<p>My D, a music major at a different university, just came across this very disturbing news article:</p>
<p>She is heartsick for all the students affected by this. Does anyone know anything more about this terrible act?</p>
<p>That is horrific for many reasons. The dollar damage must be huge. THen, the music students don’t have pianos for their practice and it is finals/juries. </p>
<p>I wonder how this was done given many schools have tight security (guess they don’t?). I think often practice rooms are locked and you sign them out? I think that’s the case at NYU where my kid went to college and used practice rooms. Hard to imagine someone having access to all those rooms without some signing up for them or some access and also how nobody was around to catch this when it was going on.</p>
<p>Hopefully folks have to scan an ID card to gain access to the practice room area. With that information, the police will be able to find out who was in the buildings and when. I don’t know about Ithaca, but I do know that at all the schools we visited it was impossible to gain access without either having a ID card or being WITH someone who did.</p>
<p>So sad to hear. I will be going to Ithaca in the fall and a girl I know texted me telling that Whalen (where the music school is) was totally vandalized. So many pianos were destroyed and things were crushed to pieces. $500,000 in damage too.</p>
<p>RoselawnMom, thanks for posting this.</p>
<p>A sad day for the music students and the Ithaca community. My heart goes out to the students.</p>
<p>I’ve taken the liberty of adding a link to your post in the music major forum <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/827738-vandalism-ithacas-music-school.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/827738-vandalism-ithacas-music-school.html</a></p>
<p>This is so sad. Schools are struggling financially. Replacing these pianos will be costly. Students will be deprived of the opportunity to practice for quite a while until they are replaced.</p>
<p>This is terrible. We were there for auditions this weekend, and the building was completely open (of course, we were only there during the day - hopefully it’s locked at night. Or soon will be, I suppose.)</p>
<p>Oddly, there did seem to be a significant security presence while we were there. I was waiting while D had a lesson with a faculty member on Friday afternoon, and saw many students in the building (there was an end-of-semester informal concert going on), multiple security guards passing through, a couple of faculty, and a pizza delivery guy.</p>
<p>Hopefully Ithaca has insurance for the pianos and they will be replaced before the next term begins. The issue is one of availabiity now…before exams and juries and the like. The timing is awful. Music majors NEED pianos all the time, but before exams they are critical…especially for the piano majors. </p>
<p>I’m sure the students feel very “violated”. I’m sure Ithaca will be reviewing the security measures in the building. And I would guess they will make some accommodations for this during this exam period for the students. It sounds like they have an awful mess to clean up too.</p>
<p>I just heard from a friend that they had a candlelight vigil for Whalen and some students are doing a night watch with Public Safety and IC Police.</p>
<p>My D is Freshmen Music Major at Potsdam (Crane) and my heart goes out to each of the students. Hopefully they will be able to catch the person(s) who did this. I hope all Colleges are hearing about this and rethinking there own security. There is no positive side to this story except to say that if it was done by disgruntled students then thankfully they took it out on pianos and not other students. My D was very upset by this story because music students are close knit no matter where they are and that they truly feel for each other and they know what the Ithaca students must be feeling.</p>
<p>I’m a student at Cornell, but go to IC for music lessons. Security is not very stringent (either at IC or Cornell), since we don’t really face many of the same threats that urban universities do. It’s not hard to get into the building or into the practice rooms. there are sign up sheets for the rooms that are sort of followed, but when one is open anybody can use it. </p>
<p>the vandalism is really awful. Talking to some IC people tonight, they said damage is estimated at around $500,000. I wish we had more pianos at Cornell that the students could come and use!</p>
<p>Just had to chime in here about this unbelievable act of disrespect and rage. My son is considering this school and is a pianist so when we read about this, our hearts sank for the students and faculty. How anyone could do something like this is beyond words and I wish that we, as a music community, could somehow show our support. If anyone from Ithaca may be reading my words, please know that parents and students alike are grieving this loss with you…</p>
<p>The original article linked in my first post has been updated as of 2:45pm. It appears there was not as much damage as was originally thought and most of the pianos have been restored to working order. Still though…</p>
<p>[The</a> Ithacan Online | More than 60 pianos vandalized in Whalen School of Music - December 14th, 2009](<a href=“http://theithacan.org/am/publish/breaking/200912_More_than_60_pianos_vandalized_in_music_school.shtml]The”>http://theithacan.org/am/publish/breaking/200912_More_than_60_pianos_vandalized_in_music_school.shtml)</p>