Students and faculty are trying to save Portland Community College’s modernized music program that could soon disappear. by Jeremiah Hayden Funding cuts are threatening an innovative music program at Portland Community College, bu t students and faculty are not letting it go away silently. The Music and Sonic Arts (MSA) program is an industry-shaping program focused on music recording, production, audio programming, interactivity, and composition using contemporary tools including Ableton or Max MSP software. Offered at the Portland Community College (PCC) Cascade campus in North Portland, the program includes pathways for two-year associate’s degrees in music, or one-year certificates that can be useful in music and other tech jobs. But with at least $11.2 million in reductions during the 2025-2027 budget biennium—and the likelihood of nearly $21 million in further cuts in 2027-2029—PCC administrators are restructuring the curriculum in a way some say could be detrimental. Now, students, faculty, political figures, and community members are coming together to try and save the program, saying PCC leadership’s decision is flawed as they refused to consider new information that could save it. Alena Slee, a student in the program, is organizing a demonstration on February 12, calling for accountability for a school leadership who she says failed to sufficiently consider aspects that could lead them to a different decision. She said the program is a highly diverse safe haven, particularly for neurodivergent students to learn skills that may be challenging to learn in other scenarios. “To take away a program that's specifically focused on career skills for our diverse population, I think it's just really sad,” Slee said. Slee and other proponents of the program say cutting MSA altogether would leave the suburban Sylvania and Rock Creek campuses as the main opportunities for music education at PCC, and only traditional music classes are likely to be available. As of Fall 2025, there were 235 students enrolled in MSA-related programs, according to Darcy Demers, a PCC pathway advisor. Since PCC administrators halted enrollment in the programs in November, Demers estimates she’s had to turn away some 50-75 students, with denials coming every week. The cuts will leave Cascade students, the most diverse student body at the college, without an opportunity to pursue music classes focusing on new media. Through the program, students learn skills that can lead to work as performers, producers, composers, or sound designers in the music industry, or find careers as educators, researchers, tech, or other jobs based on broader interests. It also has sizable impact on students’ self-assurance. The MSA program introduced Slee to professors who she said made her feel like a capable learner—something she had not felt in prior educational environments. That’s a strength of the program, she said, attracting students who may not always feel supported in academia. “To have a teacher believe in me and continue to push me was just a really beautiful thing to experience,” Slee said. In November 2024, the school announced a Fiscal Sustainability Framework and Action Plan, meant to stabilize its budget through 2031. PCC Board Chair Tiffani Penson sent a letter to concerned students on November 18, 2025, saying the Board’s job is to ensure the college follows standards set by accreditors and by law. “No one is arguing that the skills students learn here matter,” Penson stated. “They do, and we know that Portland’s creative economy depends on them. But offering something as a Career and Technical Education program isn’t about whether the skills are useful or meaningful. It’s about whether the degree or certificate itself is something employers actually require to get a job.” Shana Palmer, an instructional support technician at PCC, said empowering students and building confidence is a central piece of what the MSA program offers, even if students end up in other fields. She gave an example of one student who had no skills in technology when they started, and later went through to finish an electronic engineering program. “There's really great leaps in [students’] confidence, and the things that people go on to learn to do,” Palmer said. “It's the faculty and the community of students and the hands-on training. We try to really practice getting in there and doing things—no gatekeeping.” Jennifer Ernst, vice president of academic affairs for PCC, said in a statement to the Mercury that the school engaged faculty and staff for over a year and a half to address fiscal challenges while centering student success. Ernst said that included a college-wide review of 92 academic programs while measuring enrollment trends, course completion, cost efficiency, student options at nearby colleges, the percentage of traditionally underserved students served, and employment outlook. “The Board’s role is to ensure that the program review process is sound, transparent, and aligned with required standards,” Ernst said. Supporters of MSA say one of PCC leadership’s main rationales for cutting the program is that CTE programs are required to have a specific job that the degree would lead to. However, an email from a Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) spokesperson sent to a faculty member and obtained by the Mercury shows that leadership’s assertion may be incorrect. “There is no specific language in our [Community Colleges and Workforce Development] Policy Procedure Book that speaks to a CTE program requirement of having to list the degree as a qualification for any specific job,” the spokesperson wrote. That’s a principle conflict that supporters take issue with. “We all know that music is gig work and that we piece it together until we find the niche that supports us,” Palmer said. “Or, we build upon the skills that we learned through being musicians to create our own pathway. And that's something that this program allows you to uniquely do.” If the college cuts the program, it is required to do a “teach out,” allowing enrolled students to finish the program, which PCC intends to do if classes are cut. Asked how cutting the MSA program might impact the equity goals outlined in the plan, Ernst said the central question is whether it shows a clear pathway to specific jobs that lead to sustainable wages. “Equity is a key consideration here,” Ernst said. “When a credential lacks a clear workforce or transfer pathway, students (particularly those with limited financial resources) may use scarce financial aid or take on debt without a reliable return in employment or transfer outcomes.” Proponents of the program claim that that assertion misses the opportunity to bring in students who may build confidence and perform better in a cohort of supportive students like them, without being weighed down in debt by a four-year university program. “This program meets the moment in the way that traditional music programs do not,” Erika Anderson—the artist behind Portland’s electronic band EMA—who teaches studio recording in the MSA program, said. “For me, it feels very ethical. It feels like an ethical form of higher education, where it's affordable for people.”  Slee said losing the program doesn’t only impact the students at PCC, but also leaves younger students like those in low-income, tax-funded Schools Uniting Neighborhoods (SUN) programs with fewer opportunities in music and tech. “Being able to teach little girls at SUN schools, I feel like, reminded me so much of myself,” Slee said. “And knowing that they're the future of this program, that's my big why.” Local elected officials have also weighed in on PCC’s intent to cut the program. City Council President Jamie Dunphy’s policy advisor—and recent touring production manager for local-grown jazz artist Esperanza Spalding—Eben Joondeph Hoffer, provided testimony in a January 15 PCC board meeting. Joondeph Hoffer read a letter that Dunphy, and Councilors Tiffany Koyama Lane, Angelita Morillo, and Mitch Green sent urging the school to consider the broader impacts of the program. The letter cited a 2023 Northwest Economic Research Center study showing Oregon’s music sector brought some 23,000 music industry jobs, generated nearly $1 billion in labor income, and contributed nearly $3.8 billion in economic output in Oregon. “This program offers a low cost, low barrier path for individuals to receive quality training, technical education, and hands-on time with professional-grade equipment,” the letter read. “And we need that workforce in this town.” The letter highlighted gender disparities within the music industry as well, saying programs like MSA provide important access for income and gender diverse students.  “For these reasons, we urge you as community members and public servants to reconsider the termination of the MSA program,” the letter read. For Slee, the justification for cutting the program only makes sense if school leadership is afraid to admit it erred in evaluating what the program offers. She’s looking for accountability, saying some of the efforts by board members to shut down testimony have silenced students and contradicted the values of the board. “It's pretty unbelievable, as a student, to feel this massive lack of accountability,” Slee said. “Especially over something that I am so passionate about. And I'm living proof that it works. Up until this, PCC has been the best educational experience I've ever had. I love my school.” Slee said anyone is welcome to join the walkout in support of the program, scheduled for February 12 at 1:30 pm at PCC Cascade Campus. The demonstration will include free food and, of course, live music. Fair Stand in the Fields of France, Starsixnine, and Lexinevermind are scheduled to play. ...read more read less