IT WAS undoubtedly the noisiest, and the coolest, rally in town as staff, students and members of the public gathered at the ANU’s Union Court today to protest against cuts and changes at the School of Music.

To the ground strains of “When the Saints go Marching In”, rock guitarist/vocalist Sidney Creswick had the angry crowd singing the refrain “Save our School”.  A quieter school vocal ensemble joined in with “Advance Australia Fair”.

The crowd harmonised, while students and staff representatives moved among the crowd gathering signatures for a petition to “stop the proposed staffing cuts and changes to the structure of the ANU School of Music”.

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Hoarse with anger, Stephen Darwin from the National Tertiary Education Union, declared  the school to be “one of the finest schools of music in the country, if not the world”.

He said ANU staff “definitely don’t fight for mediocrity”. Condemning the university’s attack on the school  because it doesn’t yield jobs, Mr Darwin said “that’s not what the university is about”.

“Today is the day vice chancellor Ian Young has to stop being an intellectual bookkeeper,” he said.

ACT Greens MLA Caroline Le Couteur addressed the crowd, followed by Opposition arts spokesperson, Vicki Dunne, who said that music staff had been treated with disrespect.

Long time Jazz professor at the School, Mike Price, asked “how many of you students were asking for a new curriculum?”.

His comment on video-conferencing for music teachers were greeted with loud boos.

After being urged by student Jack Hobbs, the rally moved to the Chancery, which was well-guarded against intrusion. A Chancery spokesperson said: “The consultation will continue.”

In another development the University of Canberra has  denied interest in assuming the School of Music’s functions, but UC staff in the Faculty of Education today sent a rousing letter of support to the threatened ANU Music staff,  expressing “dismay with the current direction taken by the vice chancellor Ian Young”.