Dallas College Richland Campus Music Advisors Put Students into Excess Hours = Out of State Tuition
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 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 no 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 to 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, Conductin 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 tech 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. The institution shall inform a student promptly if it is determined that he or she isnot acceptable as a candidate for a degree, certificate, or diploma," Many of the students would not be accepted into a real music schools 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 hours that will eat up their financial aid and in-state tuition eligible hours.
Not NASM accredited.
The DCCCD board is not providing proper oversight and the administration is not looking out for students. The predatory advising violates students' rights.