Drama out of crisis?
Despite their attempts to present an upbeat solution, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama seems far from a harmonious place.
Last Friday, the board and director released details of their .
They will merge a number of departments, including 'woodwind and brass' and 'vocal studies and opera'.
There'll be just one redundancy, they claim, although five staff will go under voluntary redundancy schemes and a number of staff will have their contracts changed.
Considering the high profile campaign, which saw alumni such as James McAvoy, and John Hannah leap to its defence, things were strangely subdued at the academy in the aftermath of the announcement.
Could it be that the management had genuinely found a solution to the shortfall - caused in part by a funding settlement for lecturers, and partly by an anomaly which means drama students receive less than music students?
Not so, says my source in the RSAMD - who says the plans are based on similar moves at the Royal Northern College of Music, where they've been less than successful.
He worries about the reputation of the RSAMD and the morale of staff, who may decide to go elsewhere. Anyone out there who has experienced it first hand?
Student reaction has been tentative - they say they want to hear the detail before the jump to any conclusions.
And Labour MSP Pauline McNeill was even more dismissive.
"I've never accepted the Government's line that all is rosy at the RSAMD and I still don't believe that all is resolved, especially while compulsory redundancy is still on the table, she said.
"We must now wait to see which staff are prepared to accept term-time only contracts."
But by Saturday, there was even more confusion.
While the Daily Mail ran a lovely colour feature about the academy's former students - who with the exception of Robert Carlisle, loved their experience there (Carlisle was quoted saying he disliked the luvvies and spent ages "unlearning" what he'd learnt there), the Herald had two very different tales.
On page 3, the EIS were threatening legal action over the contractural changes while on the letters page, composer James MacMillan was dismissing the whole affair as a storm in a teacup.
Restructuring, he said, was something the academy needed to do anyway and the underfunding issue would be dealt with in due course.
But many of the campaigners feel the management should have waited for the result of the funding council's investigation into grants for drama students, which is due this summer.
And that their unseemly haste to announce the restructuring - just hours after the staff consultation ended - suggests that it is something of a fait accompli.
And while things may have gone quiet, they're by no means over. Watch this space.
Not London’s South Bank, but the south bank of the River Clyde in Glasgow - every bit as lively in cultural terms as its namesake. I’m Pauline McLean, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland’s arts correspondent, and I’ll be blogging here about arts events and issues happening across the country.
Comment number 1.
At 3rd Jun 2008, toomshie wrote:Am I the only person to question why all these multi-millionaire actors are demanding that more taxpayers money goes into this college?
Oxford University has just announced that it is going to raise £1.25billion from sponsorship from alumni to invest into the Uni.
RSAMD seems to have created hundreds of millionaire household names who are lining up to say how they owe it all to the college.
Why dont they all put their money where their mouths are and create a trust fund and make donations to it - or even better use their acting and music skills to raise funds.
If Oxford can raise £1.25billion and Harvard in America can raise no less than £75billion (apparently) from its alumni then how hard can it be for the houehold name alumni of RSAMD to raise just £600k (and then persuade the government to match them pound for pound)?
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