Since the groundbreaking for the new music building was held in 2017, the Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) community has been excited for the opening of the building. The long-anticipated wait is finally over as the building is officially opened, and with the opening comes a new designation as the School of Music.
According to the University of California, Berkeley Music, “[a] Department of Music is likely to be a smaller academic unit, situated within a liberal arts educational environment. A School of Music is essentially a conservatory (i.e.., focused on training professional performers) that is situated within a University. A Department of Music such as ours, for example, offers a Bachelor of Arts degree while a School of Music may offer both a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Music degree.”
This will allow students to focus more on the field in which they are interested.
Students, faculty and staff have been looking forward to the opening of the new building since it was first announced that it would be constructed.
Music education student Cecilia Torres recalls when Dr. Paul Hageman, the Chair of the School of Music, first announced that the possibility of a new building was in the works. She is glad to finally be in the building.
“It’s so much bigger than the old one, it’s so much newer, so much brighter. I hadn’t realized how dark the other one was,” Torres said.
Dr. Melinda Brou, an Associate Professor of Voice and Opera at TAMUK, has also enjoyed being in the new building.
“Being in the building has been such an incredible experience just in the few short weeks that we have been in it already. Our schedules are so much less hectic in the new space, since we don’t lose the first five minutes and last five minutes of every class to turning over rooms to suit the needs of each class. Every room now has a purpose and is always set up just for the purpose — no longer do we have spaces that have to switch between classrooms and rehearsal spaces all day long. The technology in each room has been incredible as well. It has completely revolutionized the way I teach my Diction class already,” Brou said.
Whether it be little changes, such as more outlets as Torres said, or better technology, the new building has brought many upgrades. One of the changes, which has become Dr. Brou’s favorite addition, was a surprise to her.
“My favorite thing so far is also something I wasn’t expecting as a benefit of the new building — I’ve noticed students being able to study so much more in our building, because they finally have spaces that allow for this. There was no place in the old building for students to pull up their laptop and work without distractions or meet up as study groups. The new building has tons of study nooks just for this and it has been really cool to watch,” Brou said.