The Music and Sonic Arts program at Portland Community College’s Cascade campus is facing the threat of budget cuts that would close the program. Instructors and students were informed in late April. This would deal a blow to the music industry in Portland. The program offers courses in music technology, including Recording Technology, Intro to Ableton, Audio Programming and Analog Modular Synthesis. The degrees and certificates are geared towards students interested in electronic music composition, audio engineering, film and video game scoring, and software design.

Portland Community College recently announced its strategic plan for 2025-2028. PCC’s administration made the decision in anticipation of future budget shortfalls in the coming years. Out of fourteen programs evaluated–which also included Art, Theater Arts, Anthropology, and a few language and technical fields–Music and Sonic Arts and Gerontology were chosen for closure. James Hill, PCC’s Director of Public Relations, had this to say: 

“The decision to close Music & Sonic Arts — a Career Technical Education (CTE) program — was part of a wider, in-depth review of PCC’s programs that occured in 2024-25. This was done as the college is preparing for significant budget reductions in the 2025-2027 and 2027-2029 biennial. These challenges stem from increasing costs, state funding reductions, and declining enrollments following the COVID-19 pandemic. This review process aimed to proactively assess academic programs and disciplines for potential cost savings and greater alignment with institutional priorities, ensuring financial sustainability.

“As part of this review process the Music & Sonic Arts Program completed a self study. After evaluating the self study the recommendation was to close the program due to its lack of data to clearly demonstrate that an associate degree or credit certificate/credit credential is necessary to become employed in the field.”

The programs facing potential closure were asked to complete a self-assessment to make their case to the administration to stay open. Some professors were frustrated that the onus was put upon the department during finals week and spring break and didn’t allow much time to prepare research for the assessment. With the short time frame given by the administration, instructor Rachel Brashear reached out to MusicPortland for assistance. 

MusicPortland is a local advocacy group that supports musicians in the Portland Metro area. Director of Operations Renée Muzquiz said, “We can’t afford to lose this. We need to invest more into music.” Muzquiz continued:

“[MusicPortland] launched this survey asking music stakeholders and professionals to tell us if a degree from PCC’s MSA would matter to them when hiring a contractor or employee. The survey has collected more than 100 responses to date, with even more personal letters received.

“The staff already did their own research and prepared a case to present to the administration back in early April, but that wasn’t enough to deter them from cutting the program, which they just found out about Tuesday [April 29].”

Muzquiz told me that Oregon’s music industry creates $3.8 billion in economic impact–more than cannabis, fishing or logging. The city government of Portland considers the music industry an “emerging economic sector.” PCC’s Music and Sonic Arts program plays a small but significant role in the city’s economy. Were the program to go away, there would be downstream consequences that would harm the state’s long-term economic goals. The decision also comes at a moment when funding for the arts has become even more precarious than it already was. 

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As part of Music and Sonic Arts’ self-assessment, the department emphasized the program’s high enrollment and retention, along with its successful transfer program to Portland State University. The program teaches about two hundred students, and classes often have long waitlists. Students from myriad backgrounds find their place within the program–students, who in Brashear’s words, “don’t belong anywhere else.” Experienced musicians, bedroom producers, disenfranchised high schoolers, single mothers and middle-age students come together and learn from each other over a mutual love of music in the program. 

Local CBS affiliate KOIN reported recently about these developments. Jashayla Pettigrew reported: 

“However, Music & Sonic Arts Co-chair Jesse Mejia said the study received positive feedback before faculty members learned the program would be cut. They now have until May 12 to write a three-page appeal in an effort to preserve the courses.

“‘My feeling is that our administrators have a fairly narrow view of what a music career looks like, and we know that the city is full of music and music tech workers, but suddenly the burden of proof to show that has fallen on us,’ Mejia said.”

An earlier KOIN report added:

“Part-time instructor Rachel Brashear teaches Music and Sonic Arts classes, which aim to prepare attendees for careers in the modern music industry by showing them skills like engineering and creative coding. She said the impacted students and faculty have been ‘very upset’ since learning the program could be slashed.

“‘It was like having the rug pulled out from under us because we’ve been really popular,’ Brashear added. ‘We have very high enrollment, and we’re growing all the time, and our students love the program.’”

