First Day Back

Well today is the first day of the new semester. It's been business as usual, more or less, for the first day. Lots of students coming back, having forgotten their locker combos, needing a reminder, needing new lockers; the usual mundane tasks of the first week of school. This day has been slower than usual though - it seems the economy is finally starting to catch up on us. I've never seen such an empty class schedule in our building. Someone came by to find a room for a rehearsal from 10-11:30am. 

 A few semesters ago we would have been lucky to find a couple of options, but today there were 6 different rooms open at that time. Yes, as more people graduate and enrollment restrictions keep our new student numbers low, we will continue to see a decrease in the activities around here. They're projecting another bad budget cut for the next academic year, and I wouldn't be surprised if the union starts talking about furloughs again. In the meantime, the number of concerts is still pretty high as the students we still have are trying their best to get out of here before the fees get raised another 10% or 15%. Can't say I blame them. I guess the good old days of having tons of activity and a never ending flow of classes and people through the building are gone, at least for now. 

We'll see how long we're able to maintain a full complement of ensembles, at least with a comparable quality level anyway. More and more folks will probably be brought up from the junior colleges to sit in and fill holes. It's just after 4pm on Monday, and it feels not too unlike a Friday around here...