Lack of students affecting Cambrian College's music program

There will soon be a little less music heard at Sudbury's Cambrian College.

Students were informed this week that, for the second year in a row, the administration is suspending the intake to its music program.

In a letter to current students, Jill Ferguson, chair of the School of Media Communications, Music, Creative Art, Design and IT, said there are not enough new students to begin a three-year cycle.

"It is not a reflection on the quality of the program, or the hard work and dedication of the program staff and the college to support and promote the program," she wrote.

Ferguson said this will have no impact on the graduation plans for current students.

"We hope that it's going to be temporary because that's essential to our learning," said second-year student Megan Misner.

Misner said senior students rely on new students coming in to complete the teaching component of the program. She said the pandemic plays a big role.

"Studying in college is difficult enough and no one wants to do it on Zoom -- they want a college experience," she said. "We are definitely worried this could be the beginning of the end of our program."

Music programs are rare in Ontario post-secondary schools and with Laurentian University just having cut its courses, it leaves Algoma and Lakehead as the only other institutions in northern Ontario.

"The faculty of music disbanding at Laurentian University has already had a big impact on our classical music community here in Sudbury," said Misner.

"A lot of those extremely talented professors have had to relocate and some are now even teaching private lessons at music stores."

"We are like a family so it's sad for me to know that," said Anil Kurudula, a third-year student in the program

Kurudula, a former journalist by training, came to Canada and Cambrian College for the music program.

"I hope that the admissions open up in the future and we get to see more graduating musicians," he said.

'It's one of the best'

"In a community like Sudbury, it's great to have a music program like this. I feel like it's one of the best classical music programs in northern Ontario because before applying for this program, I did a lot of research and I determined everything we have here is the best."

Cambrian spokesperson Dan Lessard said the arts are still important to the college and the decision was made purely on student interest.

"It's not an attack on the music program, it's not an attack on the arts program, this really boils down to not enough students taking the program to make it viable to continue running it," Lessard said.

"There's not a lot of music programs left in Ontario period so it shows that this is just not a Cambrian issue, but it's a college system issue. We have done a lot to promote the program. When we suspended it back in September 2021, we took that time to revise the curriculum, we added music production, we made it easier to get in and it just didn't generate the number of applicants."

The college was hoping for roughly 35 students for the first year, accounting for the fact that there would be some attrition throughout the three years, with some changing their specialties.

Lessard said it's important to note they're not cancelling it at the moment. It's just a suspension.

"We're going to review," he said. "We want to make sure that any program we offer that there's enough demand for it because we're in the business of offering programs that lead to career paths … If the program can't generate enough students to keep it viable over a three-year cycle, then we have to take that seriously."

In the meantime, students are vowing to keep up the pressure in hopes that more can be done to save the program.

"We've all been really hurt by the fact that our ever-growing music family and our program isn't getting more students," said Misner.

"We're all united front in this and we're going to fight for our program in every single way that we can."