a May date in order to capture any momentum (and, honestly speaking, frustrations!) from the recently concluded spring semester, and then use those to develop longer-term “marching orders” that might guide us over the summer and into the fall. Over pastries and a meal at Stirlings, our conversations took shape.
Our first major activity was a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), during which we identified effective practices and sticking points. From there, we channeled our energy into several salient topics: facilitating music student belonging; independently attainable facilities improvements and beautification; comps and honors updates; curricular check-ins in core pods of the major (specifically, the required music history and theory/composition sequences); and outreach, recruitment, and fundraising. We also took some time to brainstorm ideas that would bring applied music students and faculty closer together, including a once-per-semester Symposium recital, a faculty collage concert, receptions, better social media engagement, and informational meetings for our majors.
Working together in such a focused capacity under reduced time pressure was invaluable. Our SWOT helped us understand what issues face our students and colleagues, while also pointing the way to shared investment in our strengths and opportunities. As a result of our planning, we have gotten a lot done in the months since: curricular revisions and catalog updates; comps improvements; welcome activities and advertising during Orientation Week; enhanced communication with FM to maintain and beautify Guerry Hall; new marketing materials, including new banners and a stellar new pamphlet from Marketing and Communications; and new ideas for raising needed money after recent budget reductions.
We’re grateful to the Center for Teaching for supporting these crucial activities, and encourage other programs to take advantage of this grant program!