“You’re the only one sitting there across the desk from your professor,” Rocheleau said. “It was a really cool opportunity to have one-on-one time with someone who’s good at teaching and interested in your success.”

Rocheleau, who plays the oboe, was the last person to be accepted into the College of Music’s music therapy program, although she technically will not have the degree on her transcript and is instead completing the program’s equivalency.

A moratorium, or freeze on admissions for incoming freshmen, was placed on the program during the spring 2009 semester. The program subsequently was terminated from the curriculum, said James Forger, dean of the MSU College of Music. Eliminating the program is expected to save about $220,000 per year of necessary budget cuts, Forger said.

“We were looking to make decisions that preserved the interrelated core programs of the college so we could emerge smaller and more focused but retain quality,” he said. “I regret it, but I believe that given the circumstances that we faced, it was regrettably the right decision.”

But Rocheleau disagrees. She is disappointed the program, which initially made MSU stand out to her, will no longer exist.

“It’s pretty unfortunate,” she said. “And I think a lot of people agree that it wasn’t necessarily the right decision.”

Equivalency exception

Although MSU’s College of Music did not plan to accept new students for the fall 2009 semester, Rocheleau was an exception and the equivalency means she is taking the same courses as a music therapy major.

Ted Tims, professor and chair of music therapy, said he would have liked to have accepted many students in the same manner, but since Rocheleau planned to double major and entered MSU with college credit, it was possible for her to graduate within the program’s remaining time frame.

“She will take the courses that she would if she were a major and then she can sit for the board-certified exam,” Tims said. “We’re very happy to have her — she’s going to be a fine music therapist.”

Rocheleau was the only person in the spring course because she was the last person who still needed the credit, which is required for the music therapy program. Roger Smeltekop, associate professor of music therapy, taught the class and said it functioned as if it was an independent study.

“It kind of accelerated (Rocheleau’s) experience,” Smeltekop said. “Generally, therapy skills are more of a slow, developmental process where you build upon what you learned before.”

Since her senior year of high school, Rocheleau knew she wanted to be a music therapy major to be actively involved in people’s lives as opposed to music performance alone.

Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Rocheleau said soon after she heard of the moratorium on the program, her mother made calls to MSU to help confirm she would be able to complete the equivalency. Rocheleau declined scholarships to schools offering a music therapy program because she wanted to attend MSU. She felt the school was the best fit for her after her first visit to the campus.

“I’m just so grateful that they let me do it and I’m really happy with the program,” she said. “I’m enjoying all of my classes.”

Rocheleau’s schedule has been unusually weighted, since she is required to take all of the music therapy-specific courses crammed into two years.

While taking introductory courses, Rocheleau said she took upperclassmen level courses and clinical practicum, a class that allows students to apply class knowledge and skills at a community music therapy clinic, in the same semester.

“I’m taking all the classes the last time that they’re being offered at the university,” Rocheleau said.

Liz Plummer, a music performance and music therapy senior, said she had a similar experience to Rocheleau because she added the therapy major halfway through her college career.

“It’s good in some ways because you can see where the information you’re learning in the classes is being applied,” Plummer said. “But it’s tricky because you don’t feel like you know everything.”

Smeltekop, who believes the program elimination was the wrong decision, said the music therapy program typically does not receive many freshmen. Instead, many students discover the major while at MSU and add it later than the first year. In previous years, about 10-12 students per year would graduate with a music therapy degree, depending on when they complete their required internship.

He said the university advisory committee came to the conclusion the music therapy classes were not considered as “core” to the College of Music. He said he imagined MSU’s history of pioneering the first U.S. music therapy program, which began in 1944, would have been worth preserving in itself although the classes are not taken by a wide variety of students.

“Our outreach is for vulnerable people who usually don’t have a strong voice of their own,” Smeltekop said. “(It) has kind of a unique invisibility, in what we do is a private endeavor.”

“Close-knit” community

Along with Smeltekop’s class, Rocheleau said she took four music therapy classes during the spring semester, besides playing in ensembles and private lessons. Although this schedule was and continues to be busy, Rocheleau said being thrown directly into the experience has given her an immediate idea of what a music therapy career would look like and reassured her of the career choice.

“It’s hard to imagine doing it another way now — even if the program was going as normal,” Rocheleau said. “I like that I haven’t just been with therapy freshmen. I’ve seen the seniors who just graduated and everyone in the different stages of their lives.”

Smeltekop said the nature of the small-sized program allows students, including Plummer and Rocheleau, to help and learn from one another.

“She does have a supportive class,” Smeltekop said. “It’s not as though she’s all by herself in everything she does.”

He said he initially was concerned about Rocheleau as the only new student, but she came with “exceptional” credentials.

“Our program is very close-knit and I knew we would put all of our efforts into helping her successfully and without a tremendous amount of angst,” he said. “The student group has adopted her as one of their colleagues and I think she has done very well.”

Plummer said there are about 20 students left in the music therapy program.

“We’re all really close,” she said. “We’re friends with each other and hang out.”

Smeltekop, who has been teaching for more than 30 years and plans to retire in the near future, said he has not given up on hope that the program will be reinstated someday, albeit in a different format than what it has been.

“When we have people with disabilities — diverse kinds of people coming out every day — our other students, who are not therapy majors, get to relate to them on a limited level,” Smeltekop said.

“They also get to view the world a little differently than they would in the music school where that kind of diversity doesn’t show up very often.”

In an arts’ institution such as the College of Music, Smeltekop said it is easy for musicians to become insulated in their endeavors and he believes the music therapy program humanizes the atmosphere.

“It will be a loss to the college,” he said.

“I’m not convinced that people will remember what they’re losing.”