Enrichment changes and improvements for the Combined Degree Programs between the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts with the University have been proposed by both students and faculty at these institutions.
Both the NEC and Museum School Combined Degree Programs set students in these programs on a five year, dual-degree track.
The dual-degree program with the Museum School has been around since the 1950s, and currently enrolls about 60 Tufts students.
In the fall, the Museum School will undergo a change with regard to its dual-degree program. All students within the Bachelor of Arts (BA) and the Museum School's Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) program - both current students and those who will matriculate in Fall 2005 - will pay their tuition to Tufts directly. Thus, new students to the Museum School will pay their 10 semester's worth of tuition to the University.
In the past, Museum School students paid five semester's worth of tuition to the Museum School, and the other five semester's worth of tuition to Tufts. For these dual-degree students, the first half of their studies is dedicated to BA classes, and the second half to BFA classes.
The majority of the BA classes are taken on the Medford campus for the first five semesters. The dual-degree students then switch focus to their BFA and primarily take courses at the Museum School.
With this change in policy, University Associate Dean Jeanne Dillon said that the dual-degree students will have "an ability to navigate as they please," as the new policy also will allow the dual-degree students to not follow such a strict regimen of courses throughout their 10 semesters.
Dillon said that the new policy will permit students to take a more balanced course load between the Tufts campus and the Museum School over their five years.
According to Dillon, with these changes, the Museum School policy will be similar to the one with the NEC dual-degree program. "We are streamlining the process to make it how the NEC program has been since it started in [1978]," she said.
Dillon also said that she thinks the change in the Museum School will make the Tufts administration's job easier from a financial standpoint, since all tuition payments will be directed to the University.
With regard to the program between NEC and Tufts, double-degree junior Mara Stahl said that the program is unique because "other schools make it difficult to pursue both academia and music - they want you to choose [and Tufts does not]."
There are currently 20 students enrolled in the NEC-Tufts program.
Some of the NEC double-degree students have said that there are some aspects of the program that could be improved.
Double-degree sophomore Ben Roseth said that there is a lot of "culture shock" that the students experience, due to constantly traveling back and forth from place to place.
Tufts Music Department Chair Janet Schmalfeldt said her issue with the dual-degree program with NEC is that it does not profit the Tufts Music Program, as the students in the combined NEC program take almost all of their music classes at NEC, where they also receive credit for their major in music. The sole music classes that they could take on the Medford campus would be taken as an elective.
Schmalfeldt said that she would like to see the dual-degree program with the NEC to allow students to enroll in Music classes at Tufts for major credit, in order to challenge and strengthen the Tufts Music Program.
Both Roseth and Stahl said that communication between the NEC and Tufts could be improved as well.
"They don't coordinate days off well," Roseth said.
"It would be nice if more professors at Tufts knew about the [double-degree] program," Stahl said.
Combined Degree Program students must be admitted by both institutions - either the NEC and Tufts, or the Museum School and Tufts - based on academic and musical or artistic competence.
- Allison Roeser contributed to this article.
