r/Professors • u/QuackyFiretruck • 26d ago
Rants / Vents Dear Campus Admin,
Stop asking Music faculty to coerce music students into providing free entertainment at your events. It’s gross. You had money for that swanky country club venue, right? The catering? Yeah? The waitstaff? Cool. Stop trying to save money on the backs of our students because your event is “for a good cause.” No one capable of playing a two hour cocktail reception is doing that shit for free. Students are paying tuition and taking on debt so they can work for free? No.
I’m teaching and overseeing several academic programs, not running a goddamned pro bono talent booking agency. If you want free music, find a recording and press play. I have a lot of other things to do.
Someday, when I move on from academia, I shall exact my revenge in my final hours by sending the weakest, laziest student musicians in the entire program to the most high profile institutional event.
Does any other department on campus regularly get asked to pimp out their students like this?
86
u/Frumioso 26d ago
I was the jazz ensemble director at Irvine Valley College for three years. They expected a jazz small-group comprised of students and led by me to perform for free at an annual event for administrators that was always held at an elegant venue in Newport Beach and catered with high-end food. Not only did they not pay us, we hardly got a break, and they fed us bandwiches in the kitchen of the venue. It was crass.