Bellevue College, the largest of Washington state’s community and technical colleges by enrollment, has spent decades carving its niche in jazz.
But, on March 10, Bellevue College President David May sent an email to faculty and staff, two days before the Washington state Legislature finalized the state’s biennial budget.
May’s communication, which anticipated the bill’s suggested cuts to state-funded higher education institutions like Bellevue College (BC), expressed the need to position the school for a “sustainable and successful future” and proposed the closure of 12 academic departments, as well as the consolidation of 14 additional programs.
The email suggested closing the music department entirely.
“It was a total shock to everyone, like total shock,” said Jim Sisko, senior associate professor and jazz band director.
A history with jazz
The Dance, Drama, and Interior Design programs are on the list of programs potentially facing closure alongside the music department, which has long been home of to an award-winning jazz program and the influential Bellevue College Jazz Festival.
Started in the mid-1970s, the large summertime festival has presented internationally-recognized jazz artists like bassist Gary Peacock and guitarist Larry Coryell.
Since 2008, the festival put more focus onto the local jazz community. Music students from middle school through college have the chance to perform, receive feedback, and participate in clinics and masterclasses with notable pros, like saxophonists Tim Warfield and Ben Wendel.
Sisko said that for over 30 years, it’s been “a very, very productive community event.”
“It brings students and educators to our school. It puts us on the map by having international guest artists,” said Sisko, a faculty member for the last 15 years.
Ensembles in the jazz department, like the BC Jazz Singers, have received national recognition in jazz publication, Downbeat Magazine, and the big band has won awards at major jazz festivals like Lionel Hampton and Reno.
Several alumni have also gone on to rise to prominence in New York City. That includes pianist Danae Greenfeld, who plays with Josh Groban, and trumpeter Noah Halpern, who’s toured with Wynton Marsalis and Jason Moran.
“One of my biggest deciding factors of picking which college I wanted to go to was I wanted it to have a strong music program. And I was looking around at the colleges in my area and I wasn't too impressed with what I saw,” said Emily Chen, a biochemical engineering student and trombone player in her first year at Bellevue College.
“But, I saw the Bellevue College jazz program and then I reached out to Sisko, and I felt like the jazz program was just awesome.”
A familiar tune
Despite the jazz program’s influence and draw, this is not the first time the music department, nor Bellevue College at large, has dealt with budget issues. Working with other department heads to correct budget shortfalls and preserve programs is something Sisko said he and his colleagues are all “experts” at and prepared to do.
What did surprise Sisko is how administrators are dealing with the shortfall this time around. Under May, who’s been college president since 2023, Sisko felt they went straight for department closures without the typical opportunity for cross-departmental collaboration and problem-solving.
“Usually they handle it with across-the-board cuts, you know, ‘The state budget is going to be down 15% this year. We're going to need everybody to cut X percent,’ he said.
Rather than take that approach, Bellevue College used a quantitative tool called a viability index, a matrix populated with specific data gathered from the school’s internal systems, to assist in evaluating which programs should be closed or downsized amidst financial pressures. According to a study from the Association of Institutional Research, these sorts of data-driven models are becoming more important in institutional decision-making as higher education budgets shrink.
“The reality is that higher education in our state faces many intersecting challenges and has been chronically underfunded for decades. Bellevue College is not exempt from that reality. That means we need to evaluate both academic offerings and non-academic programs for possible reductions,” said Raechel Dawson, associate director of communications at Bellevue College, in an email statement sent to KNKX.
Dawson added that no reductions are easy, but that the college’s evaluation process, “is rooted in solid data and grounded in our values and strategic priorities.”
According to the viability index provided to KNKX, college administrators looked at each academic program’s fill rate, or the proportion of enrolled students compared to total course capacity, as well as the spend on staffing. Yet, according to Sisko, the data they used to assess the viability of the music department was flawed because it took student private lessons into account.
“Private lessons are basically ‘a la carte.’ Instructors are paid directly from the student. They have zero impact on budgets, but because of the way they are listed in the registration software they appear as massively under-enrolled classes that negatively impact our fill rate,” Sisko said.
Valuing arts education
At several meetings in mid-March, including a Board of Trustees Meeting on March 18, music faculty and students pointed out this error and spoke up about the positive impact this program has on campus.
Chen, who is currently playing bass trombone in the BC jazz band, was one of three current music students who spoke at the meeting. She expressed how important music was to her social life and mental health, and that she would likely transfer if BC chose to eliminate the music department, even though she isn’t planning to major in music.
That’s the point of arts education, Sisko said. At Bellevue College, most of the music students aren’t seeking to make music their vocation, but they participate in music because it’s fun, social, and lends balance to their rigorous academic schedules.
“They're playing for the love of music, and because it's our classes that get them to campus to succeed in math. It’s our classes that get them to English class,” Sisko said. “You know, that's our value in this place.”
On April 1, May sent out another email communication to faculty and staff that acknowledged that many on campus felt the process surrounding the viability matrix was “rushed or flawed.” The college also communicated that based on the revised information from the state board, the college has a smaller deficit to close and may be able to do so “without large-scale academic program closures.”
In an email to KNKX, the college also vowed to "deepen the data" and "strengthen their analysis" as they continue to evaluate their academic offerings.
While heartened by the most recent communications from administrators, Sisko is still advocating for the viability index’s music department data to be reevaluated. He and his colleagues are also preparing a solutions-oriented proposal for how to close the deficit without cutting music, which they will share with leadership by late April.
Music department faculty, staff, and students also plan to show up in numbers at an all-campus Town Hall meeting on April 13.
