The University of Windsor’s music therapy program will not be accepting admissions for the 2012-13 school year due to a lack of funding, according to the Windsor Star.
The program has been unable to keep up with the vast costs of securing two tenure-track professors and the decision was made to help eliminate the faculty’s $1.6 million dollar deficit, according to the Star.
“The enrolment is just too small and the cost is just too great to maintain the professional accreditation for this program,” Cecil Houston, dean of arts and social sciences at the university, told the Star.
The faculty of arts and social sciences is the largest at the university, with 7,000 of the school’s 16,000 students, according to the Star. It’s currently sustained on an annual $30 million dollar budget.
There are currently 47 students studying music therapy at the school with approximately six or seven students graduating from the program every year. All of them will be allowed to graduate from the program.
“It really is a wonderful educational vehicle, but it just became so relatively expensive. I had a decision to make. And I’m sorry about that. But we can’t live beyond our means,” Houston told the Star.
Music therapists encourage an increase in communication to help patients suffering from cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and certain developmental handicaps build confidence and interaction with the people surrounding them, according to the Canadian Association for Music Therapy website.
The program has been around for about 20 years, Houston told the Star.
“I’m sure [the program’s students] are very disappointed and sad about this. It’s the most important thing in their lives. That cannot be denied,” he said.
Students at the University of Windsor are not taking the decision lightly. As many as 100 people, including former students, gathered around the school’s music building Sept. 20, picketing and protesting the loss of the program, the Star reported.
Recent graduate of the program Lori Parnell told the Star that eliminating the program is a loss to both the university and the community as a whole.
“They should look at ways to recruit more students,” she said.
“Students are appalled. Music majors actually take a lot of the same classes, too. So if music therapy students are gone, then the music program itself is going to take a big hit, too,” Sinan Khalaf, a fourth-year music student at the University of Windsor, told the Star.
Other music therapy programs accredited by the Canadian Association for Music Therapy exist at Acadia University, Canadian Mennonite University, Capilano University, Wilfrid Laurier University and Concordia University, according to the association’s website.
Alison Moraites, president of the Music Therapy Student Association, told the Star that she wants to save the program by raising funds and discussing solutions with the university.
“We’d do whatever we can to save our program, not only for us, but for future generations,” she said.
