‘Intimidation, shame and leverage:’ Inside USU’s piano department

Editor’s note: This is an ongoing story that will be updated as more information becomes available. Quoted information from emails and letters in this story have not been edited to fit AP style or grammatical preferences. A previous version of this article said Lexie Hansen’s entire scholarship was revoked. This is incorrect, it was a portion of her scholarship that was revoked and the story has been updated to reflect this change. 

An independent investigation into allegations of harassment by faculty members in the Caine College of the Arts is nearing its completion.

The investigation has been ongoing for six weeks and could be finished by Friday, said Tim Vitale, university spokesperson.

Utah State University hired Alan Sullivan, a Salt Lake City-based attorney, to investigate claims made by two former students on Facebook in February.

The independent investigation was opened after Whitney Griffith and Amy Arakelyan shared their individual experiences with harassment from Caine College of the Arts faculty members.

The Facebook posts allege harassment and sexual misconduct by faculty in the piano department against former students. Since the original posts were made, additional current and former students have come forward, sharing similar experiences about their time studying piano.  

The Utah Statesman received an anonymous letter following the release of the first article reporting the allegations. The letter was signed “a group of frightened students” and detailed more experiences with harassment and sexual misconduct within the USU music department.  

“We, a number of students in the Music and Theatre departments,” the letter read,
“who like others, have been afraid to come forward because we know, from our fellow student’s experiences, how it will be handled (ignored, hidden, covered-up and go unpunished).”

Griffith said her experience with the USU piano department was “traumatic” and left her with “complicated” emotions toward piano. However, she said piano will always be her “number one passion.”

After Arakelyan first shared her post, the USU Title IX office contacted her about filing a formal complaint against Gary Amano, director of piano studies at the university.

Arakelyan is unsure if she had filed a formal complaint with Title IX, and the office has not responded to her request asking for a copy of her Title IX record.

Arakelyan identified Amano as the “ringleader” of the harassment she and her husband experienced, but also stressed that the other professors in the department enabled the toxic atmosphere as well. “I don’t think removing Amano will fix everything in the piano department,” she said. “Others were culpable and should also be held accountable.”

Griffith said she thought the “root of the problem” in the piano department was Amano, as well as the other faculty members who allowed the mistreatment to continue.

Rachel Speedie, a piano student at USU from 1999-2004, was denied the opportunity to play her senior recital and left the university in 2004 — two credits shy of earning her piano performance and pedagogy degree.

“I think it damaged my career severely,” Speedie said. “It made me really struggle with finding joy in music.”

Speedie received a full-ride scholarship from the piano department when she attended USU, which included free housing. Amano threatened to revoke her scholarship, she said, during the summer before her freshman year at USU when she moved into the provided housing early to prepare for a piano competition.

“It was then that I experienced my first threat and verbal assault by my instructor,” Speedie wrote in her Facebook post. “He yelled. He threatened to revoke my scholarship and send me home. My infraction was allowing a male colleague into his ‘scholarship house’ to get a glass of water.”

Later in her college career, she said Amano threatened a lawsuit against her if she ever came forward with what she experienced during her time at USU.

“It was not an easy decision for me, but I’m glad that I did,” Speedie said of her decision to share her story on Facebook.

Speedie later received a degree in piano performance from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2007.

“I was still really struggling with the emotional abuse that was a daily part of life there,” Speedie said of her time at USU.

As for a solution to the problems within the piano department, Arakelyan suggests hiring new faculty who can change the culture of harassment.

The office of Gary Amano, director of piano studies at Utah State University. Amano is currently on sabbatical and has been with the piano department at the university for decades. Several former and current piano students have made allegations of harassment and mistreatment against Amano.

“USU needs to bring in new faculty, fresh and removed from these tragic decades, who are qualified and passionate about music, but who also know how to nurture and help every student excel,” Arakelyan said.

Amano is currently on sabbatical. The university was unable to provide details of Amano’s sabbatical, Vitale said, citing the open investigation. Amano did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lexie Hansen and Camille Weber, current piano students at the university, filed Title IX complaints against Amano in the spring semester of 2017 for comments he made to Weber during class.

Hansen said Amano told Weber to stop questioning his authority. “I was uncomfortable,” Hansen said.