I spoke with Co-chair Mejia, who explained to me the administration’s issue with the program. Music and Sonic Arts is a Career Technical Education program (CTE). The department offers both Associate Degrees and Career Pathway Certificates in Music and Sonic Arts as well as Creative Coding and Immersive Technologies. The former focuses on contemporary music production, while the latter teaches the basics of coding for art installations and music-related software applications. 

The administration is looking for direct evidence that one of these degrees is specifically necessary for a job in the field, citing requirements on online job postings. The Music and Sonic Arts department took issue with the specific framing required for the self study. Brashear and Muzquiz argue that a degree in a creative field is not about preparing students for a single, linear career path. Rather, the Music and Sonic Arts degree teaches students to be creative and flexible to remain competitive in an industry that is constantly evolving. 

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MusicPortland’s survey is addressed to music industry professionals and employers, asking if they would hire someone if they had a degree from the program. A degree in “Music and Sonic Arts” is essential for many developing careers, even if it is not explicitly required in a job posting. A degree in philosophy can be immensely useful, even if one could pick up copies of the complete works of Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Kant and Hegel and read them on their own. 

Courses within the program also teach skills that go beyond work in music, such as programming and software design. Music and Sonic Arts helps to bridge the academic gap between STEM and the Humanities through these classes, and open up further career paths for students. 

Mejia told me that the institutional minutiae at the core of the funding cut has not been an issue for the Music and Sonic Arts department’s decades-long history–until it suddenly became the thing that spelled its demise. He also said that similar CTE programs in the arts at PCC such as Multimedia have not been the target of the same scrutiny. 

Brashear and Muzquiz also expressed frustration that the administration would choose to shutter a popular and successful program in the face of a future budget shortfall–not a current budget shortfall. The faculty’s union, the Federation of Faculty and Academic Professionals, is skeptical of how imminent this budget crisis really is. On March 20, President Trump’s executive order announced his intention to close the federal Department of Education. While this cannot be done without Congress’s approval, the administration has laid off many employees in the Department. One might suspect that Portland Community College is preparing for a downstream budget crisis due to the uncertain future of federal education funding. 

On a personal note

I graduated from Music and Sonic Arts’ sister program, Sonic Arts and Music Production (SAMP) at Portland State. I knew students who entered the program at PSU from PCC, and I was astounded by how well prepared they were for the four-year degree. I was also impressed by the facilities that were available to students at PCC Cascade.

I feel like my education in Sonic Arts has helped me immensely. Learning how contemporary music is made via software and hardware is essential for any working musician today, regardless of genre. The listening exercises and exposure to experimental music-making helped form the perspective that informs my writing and composition. I owe a lot to my education in the Sonic Arts, and I am disappointed that others in Portland may not have the chance to learn as I did from such a program. 

Programs such as Music and Sonic Arts are part of a broader move within music education to prepare students for the needs of the contemporary music industry. Traditional music degrees are based around classical music, and thus include things that are not essential for those who do not want to perform classical music. For a working musician today, it is more important to know the basics of recording software than how to read figured bass, as the argument goes. 

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The department has the opportunity to appeal the decision. The appeals process will have to be completed by Monday May 12, in which the department has a mere three pages to make their case to the administration. If the appeal is rejected, the program will remain for two years to allow current students to obtain their Associate’s degree, but they will not accept new students. This will also provide time for instructors to prepare for the inevitable layoffs. 

The Music and Sonic Arts program currently has nineteen full- and part-time faculty members. For working artists, part- or full-time jobs as a teacher provide financial stability, healthcare and other benefits. These layoffs could be disastrous to the instructors as they must find financial security elsewhere. 

The Music and Sonic Arts department may merge with the existing Music department, but this poses its own problems. The two degree paths have different curricula, for instance. Music and Sonic Arts requires no prior background in formal music education, filling in students with the essential knowledge as they go. Merging the programs could turn away students who don’t have prior experience, limiting the pool of potential students. 

I am told there are tentative plans by students to protest the administration’s decision on that day and show their support for the program. The administration will announce their final decision in June. 

MusicPortland’s survey is available here.