On Thursday, Oct. 24, the Lawrence University Board of Trustees released their Fall 2024 Meeting Summary, including a Board Statement on the Conservatory of Music. It acknowledged the Conservatory’s 150th anniversary, expressed gratitude to outgoing Dean of the Conservatory of Music Brian Pertl and described how their search for a new dean was going. They went on to reaffirm their commitment to the Conservatory, stating how over the past two years, they have hired 10 full-time faculty members in the Conservatory, are renovating Harper Hall, have added a performance space in Fox Commons and approved new soundproofed faculty offices and rehearsal spaces in the West Campus building currently under construction. In its final paragraph, it emphasized how the future of the Lawrence community depends on collaboration and mutual respect.
“It is important to embrace differences of opinion with civility,” it stated. “The Board of Trustees expects that all actions and discussions will foster respect and collaboration, and any behavior that threatens or undermines our campus culture will be addressed.”
Two days later, on Saturday, Oct. 26, Lawrence’s chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) responded to the Board of Trustees statement in an Instagram post and in print.
“We should call this what it is: an empty statement and intimidation tactic,” it stated. “It’s past time for the community to hear an explanation on what is happening to the Conservatory […] Transparency now!”
In Spring Term 2024, it was announced that Pertl would be leaving the Conservatory after serving for 17 years as the dean. Several Conservatory faculty members expressed confusion over the decision and claim to have not been given a reason by administration.
“There’s a lack of overall transparency from administration,” Faculty Member A said. “When we, as faculty, ask about things that we definitely should have a right to know about, there’s either a refusal […] or an inability to answer. Often, it’s a bit of both, but they’re both problematic.”
Faculty Member B said that faculty have been on board with the vision of Pertl. They said that vision has included the creation of the Bachelor of Musical Arts degree path and making Lawrence a Deep Listening Affiliate Campus. They described Pertl as a beacon of innovation, evidenced by his election to be the head of the entire College Music Society.
Faculty Member C expressed how they felt that the Conservatory was forward-thinking, and then administration “cut the head off.”
“The concern of some faculty members is that [Pertl] […] has always supported the needs of Conservatory faculty and [the] student body so fiercely that removing him is the next step to […] no longer hav[ing] such a fierce advocate in that position,” Faculty Member B said. “When we come to him with concerns or needs, he has always been the person to say ‘I love that idea, let’s try it. Let’s make that class, let’s find that grant.’ He’s been such a key figure in so many Lawrentians’ lives in that way.”
SDS member senior Patrick Sweeney claims that the Board of Trustees statement is a threat to the Lawrence community as a whole. He states that students and faculty alike are what make the school function, and that they should be able to hear what the administration wants to do and have a say in the outcome. He believes that the administration has a difficult time hearing criticism.
Several Conservatory faculty members were uncomfortable revealing their identities for this article in fear that they would be fired.
“[Pertl] didn’t want to leave; he said that he wasn’t going to write a letter saying he was retiring or moving on to something else, because no one would believe it,” Faculty Member D said. “In small faculty meetings last year, Carter would use threats to [Pertl]’s retirement to keep us silent. And they’re using threats again. The president has put this cloud of people disappearing, retiring, or just gone. It’s intimidation tactics, so that nobody wants to speak up.”
Multiple faculty members mentioned concerns about losing institutional memory at Lawrence, believing there is a continuous loss of faculty and staff with little to no explanation. A Facebook group of alumni with over 700 members formed after the announcement of Pertl’s departure called Lawrence University Alumni for Transparency. The group created a list of all the faculty and staff departures reported since 2021, consisting of over 100 names. Melina Jaharis ‘15 said that this is a surprising and concerning number for the university. She claimed that Lawrence University Alumni for Transparency is concerned with the insecurity that is felt by students, staff and faculty on campus and their goal is to amend this feeling. Jaharis stated they’re determined to continue until something changes for the better.
Beyond alumni, the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) came to Lawrence University in the 2023–24 school year to do a review of the Conservatory and reported that there was a breakdown between it and university administration.
“It was at the faculty meeting with NASM that I first knew that I wasn’t alone,” Faculty Member D shared. “All of a sudden, people were saying things that I was feeling.”
