By: Jacob Justice
On Tuesday, April 15th, Jacksonville University President Tim Cost announced a curriculum reorganization plan, meant to “prioritize student success, academic excellence, community impact, and financial instability.” This plan, said to reduce costs by removing some “consistently undersubscribed fields” effectively cut nearly all music programs including music technology, music performance, etc, from the university curriculum.
Music students say they received an e-mail the evening of Monday, April 14th, discussing the effects of the campus reorganization plan and a widespread text, sent only to students, the following morning. Music technology student Alexander Gullusci says these announcements “blindsided everyone.”
“Honestly, it was a blindside for everybody,” Gullusci said, “It was pop up out of nowhere. That would be Tuesday morning. It was sent out Monday night. Only the students got a text from a random number telling them that there was a meeting in either Terry Concert Hall or the Welcome Center, and people were confused, like, why do we just get this text?”
The announcement posted by Jacksonville University states that the plan behind the removal of music majors and the overall campus reorganization itself, is to reduce controllable expenses by 10% before the fall 2025 semester. Furthermore, the announcement described these removed majors as “consistently undersubscribed fields” that only affect around 100 out of 4200 students. Music technology major Anthony Mikus, however, states that this curriculum change affects far more than just 100 students.
“The number is not just 100, everyone here at JU is affected.” Mikus said.” You might get some people that say this and that and the third, but you have to keep in mind that we’re people too. Just one is enough. It doesn’t matter how many people are affected, just one person is enough and it’s not right.”
Along with the removal of music programs campus-wide, came the separation and severance of 40 professors and other faculty members according to the announcement. According to music performance student Bella Pantfoeder, these faculty separations have created uncertainty regarding her future on campus.
“All classes that I personally need to finish as a performance major practically won’t be offered because every single professor that I needed has been fired.” Pantfoeder said, “There will be no private lessons, no ensembles. There will be no histories or music theories or anything like that. How, as a music major, am I supposed to get my degree without being able to be part of this ensemble? It’s like being a chemist without being able to do the labs.”
As per the announcement no new students will be admitted for these removed music fields in the Fall 2025 semester, it appears that, at least for now, the music has been laid to rest at Jacksonville University.
You can find the announcement made by Jacksonville University at https://www.ju.edu/news/2025-04-15-jacksonville-university-reimagines-university-wide-academic-offerings-intensifies-investment-in-priority-areas.php. To find more information on the students affected, follow @Jumusicpresents on instagram.