Rhonda Alves
Assistant Academic Director

Congratulations to everyone who participated in a district meet, and good luck to those of you who have not yet completed yours.

We are on the down-slope for ‘01-’02, and as you make summer plans I hope you put the Capital Conference on the agenda. Scheduled for the last week of June, the conference takes place at The University of Texas at Austin.

Sessions on coaching specific events, building pro-grams and running meets prepare sponsors and adminis-trators for bigger and better things in ‘02-’03. Experi-enced coaches serve as presenters, and if you are inter-ested in doing a workshop, call, e-mail or FAX me. Information on the conference is posted at http:// www.uil.utexas.edu/aca/capcon.html.

Recommendations by the elementary and junior high academic advisory committee are just that -- recommendations. Releasing information on the listserve and e-mailing it to addresses submitted on participation cards has created a deluge of responses. Thank you for the feedback, and I hope I will receive more. I ask this, though: please be specific and constructive in your responses, and if possible, include your ideas for addressing issues raised by the committee.

Committee members volunteered their time and expertise for what was not an easy workday. The next time I ask for volunteers, I hope your name is on the list. It is the philosophy of the League that competition should serve to enrich the education experience. While recall is certainly important, synthesis and analysis are more the focus of academic events. Application skills, aesthetic appreciation and developing critical thinking skills are integral to success in life, and as such must be more intensely utilized than rote memorization in the UIL program.

If a person is familiar with "The Infernal Dance," he or she should recognize it equally when played by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra or the school band. I am not saying there is no difference between the two ver-sions; I am saying that truly prepared competitors can bridge the gap.

One of the recommendations from the committee is for UIL to resume publishing a bulletin. Vendor’s sell these with practice tapes and CDs. Listening maps and other materials are all part of the package. In the past, titles on the official list were taken from a record album collection that was available to everyone for purchase. UIL produced the companion practice manuals for the records. This is no longer the case. The records are not in print and few people have turntables anymore. A non-profit radio station makes the contest tapes, not the practice tapes for music memory. A list of the exact arrangements used on the contest tapes is posted at http:/ /www.uil.utexas.edu/aca/ejh/news.html.

The rules have allowed people to gather the music themselves or to purchase practice materials from vendors. UIL WILL NOT SUPPLY PRACTICE TAPES EVEN IF IT PUBLISHES A BULLETIN. A League-published bulletin would match the arrangements used on the contest tapes, not those sold by vendors.

No one can reproduce music without paying mechanical licensing fees, and the cost is extremely high. The League is funded by school districts, and money for a project like this is not available. Given all this information, are you interested in a bulletin produced by the League? Several campuses were unable to participate in dis trict meets this year because they had no place to compete. The reasons are varied: they waited too late to find a district, schools refused to admit them into their UIL districts or other schools refused to compete so there was not a UIL district.

There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about how elementary and junior high campuses form UIL districts. Ultimately, it is a choice. Schools may choose to follow the high school’s alignment or they may form their own academic districts. UIL does not assign elementary and junior high campuses to districts, though many people think we do. Schools may compete with other public schools regardless of classification. An elementary campus in a school district with a class 5A high school may compete with elementary campuses from districts with conference A high schools. It does not matter.

Campuses that do not currently have districts in which to compete should start the hunt for one as soon as possible. If your school district has three or more campuses with the same grade levels, you can form your own UIL district. Those of you with established UIL districts, please accept those campuses with no where to go. After all, UIL contests are student-centered. What is best for children should be the top priority.

I thank you for all that you do, and I look forward to hearing from you.