Vol. XVII No. 6
March 2002



Criticize? Sure. But Drop the Anger.
By GARAN FITZGERALD

An anonymous underground student newsletter called The Juilliard Invective (see story by Ed Klorman) has appeared in the residence hall. It’s controversial, it’s angry, and it makes some good points. However, it goes about presenting them in a very cynical way. No name is signed to it, it attacks its own readership—the Juilliard community—and the author has a seemingly random vendetta with one of the resident assistants. In attacking everything and everyone, it succeeds in offending more than informing. It’s a shame, too, because if the attacks were dropped, it would probably get a lot more people to think about the issues it was raising. However, most people I ask about it simply regard it as a ranting piece of garbage written by someone with personal issues and a spine of jelly.

It’s kind of inevitable that something like The Invective would appear. The student body is dissatisfied with various aspects of school life, but often students don’t know to whom to address their grievances. Student representatives and administrators are around, but are often overburdened themselves. While many offices and staff members are willing to go out of their way to assist students, sometimes it seems to require the tenacity of a rabid banshee to get things to happen, and most students are simply too tired, after long days of classes, rehearsals, and practicing, to focus on these issues. Furthermore, there seems to be a lack of understanding as to what the various departments around the School are responsible for. At times this causes friction because students blame the wrong people and, in turn, administrators get frustrated with the students. To smooth these problems out, it would be helpful to have an explicit listing of what each department handles in the community (if there isn’t one already).

Getting back to The Invective, all it does is rant and attack without offering ways to resolve issues. This is not the best way to bring about change. When I encounter a problem in life, I follow a simple guideline that I’ve found to be effective: I figure out what it is that I want and how it might be fulfilled. Then, I figure out whom to take it to, and decide on the best way to approach that person to ensure that my request will be heard. For example, I think it would be extremely beneficial for Juilliard students to have access to a swimming pool. It provides great exercise with very little possibility of injury. A bad way to go about obtaining this would be to go up to an administrator, insult them, belittle them, or attack them. This would gives them little incentive to offer their assistance, and even raise the risk of making them hostile. On the other hand, if you ask reasonably, give compelling reasons, have support, and are ready to compromise, many things can be accomplished. Perhaps the editors of The Invective should consider a new approach.

Garan Fitzgerald is a third-year double bass major.

Voice Box is a student opinion column appearing regularly in The Juilliard Journal. To submit a column for consideration, please e-mail it to journal@juilliard.edu with “Voice Box” in the subject heading, and include a phone number where you can be reached. Columns should cover topics of interest to the Juilliard community, and be about 500 words.
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