Loyola has reorganized its music program as the School of Music in an effort to streamline communication and problem solving within the department.

Dr. Anthony Decuir, Associate Dean of the College of Music and Fine Arts, says that the changes were officially instituted last spring semester. However, the changes have unofficially been in place for a few years, according to Decuir.

Decuir says that one of the biggest critiques of his position has been the bottleneck factor in addressing problems. The school hopes to alleviate this by separating the program into four areas, with each area having a coordinator. Decuir says this will serve to get the faculty more involved in the governance of the program.

“It’s an attempt to facilitate communications, actions and getting input from the faculty,” Decuir said.

The four areas are separated into music industry, music education and music therapy, music theory and music history, and performance. Decuir feels these groupings will organize the departments.

“These areas weren’t really grouped before. They were just out there,” he said.

Decuir does not think that the change will not affect anything from the student’s perspective. Nick Serena, music industry senior, says that he has not noticed any changes in how the school operates.

“It didn’t really change anything about my day to day or anything about my graduation plan,” he said. Serena says that he has noticed “inspiring improvements” to the curriculum added this year. However, Decuir says that the reorganization of the school did not include any curriculum changes.

Decuir says that the “courses just roll right down” from the administration to the faculty. He feels that getting the coordinators more involved than he is will be better for the school’s operation due to their intimate knowledge with their areas.

“They’re closer to the fire than I am,” he said.

Karl Gommel can be reached at [email protected]