To: Dr. William Peebles, Director of the WCU School of Music From: Concerned Students of the WCU School of Music Date of Complaint: Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 Alleged: Dr. William Martin, Associate Professor of Music A majority of us, concerned students of both sections of Aural Skills IV, wish to express our extreme dissatisfaction with the Spring Semester Aural Skills IV course as well as its instructor, Dr. William Martin. Over the course of the semester, many of us have felt that we have been undereducated in the content of the Aural Skills IV course. We also feel that our abilities in this content area have been wrongly represented by unfair and inefficient testing and evaluation methods. Due to this fact, many of us have suffered greatly academically in the course. However, this is is not due to a lack of work ethic on our parts. A great majority of us excel academically in other related course content area and have had satisfactory grades in other Aural Skills courses until this point. To simplify our argument, our complaints are as follows:

 1.) The content that has been presented to us this semester has not been the curricular focus listed under the course description of the Current Undergraduate Catalog 2011-2012 for this course. As the description states, the focus of this course is Jazz and Commercial Music, but the content that has been presented to us has only been of the Tonal Function Aural Skills focus.

2.) The testing and evaluation methods for this course have been more than occasionally inefficient and too difficult for the particular skill level and ability of the class. For example, the instructor not giving students a sufficient amount of time to complete exercises on examinations.

3.) The instructor has difficulty being impartial in dealing with students, often showing favoritism for certain students and condescension for others.

4.) The instructor's attitude and personal comments toward students' skills and abilities in the course have often been inappropriate and discouraging. The intention of this informative petition is not to put Dr. William Martin in a negative light or incite any action of detriment toward him. We acknowledge that Dr. William Martin is a fine educator and an asset to the WCU School of Music. However, we feel that he should not be considered as an instructor for this course and that we should be awarded some form of compensation for our academic sufferings in the course. After much discussion and communication, we have discovered that a great majority of us have been receiving unsatisfactory grades throughout the course of the semester, due to the inappropriate and inefficient testing and evaluation methods. Our suggestion for compensation is a possible curve in the final grades. As paying students of Western Carolina University and the WCU School of Music, we feel that we have a right to voice our concern about this matter. As future advocates of music, we feel that we deserve a high quality music education.

Links