Music School Dean retires from the University

Daily Arts Writer

Very few people have the opportunity to know another person the way a secretary does. Carol Lange, senior executive secretary to Music School Dean Paul Boylan, summarizes her boss' skills in this manner: "He is such a human boss, he relates the human and administrative sides together so beautifully." Boylan, Dean of the Music School and VP for the Arts, closes a distinguished career today, as he retires from the University. His career, which spans more than two decades, has seen and brought about many changes in the Music School and the University.

During the his term as dean, Boylan experienced many challenges and highlights. "Certainly the early years (79-83) were very difficult because of the depressed economic situation in the State of Michigan. It was really tough keeping the school together and the best faculty committed," he said. "The highs have been many, mostly related to our students. Our orchestra appeared twice in Europe - at the Evian Festival in France in 1982 and the Salzburg Festival in 1992. Mostly, I have enjoyed the energy one gets just be walking around in the music school...our students are so wonderful and deeply committed to their art."

Artistic and personal commitment have been the hallmarks of Boylan's leadership of the School and his work as VP for the Arts. Changes in the ways in which commencement activities are done were enacted under his leadership. "I also chaired a task force on university events which lead to the establishing of school/college commencement ceremonies...a change I have always felt good for students and their families," he said.

Technology has not left the Music School, thanks to Boylan's interest and leadership. "Certainly another high would be the enormous progress our programs in dance, musical theater, theater and drama, music/media technology, and jazz and improvisational studies have made during the course of my deanship," Boylan said. "I'm just thrilled and intensely proud of their growing stature nationally."

Although he might be administratively retired, Paul Boylan has no intention of sitting in his rocking chair, watching soaps. "Regarding the future, I can only hope that the faculty will continue to worry about the ever-changing environment into which would students will be graduating and take appropriate actions to modify, update, and modernize the degree programs and curriculums of the school," he said. "Certainly, technology will enable many changes in the performing and visual arts during future years, but it will ultimately be the quality of the artists manipulating that technology which will determine its value."

There will be a concert in Boylan's honor on Friday on Friday, April 14, 8:30 p.m. in Hill Auditorium, free and open to the public. Kenneth Kiesler will conduct the University Symphony Orchestra in a program consisting of such works as "Academic Festival Overture" by Johannes Brahms and "Pines of Rome" by Ottorino Respighi.