Editor:

The School of Music has done a great disservice to its students and to itself by letting Professor Rusty McKinney go.

It claims a need to “compete with other universities that have full-time faculty.” All the best music schools in the country use principal players from major orchestras.

I studied under the top players in the country at Northwestern University, Eastman School of Music and Manhattan School of Music, and let me tell you, we are one lucky university to have talent like McKinney in this “small town.”

Students come for the best instructor, not because the instructor has more time to go to lunch with them. Places like Snow College and other “smaller” schools are fast becoming the hot spots because of the excellent professional musicians they are hiring and the fantastic performing facilities being built.

The School of Music here has an incredible opportunity to use the talented professional musicians from the Utah Symphony and Ballet West Orchestra. In so doing, the U can only enhance its quality and reputation.

To choose a professor because she or he can be here more often is placing quantity far above quality. Undoubtedly the U will suffer.

Lisa Verzella

Sophomore, Meteorology