Dear Dean Romanstein,

The pianist student body appreciates your leadership throughout such a difficult period. However, the CCM pianist student body comes to you with an issue that is a major threat to our education, student life, and our growing piano department at our conservatory.

The pianist student body believes that the three hour per day practice room protocol in place for the piano practice rooms is demoralizing in a music conservatory environment, and is detrimental to our education, artistic growth, and student experience. 

1. CCM’s pianists were not informed of these regulations until orientation week. When students made the decision to matriculate at CCM, it was not possible for us to consider how these protocols would affect our educational experience here.

2. CCM’s pianists are paying for the use of the facilities, which are not being used in the way they are intended. The inaccessibility of the piano practice rooms with this policy make it impossible for CCM pianists to use the facilities reasonably.

3. No other areas have adopted any similar regulations for this school year. Contact-tracing is not in place for other instrumentalists and vocalists. This is unfair when one considers the relative risk of playing a wind instrument or singing compared to practicing on a piano while masked. 

4. Many students are looking to purchase pianos out-of-pocket because they are not able to practice enough. Instruments are expensive, and it is inequitable that students are having to consider this option when pianos are readily available for use at CCM. 

5. Collaborative Graduate Assistants have a substantial amount of music they have to prepare in addition to their solo repertoire for applied lessons. It is not possible for students to fulfill their professional duties without making sacrifices in their practice time. 

6. None of CCM’s peer conservatories or schools have instituted any kind of hour limit on pianists. Three hours guaranteed per day is not enough time for pianists with any professional aspirations. While we have the ability to secure additional practice time weekly, it is highly unlikely that one is able to consistently reserve enough time due to five students being assigned per room.

7. Practice rooms are being left unoccupied, with students not being able to practice. Students have been forced to search for other rooms, and some rooms have been assigned to degree programs that did not have piano access prior. Students are left unable to practice as we stand outside open practice rooms that are assigned to different groups.

This system is poorly conceived, and does not represent a conservatory environment. Students are being left without the ability to use the rooms they pay for when they are unoccupied with a system that punishes them for needing to practice. 

The previous open-room system should be reinstated. Any kind of time limitation on the instruments pianists need provided by the institution is unsustainable and demoralizing.

We are thankful for your assistance in solving this issue,

The CCM Pianist Student Body