Last April, for the first time in Juilliard's history, music students were given the opportunity to write about their studio lessons in an anonymous questionnaire. This process has been in use at other conservatories and universities for years. To prepare the questionnaire, several groups of studio faculty members spent five months evaluating versions used at seven other music schools, including Peabody and Oberlin. Two goals were envisioned: students could tell teachers anything they had been thinking about but would find awkward to raise in a lesson, and teachers could receive information that otherwise might not come to them. About 600 of the two-sided forms were circulated in student mailboxes. Fewer than 50 responses were returned.

Why such a small return? Perhaps students were so satisfied with their lessons that they could think of nothing to write. Perhaps they sensed that their effort in writing might upset the teacher, or would result in no change. Perhaps students believed that somehow teachers would be able to connect comments with their writers, putting students at risk (even though the responses were typed out, removing the possibility of handwriting analysis). As happened last April, most comments submitted were extremely positive.

In the belief that this process offers much that is good to all members of the Juilliard community, we hope to improve the means of distributing the questionnaires, and better protect students' anonymity. In early April, a questionnaire will be sent to each music major's Juilliard e-mail address. Completing the form should take no more than 20 minutes. Responses will go to the IT Office, where a staff member will remove the student's name and then collate the answers to each question with other students' answers to the same question. The cumulative result will be made available to teachers after grades have been turned in, and the hard-copy compilation will reside in the Dean's Office.

Do you have any thoughts about this process? Please come to an open forum on the subject Wednesday, April 10 at 6:30 p.m. in the second-floor Board Room with members of the Juilliard administration. The questionnaire will have been sent to you by then, so you may wish to express opinions related to the form or the process.

Stephen S. Clapp, Juilliard's dean, is also a member of the violin and chamber music faculty.