In 2015, Arakelyan sent an email to Craig Jessop, the dean of the Caine College of the Arts, detailing the experience she recounted on Facebook, which she said occurred during her time at USU from 2003-2007. Jessop was not the dean when Arakelyan attended USU.

In his response to Arakelyan’s emailed letter, Jessop said he “confidentially shared the substance of your concerns with the appropriate officials at USU and will follow their advice,” according to emails shared with The Utah Statesman.

Jessop declined an interview, citing the open investigation.

Arakelyan was just one credit shy of graduating when she left USU in 2007.

Although she was originally seeking a piano performance and pedagogy degree, Arakelyan was awarded a bachelor’s in music individualized program in the spring of 2016. The compromise came after Jessop and Cindy Dewey, the department head of music, waived the remaining requirements due to the extenuating circumstances.

“All of that horrible stuff didn’t have to happen,” Arakelyan said. “It wasn’t necessary.”  

However, Arakelyan said she was grateful for Jessop and his accommodation. “He was really great,” she said.

“Thank you so much for your time and for your efforts,” she wrote in a later email to Jessop. “Thank you for believing me. And thank you for making this resolution so simple for me.”

Griffith, however, said her experience with Jessop was “not helpful at all.” In 2009, she filed a complaint to the Title IX office against her accused rapist, who was also a piano instructor at USU at the time. She said Jessop was aware of the complaint and sat in on the Title IX meeting held with the instructor. No disciplinary action occurred, and the instructor remained employed at the university.

“He did nothing about it,” Griffith said. “He made things worse for me.”

Griffith said the “cover-up culture” seen within the piano department needs to be stopped and that personnel changes are necessary for that to happen.

Griffith also stressed the importance that “it’s not too late” for others to share their stories and experiences with the piano faculty at USU, and she said she wants people to know that “they are not alone.”

The Utah Statesman does not ordinarily identify victims of sexual assault, however Griffith agreed to be named.

Aram Arakelyan, Amy’s husband, was a student in the piano program during the same time as Amy. He also left USU before completing his degree. He transferred to the University of Utah in the spring of 2008 and graduated there with a piano performance degree in 2010.

Aram said he was targeted and threatened by Amano and other piano faculty during his time at USU because of his relationship with Amy. He said Amano accused him of letting Amy “distract” him too much from his music.

Aram was a successful pianist during his time at USU, and a photo of him playing piano is still hanging on a billboard in the Taggart Student Center, near the Financial Aid Office on the first floor.

Aram Arakelyan (left) in a billboard hanging on the wall on the first floor of the TSC. Arakelyan is a former piano student at Utah State University.

“I’ve never been able to emotionally bring myself to go and see it in person,” Aram said.

“We all kind of knew,” Aram said of the mistreatment going on in the department, but “learning the details is horrendous.” He said he hadn’t realized the depth of the mistreatment before hearing his fellow students’ stories.

Aram said there were no established parameters when it came to the scholarships given to the piano students from the department. He received a full-ride scholarship through the piano program, but was never given any academic guidelines for the qualifications of the money.

“There was unchecked power given to the program,” Aram said. “In other programs, I’ve never witnessed anything like that.”

He said financial aid was leveraged regularly against students within the USU program to control them.

Aram said Amano threatened to cut his scholarship by $500 if he practiced less than 30 hours per week. He said the piano faculty also reminded him of his status as an international student — and how because of that, he cost the department more money.

Hansen said she experienced this as well, and that at one point Amano revoked a portion of her scholarship. She said it was later fully restored when a different piano faculty member found there were no grounds to revoke the scholarship on.

“The piano faculty, I think, were trying to motivate people to practice,” Aram said. “But I don’t think the message really matters, because it was through intimidation, shame and leverage,” he said. “That was my entire experience were those things.”

Aram is now a lecturer in collaborative piano at Indiana University. “Utah State taught me what not to do and how not to treat my students,” he said.

As for his photo in the TSC, Aram said he lightheartedly saw it is as a form of payback.

“If I cost them so much money, then here, take the free advertisement,” he said.

Alison Berg and Carter Moore contributed to this report.

laurenmarie.bennett@aggiemail.usu.edu
@laurmarben