After 27 years of teaching students how to build their own musical instruments, Professor of Instruction David Dolak has been laid off from Columbia College Chicago as part of the college’s latest round of faculty cuts.
Dolak, a professor of instruction in the School of Design, shared news of the layoff with his students this week. He is among five full-time faculty members laid off in the college’s third round of cuts this year, which administrators previously confirmed to the Chronicle without naming those affected. Dolak will continue teaching through the end of the academic year.
The layoff leaves the future of Dolak’s “Science of Musical Instruments” course uncertain — a hands-on class that had fulfilled the college’s science core requirement and led students to build more than 2,000 functioning instruments since he began teaching the course in 1999.
Tom Dowd, interim co-director in the School of Design, said in an email to the Chronicle that it is not known who will take over Dolak’s course or whether it will be taught.
“We’re only beginning to think about the academic schedule for next year, so it is impossible to answer that question for any of our classes,” Dowd said. “We understand the value of that class and will weigh that heavily as we start planning for next year.”
The “Science of Musical Instruments” course fulfills the college’s science core requirement. However, the course’s credits were reduced after the college lowered its overall core curriculum from 42 to 30 credits.
“They went to one science course instead of two,” Dolak said. “But I am grateful for my colleagues in music, audio and music technology because they do actually encourage their students to take my course for their science class.”
The course is required for the music technology major but no other major.
“Specifically being a music student, this course benefits us from learning how things are built from the ground up,” said Axel Hernandez, a junior music performing major. “Dolak did a great job with everything from attention to detail, and even if it was mass guitar builds that we had to push out towards the end of the semester, we managed to make ends meet and show him what we got from this course.”
Brea West, a senior music performance major, said Dolak is “very insightful” about how instruments work.
“I’ve learned so much about how these things work,” West said. “I’ve been playing [guitar] for years and it’s just so cool to get hands on and just really get in there, and to know how the thing I’m playing makes the sounds that it makes when I play it.”
Dolak first discovered Columbia through a Chicago Tribune ad seeking a part-time earth science instructor. After being hired as a part-time instructor in Spring 1999, he became an Artist-in-Residence the same semester because of his combination of scientific training, musicianship and professional-level instrument-building experience.
When he took over the course, then called “The Physics of Music”, it “was sort of floundering,” Dolak said.
He redesigned it around a hands-on final project in which students build their own functioning musical instruments. Now, the college has an honors section for it.
In the last class of the semester this week, students performed a song they composed on the guitars they made in the class, a visual demonstration of how the course merges instrument construction and musical artistry. The room buzzed with energy as each student performed, embodying the course’s blend of science, music and craftsmanship.
Beyond his most well-known course, Dolak has taught “Historical Geology”, “Big Chicago” and courses pertaining to environmental science. He also leads Acoustic Kitchen and the Renegade’s Outdoor Collective.
Despite unexpectedly losing his job, Dolak said he is prepared for the transition. He plans to continue building custom instruments, lecturing at the Indiana Dunes, working at the field museum as a docent and teaching a guitar building course in Northwest Indiana.
“I’m technically of retirement age now, so I’ll be fine,” Dolak said. “Sometimes life makes the decision for you. I’ve let them know that I would be willing to do part-time. There’s really no one else to teach it.”
Dolak has kept photos from every class he taught – from the early cigar boxes designed 27 years ago to the complex instruments students are completing today – a visual archive of how the course has evolved.
“I love the opportunity that I’ve had here because nowhere else can I do this. There is no other course like this in the country,” Dolak said.
Copy edited by Matt Brady
