What is Music Therapy? Most of us who have chosen this career path are asked this question multiple times a day. Music Therapy is the fusion of the artistic with the scientific. Music Therapists strive to change behavior and thought processes through the application of music. Why does music make you cry? Why does it make you dance? Why can you forget about the cares of the world while listening to your favorite song? Music Therapy can answer these questions, but more importantly, we can provide answers to questions like, "Why can stroke patients extend their clenched hands to music when physical therapy has failed?" "Why do Parkinson's patients stop trembling to music?" and "How can music bring the schizophrenic patient back to reality?" Music Therapy makes possible all these things and more. Music Therapists work on the physical, cognitive, motor, language, social, emotional, and spiritual well being of the clients it sees. It seems so simple, yet is rooted in firm evidence proven through scientific research.

If Music Therapy is capable of all these things, even when other disciplines have been unsuccessful, why would Dean Mark Clark of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire recommend the elimination of such a diverse program? In a Memorandum dated February 27, 2004, Dean Clark cites "Budget considerations and a one person degree program delivery situation" as the "driving forces for this recommendation." I would like to take this opportunity to stress the Music Therapy viewpoint that is not being heard on this campus.

Money. When it is all said and done, money is the driving force behind many of the decisions made on day to day basis. Closing any program saves the University money. It has been suggested that there is no money for travel. Lee Anna Rasar, professor of Music Therapy, has not needed travel money as grants pay for her research and include travel money to conferences to present her findings. If the money is taken from Music Therapy, it will be allocated to other departments.

Consider this: UWEC is the last school in the UW system to offer a Music Therapy program. Only one other school, Alverno College, offers a program, and it is a private women's college. Keeping this program at the University is not only a benefit to the Eau Claire community, but to Wisconsin as well. Music Therapists are in high demand and eliminating the only program left in the UW system ensures that this need will not be met. The cost saved is insignificant to the benefit that the program provides.

What needs in Wisconsin? Let me offer this insight. Kathy Schumacher, MTBC, WMTR, President of the Wisconsin Chapter for Music Therapy, and Fellow at the Academy of Neurologic Music Therapy cites a recent survey from ANMT in which one hundred percent of respondents, all Music Therapists, who had been in private practice for at least one year all have a waiting list or are forced to make referrals to other therapists as their case load is too high. They also consistently receive calls from around the state needing a contract Music Therapist. These include Antigo, Green Bay, Rhinelander, Superior, Bayfield, Eagle River, Oconto Falls, Ashland, Milwaukee, Oshkosh, Wausau, River Falls, Hudson, Minocqua, Cadott, Cottage Grove, and Madison. The need is there, waiting for educated Music Therapists to take the positions.

What does this program offer to the Eau Claire community? The Music Therapy program consistently sends over 100 students into the community each week to provide services at local nursing homes, hospitals, and clinical placements in the Music Therapy clinic and in the client's homes. From the first semester in school, our Music Therapy students are in the community developing their skills as therapists and as musicians.

Can one person effectively teach a Music Therapy program? Yes. In fact, 50 of the 72 Music Therapy programs in the country are run by only one professor. Rasar is one who has been trained in many Music Therapy models, including the highest level of training in the prison system possible in the U.S., in hospice, head injury, coma, cancer, metal health, and Neurological Music Therapy, among others. She is an author of the Standards of Practice for Music Therapy and also the first Board Certification Exam for Music Therapy. She also continues working on the Exam Committee to write and update exams based on current practice in the field. These qualifications make her the best candidate to be able to effectively run a single professor program. The Department of Allied Heath approved a two year curricular rotation plan now being implemented which lightens the class case load. Not all classes would be taught by Rasar alone. Many of the required Music Therapy courses are team-taught and are taught by Music and Theater Arts staff.

It is argued that not enough students are enrolled in the program. Each year, the number of students enrolling continually increases. This year we have the greatest number of students in the upper level Music Therapy I class in the program's history. Where is the program headed? With increasing interest in the program and an enrollment in the upper level class of 22 students, the graduation classes are continually increasing. Next year, the number in the program will push near 60, a record high in many years. Is this the appropriate time to consider eliminating a program, when its success is showing improvement?

With all this success and benefits of Music Therapy, why is there not resounding support for the program? First, not many people understand what it is (and I hope that this article has helped improve that). Second, it may be possible that information is not being presented accurately or in full. Recently, the Music faculty voted 13-1 to not accept Music Therapy into their department. The reason, offered by a faculty member who shall remain nameless, was that the faculty were concerned that the piano professor who is retiring at the end of this semester would not be replaced, a serious detriment to that department. I was later told by Steve Tallant in a meeting of the Academic Affairs Commission that the Music Department has long had a guarantee in writing that the piano position will be replaced, independent of any other decisions made. How is this confusion possible? The only explanation is that correct information is not reaching the people it needs to.

No vote yet taken has supported the Dean's recommendation, yet our department has been stripped of assets we need to function. We lost our position of Department Chair, our secretary position was taken away, and much of our storage space for our instruments and a waiting room for the clients we see in our clinic in HSS was also taken away. These actions are unjustified.

A program is not just about the money. It is about people. This cannot be overlooked with Music Therapy as it touches the lives of so many right here in our community. Administration is continually receiving letters locally and nationally, stressing the success of this program and its rank as one of the best schools to attend for music therapy. Our students, based on their research in collaboration with Rasar, are often asked to present at regional and national conferences of Music Therapy. The students here are not interested in changing majors; we are determined more then ever to be Music Therapists. I have spoken with Music Therapy students who are double majoring and say that their other major will not keep them at UWEC. Music Therapy and its potential to affect the lives of others are reasons we are here. These are the reasons we want to stay here. This issue should not fall on deaf ears. Administration should make the right decision and not take away this important part of so many people's lives.

I extend an open invitation to students and administrators. If anyone wants to know more about Music Therapy, I invite you contact me and ask to observe a Music Therapy session. Witness first hand how Music Therapy can change the lives of its clients.

JonPaul is a Student Senator and president-elect of UWEC's American Music Therapy Association of Students (AMTAS).