Each week in this new Featured column, a writer investigates and reports on a rivalry or conflict at Guilford – ’cause the only way to deal with beef is to talk about it.

They just want to practice, they say. They need space to work, they say. Their neighbors just want them to stop it. They are student musicians not enrolled in music classes. They need space and practice time. But the music department is fed up with irresponsible students and troublesome graffiti, and their neighbors in Binford hall are furious about the noise. Stuck in the middle is one band – called, perhaps prophetically, The Shenanigans – who just want to play their music.

The Students

“Me and my friends started a band,” said first-year Evan Hayes, who co-founded The Shenanigans with his roommate, Max Kochinke. “We were using the Jazz room in Dana to practice and get better and whatnot, but we got booted out by the Music department because we weren’t receiving credit for anything we were doing in the Jazz room.”

He and his bandmates have been embroiled in trouble since they started playing. Last semester, students not enrolled in the music programs were allow to use the Jazz room to practice. They never received permission, but they weren’t ever stopped. But after some acts of vandalism, complaints of overcrowding and damage to equipment from unauthorized student users, the rooms have been closed to students not taking music classes.

Because students who are not enrolled in music classes but still want to play have nowhere to practice, they have been forced to gather in individual students’ rooms to play, mostly in Binford hall. This is obviously a quality-of-life issue – playing several amplified electrical instruments inside a residential dorm affects dozens of other people. This has led to several confrontations and attempts at compromise have been inconsistently successful.

Reginald Hayes, Director of Public Safety, disagrees with the music department’s assertion that the rooms were overcrowded and said that the non-enrolled musicians had never interfered with students enrolled in music classes. Hayes also said that he had only personally encountered other people in the main practice room once, and that he and his companions had simply waited until they were finished.

Hayes said, “I think that if you’re not a music major, and you love music, and you want to do something with it, you have to find your own way. The music department probably can’t help you.”

Currently The Shenanigans are practicing in the laundry room, a good temporary solution, according to Hayes. Now, with help from Visiting Instructor in English David Bowen, they are getting a space in the Community Center and feel like their needs are being met.

The Administration

The Jazz room is the small ensemble practice area in Dana. This space and the individual practice rooms next to it are the only sound-proofed practice areas currently available for students at Guilford. They are closed to students who are not taking music classes, and although that rule was previously rather flexible, due to some beer drinking and drum breaking, the rooms are now strictly off-limits.

“I would love to support all music making on campus, but we don’t have the facilities to do that, said Tim Lindeman, Chair of the Music Department and Associate Professor of Music. “There is no way for us to be able to house or supply equipment for all the bands on campus, so we have to reserve that room for students who are enrolled in our ensembles.”

“There are definitely not enough [practice rooms],” said first-year music major Allison Murray-Nikkels about her experience practicing.

She was given a key to the practice rooms when she enrolled in music classes. She says that the main problems are that the rooms are not soundproofed effectively, and it’s very hard to practice when other people are practicing, “but you can generally find a room.” She said that she typically uses the rooms three times a week. She also mentioned that if people are playing loudly in the Jazz room, it’s difficult to teach or practice in the Choir room beneath it.

I spoke with Lindeman about the possibility of a sharing arrangement between the Music Department and regular students. “Like I said, we’d love to support all music on campus,” he said. “I don’t want to be a control freak; it’s not about me being in control. It’s about protecting the students who need to practice and need the equipment to practice.”

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