Faculty members from the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) are petitioning for union representation in the face of pay cuts and the ongoing lawsuit filed by former Principal Conductor Carlos Kalmar.
As reported in February by The Observer, Kalmar sued CIM for $260 million in federal court. Since then, the lawsuit has been withdrawn in federal court and was re-filled in Cuyahoga County Court as of Sept. 6.
Much like in the previous suit, Kalmar’s lawsuit focuses on CIM and various staff members who “catered to and placated the misinformed and misled students, permitted them to publicly demonstrate and boycott Kalmar by refusing to participate in his classes, rehearsals, training sessions, and concerts, and prohibited Kalmar from treating or grading these students accordingly.”
The Docket, available publicly via the Clerk of Courts website, also contains his employment contract. Unlike the previous suit, it does not mention his wife and the amount of damages sought for is lowered. This suit is only asking for $180 million, compared to $260 million in the previously reported suit.
According to an interview with his attorneys published in the Cleveland Scene, one of the main reasons for the new lawsuit in a different court is due to the nuances related to Title IX procedures, which are adjudicated in federal court.
Perhaps the most shocking change for CIM students came from reports of more faculty members stepping down. According to SlippedDisk, a classical music magazine, this is in response to an overall pay cut, due to “reduced teaching loads due to lower enrollment.”
The Instagram page whosenext.CIM encouraged students to check in on their teachers, speculating that many will leave soon. On the same account, a faculty member submitted that “The current situation at CIM is worse than anyone on the outside can imagine.”
Sharon Robinson, a member of the cello faculty, and Jaime Laredo, a violinist, are two of the individuals who elected to leave. The cuts to funding are, supposedly, to make up a $1.6 million shortfall in tuition, even after President Paul Hogle wrote about his goal to make CIM tuition-free.
The letter to faculty was released in June, after full- and part-time faculty submitted a request to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a vote on unionization. This request was approved Sept. 9 for a vote which is scheduled to take place at the end of September at CWRU’s Coffee House on the second floor. The NLRB notice applies to full- and part-time “faculty employees” with directors’ and division heads’ contracts still in negotiation. Many, if not all, of the professional staff members, managers and deans are prohibited from voting.
Cleveland Federation of Musicians, AFM Local 4, the union that the staff members elected to represent themselves with, has previously organized musicians at The Cleveland Orchestra in addition to other musical groups in Northeast Ohio.
CIM has not yet responded to requests for comment.