IDEA

Joshua Mallard sat down with Dr. Anthony Leach, a School of Music faculty member and the coordinator of Penn State’s African American Music Festival. Join them as they reflect of the history of the festival and its future.

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By: Allie Biancoviso

This semester is Distinguished Professor Velvet Brown’s first serving as the new Associate Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) for the School of Music. This new position allows Professor Brown to work closely with administration to provide leadership and recommendations of policies that will foster an inclusive and welcoming environment in the School of Music. This includes compiling resources needed to create inclusive curricula and diversify opportunities and processes within the school. As the Associate Director, Professor Brown will also participate on the College Diversity Committee, Faculty Advisory Committee, and in IDEA meetings.
There are many changes Professor Brown hopes to see in the School of Music in the future. One of the most essential points that Professor Brown stresses is the importance of honoring the dignity of each person and fostering inclusivity within our school. One adjustment that can be made within the school to highlight these ideals is making sure that students who are entering the School of Music know that we feel that we are lucky to have them. This is supposed to be a great chapter of students’ lives. Unfortunately for many students, this is not the case, and this is something we hope to improve. It is Professor Brown’s hope that we can cultivate an environment within the School of Music in which students graduate feeling the same excitement with which they entered college.
It is essential to consider whether our academics encompass culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy. We must often consider and reconsider how inclusive environments are fostered in the classroom. In addition to fostering a diverse student body, we must have a community that is inclusive in its curriculum. Additionally, Professor Brown stresses the importance of “reading, absorbing and sharing,” information that you are given. It is important for people to take the time to consider the information they receive regarding diversity and inclusion within the School of Music and ways in which we can improve our school culture.
Professor Brown embodies many of these ideals within the Tuba/Euphonium Studio. Inclusion of students from different races, sexualities and gender identities is a foundation through which a great and diverse atmosphere is created in the studio. In order to foster a positive environment in her studio, Professor Brown says that it is important to make expectations clear from the start. The promotion of studio as family, zero tolerance for biases, and the understanding that healthy competition is about where a student personally wants to get and not who they want to beat. It is paramount to consider the whole student.
The school is implementing a “Directors’ Forum” a series of sessions at faculty meetings that focuses on helping faculty understand how to incorporate diverse music and treat diverse students in their classrooms and studios. Potentially, similar sessions may be included in Common Hour for students to engage. Professor Brown also hopes to start an organization in which students of all backgrounds can come together to share their personal experiences. This group can serve as a supportive space for students to get to know other students of different backgrounds.
There is much to look forward to in the future as we strive to make the School of Music as welcoming and inclusive of an environment as possible. In the meantime, Professor Brown highlights that it is important for each person to explore their own experience with bias and privilege, and to have conversations about these topics so that meaningful change can be considered and then achieved. Attending workshops and taking part in productive discussions are both ways that students and faculty can begin and continue their learning processes. There is still a lot of work to be done, but under the direction of people like Professor Brown, the School of Music seems to be on a great path.