A point discussed in the Board of Trustees Statement on the Conservatory was the hiring of 10 full-time faculty members. Many Conservatory faculty members, as well as Conservatory students, SDS member senior Sarah Pedlar and Sweeney, believe the hirings were simply to fill vacancies left by retiring faculty and described this not as commitment to the Conservatory, but a job responsibility. Faculty Member A explained that the potential candidates they offered were initially rejected by President Carter and that the Conservatory faculty members had to further press for those they believed were the right people. They said this cycle was not one-time and this created tension between the faculty and administration.
Two other matters mentioned in the Board of Trustees Statement were upgrades to Harper Hall as well as new faculty offices and rehearsal spaces in the West Campus building. One faculty member says that they brought up potential upgrades to Harper Hall for the first time to administration in March 2021 and were only reapproached about it in March 2024.
“It was disturbing to see them take a victory lap on those things, knowing that we had to fight them for all of that, and that they’re firing the guy that did the fighting for us, [Pertl],” Faculty Member A voiced.
The Board of Trustees’ statement said they are searching for a new Dean of the Conservatory to lead going forward. Faculty Member B found this to be “ironic,” saying that Conservatory faculty have been working hard on being a positive new direction for conservatories in the first place. They described the Conservatory faculty as being made up of people who are excited about creativity and newness, and the reason they teach at Lawrence is because they love the direction they’ve been going: to have this turn has been really upsetting.
“[We have] been saying: ‘Okay, you fired our leader, we don’t feel known, we don’t feel understood, we don’t feel respected,’” Faculty Member B stated. “We have been doing some innovative work here. If you’re going to claim ‘we want a new direction,’ tell us what that is.”
Faculty Member B said they do not believe all Conservatory faculty are opposed to working with a new dean but that the decision to remove Pertl may have been partially because he was working in a way that often led to disagreement with university administration.
“If we hired a new dean and they were awesome, would their spirit be broken by this administration? Would they be completely shut out of decisions also?” Faculty Member B said.
Faculty members expressed that they feel there is a loss of trust between faculty and administration and that these tensions have taken a toll on their mental health. Faculty Member C believes morale on campus is at an all-time low.
“When I’m teaching and engaging with students, I feel great,” Faculty Member A shared. “I’ve spent way more time dealing with this [situation] than I should’ve ever had to. And it’s exhausting. The education that the students are going to get from us is going to be harmed by our need to be taking care of these other issues.”
Pedlar believes that the ethos of the program at Lawrence’s Conservatory is uniquely student-focused. She said that, with a new dean incoming, the culture of community and artistry fostered in the Conservatory may be altered.
Faculty Member C said that they feel as though the Conservatory has been placed on the back burner since Carter’s hire in 2021.
In a campus update email sent out by Carter on Friday, Sept. 20, there were cited percentages of new incoming students who are involved in athletics as well as the Conservatory. The number for students involved in the Conservatory was 13.7%, and those involved in athletics was 38.5%. Conservatory faculty could only come up with the percentage of 13.7% involved in the Conservatory if they took new students, not including transfers, and only considered if they were accepted into a Bachelor of Music program, not the Bachelor of Arts in Music and non-Conservatory students involved in the department.
“It was frustrating for us,” Faculty Member A said. “If you’re only counting students that are accepted to majors on the Conservatory side, well, there are zero sports majors. So, it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, but it was presented as if it was.”
Carter spent over 25 years working at the Juilliard School, a notoriously prestigious and competitive performing arts institution. Faculty Member A believes Carter may naturally be comparing Lawrence’s Conservatory to Juilliard’s because of her history with the institution. They continued by stating that over the last 15 years, Lawrence has worked hard to reject Juilliard-type competition-focused music education, instead favoring education emphasizing artistic collaboration.
