[Grads] Required courses memo to faculty

[Noah Fram]

Hi y'all,

Over the last month, I've had several conversations with some of you 
regarding your experiences of and questions about CCRMA's graduate 
curriculum, including two Zoom meetings, one primarily focused on the 
MAMST program and the other on the PhD program. I compiled the main 
points from those meetings into a brief memo that I will send to the 
CCRMA faculty tomorrow evening, and I wanted to make sure you had a 
chance to read it first.

My goal with this memo is to communicate the questions and concerns that 
y'all raised, including moments when I heard different things from 
different people across all contexts. Given that we are all in the midst 
of our graduate careers and have never designed a curriculum ourselves, 
I am hesitant to spell out specific solutions to the dilemmas we've 
pinpointed. In my view, those solutions should be arrived at in 
collaboration with the faculty. For that reason, I've kept this memo as 
neutral as possible in that vein.

There are also concerns that are not mentioned in this memo, since it 
focuses exclusively on questions of coursework and curriculum. Over the 
past year, I have learned that attempting to address all issues at once 
is substantially less effective than focusing on a discrete, 
clearly-defined topic. The topic of degree structure, including required 
coursework, degree schedule, and course selection, is of particular 
importance right now because the department is currently in the process 
of reviewing its curricula, and this information will help the faculty 
in making these decisions.

Many of the other issues that have been raised, including funding, 
dependent medical insurance, and housing contracts, among others, are 
already the center of ongoing advocacy by ASSU and other university-wide 
student organizations. I would encourage you to get involved in those 
efforts, especially given the extraordinary circumstances imposed by the 
Covid-19 pandemic.

I hope you and yours are all staying safe and healthy in these uncertain 
times.

Best,

-Noah

-- 
*Noah Fram*
PhD Candidate, Computer-Based Music Theory and Acoustics
CCRMA, Stanford University
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