Dcccd.edu

Derrick Logozzo and Melissa Logan are the Music Advisors for Dallas College Richland Campus. They refuse to follow the college's published degree plans / Guided Pathways. They openly flout the administration and DCCCD board that mandate that the advisors adhere to these degree plans and Guided Pathways. An Associate's Degree from a two-year college such as this is only 60 credit hours. A maximum of 66 will transfer, but all attempted hours count toward financial aid and in-state tuition limits. At 150 credit hours (a degree plus 30 hours) students will not longer be eligible for in-state tuition. For the excess hours above 150 the students will be charged out of state tuition (which financial aid does not cover.) Regardless of whether financial aid was applied for or awarded, every hour counts toward the limit of 180 credit hours (150% of a degree that is 120 credit hours.) These predatory advisors try to make every student into a music major or drown them in music credits that apply to nothing and will not transfer. Students will be placed in ridiculous numbers of hours (100-161.) Many students are way over hours and never get their Associate's Degree (60 credit hours) as Derrick Logozzo and Melissa Logan are not putting students into the core classes that they must have and that would apply all degrees. These dishonest advisors tell students that they do not need to worry about financial aid or out of state tuition. They are ending most of their students college careers before they even earn an Associate's Degree. With out of state tuition and no financial aid looming these students cannot finish any degree or training for gainful employment. Many of the students they lure into the department don't have the requisite skills or background in music to succeed. They place students into Fundamentals of Theory, Audiation Ensembles, Voice Classes and numerous other hours that are not college level, transferable or on any degree plan to keep students trapped in the program for 3 or more years. They are filling their own music class chairs to get $$$$$ into the department with no regard for whether the student can succeed in the program and transfer or get into gainful employment. There are few good paying jobs in music and students may need Bachelor's, Master's or Doctorates to get them. Students are also fraudulently lured in to study Music Production, Recording Technology, Conducting and numerous other things that the college doesn't offer the classes for or that is a Junior or Senior level course that a two-year college such as this cannot offer. Melissa Logan has her students singing loudly in the halls and playing video games on TVs the students bring in the music building (that is filled with numerous other professors trying to work in their offices and teach classes.) Melissa Logan keeps score of her students card games in the hall and puts silly videos and pictures of the antics in the building up on the college's social media pages. Melissa Logan runs her classes like a kindergarten and keeps star charts on the wall outside her office. She also removes comments and reviews from the college's social media pages. The taxpayers have every right to comment on what she as a government employee for a government entity is doing with our tax dollars. Derrick Logozzo has students that miss half or more of the classes / rehearsals and skip performances. That would result in a failing grade and being removed from the program at a real music school, but Logozzo gives these students As & Bs and retains them in the program semester after semester to fill chairs. Logozzo and Logan both bring in students with virtually no music background and that can't read music and make them music majors even though the program is accredited and NASM dictates, "as a matter of sound educational practice, institutions recruit and admit students only to programs or curricula for which they show aptitudes and prospects for success. 71 NASM Handbook 2018-19II. H., I. The institution shall inform a student promptly if it is determined that he or she is not acceptable as a candidate for a degree, certificate, or diploma," Many of the students would not be accepted into a real music school and thus shouldn't have been placed in the program at Richland. All students on campus should feel welcome to take a 1 credit ensemble class for enjoyment and personal development. But the predatory advisors should not be trying to turn everyone that walks into the door into a music major or put students in real degree programs in any additional music hours that will eat up their financial aid and in-state tuition eligible hours. Melissa Logan and Derrick Logozzo do not discuss the harsh reality of trying to make it in the music business, nor do they tell students how incredibly competitive the auditions are at real music schools. Most Richland music students never transfer. Most walk out with well over 100 hours with nothing to show for it and have wasted their college hours on pure nonsense and will never get to finish a real degree. The advisors also don't tell students the incredible amount of work involved to attain the degree. 4 hours a day 6 days a week on one's principal instrument is the minimum practice time required at 4 year universities. Piano proficiency requires hours of practice a week. One must pass junior barriers on their instrument to continue in a music program at a real school. They must take the Music Theory placement test. The piano proficiency exam must be passed. Junior and Senior recitals must be prepared. A Music Degree is one of the most difficult degrees by far. Richland College has only 11 practice rooms that are shared by 30+ adjuncts and 400-600 music enrollments. So, students cannot get near enough practice time in. The pianos are almost all broken and unsafe to use and in rooms that are not soundproofed properly, so the building is always loud and chaotic. The music building is a party scene and suspected drug dealers hang out in the building. Only a handful of the armies of students lured in graduate with an Associate's Degree or transfer. Of those few that transfer only a fraction complete a 4 year degree. The adjuncts are the finest available and on par with those in the universities in the state. The problem is the dirty advisors / recruiters that are harming students and their paying parents. And, let us nor forget the bloodbath the taxpayers are taking. Paying for thousands of hours that apply to nothing costs $$$$$$$$$$! The DCCCD board is not providing proper oversight and the administration of Dallas College Richland Campus is not getting the issues resolved. The predatory advising violates students rights. Students harmed by these advisors should have their out of state tuition covered by Dallas College and these advisors should be terminated.