Reactions to News about The Ohio State University Band

Marketing Music Education with Kathleen Heuer

Ohio State University Band Updates (October 10, 2014):

Ohio State’s fired band director got more support

Ohio State pays at least $885 an hour for 2nd band investigation; questions remain about firms involved

Ohio State University Band Updates (August 28, 2014):

Music publishers are reportedly denying performance rights to the OSU Marching Band.

The director is still trying to get his job back.

The Newark Advocate came out with an editorial basically saying that we’d better get used to this new normal, because Title IX is NOT messing around.

OSU’s former Title IX coordinator came out saying that both the university and Mr. Waters could have handled things better. She was not involved in the probe because she left before it began, in large part because the university tied her hands so that she could not do her job effectively. Read about it here and here.

In this episode of the Promoting Your Music Program podcast, we try a new roundtable format as we discuss a recent headline from the band world: namely, the recent firing of Jonathan Waters, the director of The Ohio State University Marching Band.

Full disclosure: While I have no affiliation with The Ohio State University Marching Band, I am an alum of a Big Ten University band. I bring this story to light as a former participant and as a fan of the marching arts and because I feel that the issues contained herein merit discussion and deserve to be examined in the light of day.

I did not ask any of the parties involved to be a guest on the show. I wanted to discuss these events from our perspectives as outsiders, as former students, former directors, and now parents ourselves.

Allow me to introduce my friends Maria and Lisa:

Maria Dripps-Paulson serves as the Executive Director of the Kaneland Arts Initiative, an award-winning arts production organization through the Kaneland School District in the far, far, FAR west suburbs of Chicago. She also designs music lessons for SmartMusic, teaches private music lessons, and stays healthy as a distributor for the Shaklee Corporation. Maria was named one of the Women of Distinction in Kane County (IL) in 2013. She has four children, all of them actively involved in music.

Lisa Salazar is currently Senior Event Coordinator and a Senior Adjunct Instructor at Lewis University (IL). She has more than fifteen years’ experience in the events industry, and is formerly a high school music educator. She serves on multiple university and professional boards and committees, as well as on the Board of Directors of New Life for Haiti as Director of Sustainable Capital. She has three children; her oldest has just joined high school band.

More about The Ohio State University Band

Find their website here.

Learn about their innovative use of iPads here.

Read the Ohio State University Band full investigation report here.

Check out OSU’s official feed on “band culture.”

Learn more about Title IX here.

Read the open letter from a former band member here.

Show your support for the OSU Marching Band here. #supportTBDBITL

Also? The director has asked for his job back, the OSUMB Alumni and the OSUMB squad leaders have issued statements.

Image credit: By Michael Barera (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

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