Faculty Member A shared that at a board meeting held last spring, all faculty were informed that there was a 400-student enrollment goal for the entire university’s 2024–25 academic year, and that the budgeting for the year would be based around the admittance of these new students. The coming year’s enrollment fell short of this goal. On June 25, there was an email sent out to all faculty and staff from Vice President for Finance and Administration Samir Datta, stating that because of low enrollment, Lawrence’s budgeting for the 2024–2025 academic year would require the entire faculty’s pay to be frozen and that there would be a decrease in their retirement benefits. In years past, there was an 8% retirement matching benefit for faculty, and it was decreased to 6%. At the 2024 Matriculation Convocation, Lawrence welcomed the Class of 2028 as 410 students. Faculty Member A’s immediate question was: will administration unfreeze pay?
Faculty Member A continued explaining that at the first faculty meeting of this Fall Term, attended by Carter and Datta, another faculty member queried about how soon the wage freeze and the limit on retirement benefits would be lifted. A faculty member from the Governance Committee responded that until they had more data, they would not be able to answer. Faculty Member A said that the faculty member on the Governance Committee was not able to give out that answer as this was not information they were privy to, but that both Datta and Carter, the ones with this information, were there and said nothing. Faculty Member A continued that this is a question that has been asked at subsequent meetings and has still received no answer. There has not been an announcement stating the enrollment goal for the 2025–26 school year, so it is unclear when or if pay will be unfrozen and retirement benefits will be restored, Faculty Member A said.
“We are being accused of incivility when […] simply asking questions,” Faculty Member B said. “We are being accused of not being team players when we insist that we love what we are doing and that removing our leadership without cause or explanation is having dire mental and emotional consequences. If we do better at promoting Lawrence, then we’re able to get more students. But with all this strife, it has been taking a toll on our mental health. How can faculty recruit?”
The Lawrentian reached out to university administration and received a statement in which they claimed that the Board of Trustees is founded on the importance of maintaining a respectful and supportive environment for Lawrentians, and that they support constructive dialogue and an environment where all members of the Lawrence community feel safe, valued and respected in sharing their perspectives.
Administration also said they collaborated with the search consultant Isaacson, Miller and gathered valuable input to inform the firm of Lawrence’s characteristics through consultations with members of the campus community as they looked for a new dean.
“The Conservatory of Music’s rich history has always been, and will continue to be, closely connected to its students and faculty,” administration stated. “As leadership transitions, the new dean, in collaboration with the faculty and the provost, will work to build a future that reflects the Conservatory’s core values, strengthens the community, supports diverse musical traditions and provides both students and faculty with the resources they need to succeed.”
Alongside Isaacson, Miller, the Dean of the Conservatory Search Committee worked to create a profile for the job application. Co-chairs of the committee Associate Professor of Music Sara Ceballos and Associate Professor of Music and Teacher of Violin Samantha George read over the position profile and then worked on it alongside the rest of the Search Committee before sending it to Carter and the provost for final approval.
“The profile was drafted based on all the interviews that the Isaacson, Miller group did when they were on campus in late September,” Ceballos said. “They were really interested in getting to know us so they could help draft a position for us. Our work on the profile was getting Lawrence right and represented.”
They shared that they view the situation as just a change of leadership rather than a change of culture and structure and should be a collaborative effort within the community.
Ceballos and George shared that the Search Committee consists of 11 people: staff; two College professors; the director of the Lawrence Community Music School, who is also an alumnus of Lawrence; and Conservatory professors.
George said that curiosity and open-mindedness are at the top of the list for a candidate, as well as the experience and perspective needed to serve as an artistic and academic leader for the greater Conservatory community. Those are qualities she and Ceballos said they admire in Pertl and wish to see continue.
Ceballos claimed that the aspects of the Conservatory that students love are the same things that the faculty love, and that shared love makes her optimistic that the Conservatory will find a good leader. She stated that the care Conservatory faculty have for each other, for their students, for the community and for what they are doing gives her confidence in the Conservatory’s future.
“[Brian and Instructor in Music Education, Music Teacher, AASD, Music Education Curator for the Mile of Music Leila] Pertl are beloved — the students and the faculty absolutely adore them,” George said. “We’re really going to miss them. This is our 150 [years] celebration. It’s great that we have this year with [Brian] Pertl to celebrate him as well, and I encourage everyone who’s worried about the future to spend time with [Brian] Pertl and celebrate his successes, and also engage in this process so that their voice can be heard in our next steps.”