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Professor Emeritus of Music Education
Michael V. W. Gordon retired during the 2000-2001 school year
after 26 years of service to Indiana University. He received the
B.S. from Virginia State University, Master of Music from The
Cleveland Institute of Music, Masters and Doctorate of Education
from Columbia University's Graduate School of Education, Teachers
College. After more than forty years of teaching, he is looking
forward to a new way of dealing with learning and teaching in the
arts in his retirement years.
He was one of the original founders of the National Black Music
Caucus, which for many years was an affiliate organization of the
Music Educators National Conference. It is now called the National
Association for the Preservation and Performance of African American
Music. He served as its National President from 1978-1981.
He is well known as a speaker and clinician and has published
articles in professional journals and other publications. He still
manages to perform as a choral conductor and baritone soloist with
symphony orchestras and opera companies in the United States and
abroad.
He sang the role of Porgy in George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" with
the Indiana University Opera Theatre in 1976. He continued to
perform that role with a traveling company throughout the mid-west
as well as in concert with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. Gordon
has performed in and around Bloomington in a number of productions
as a singer-actor and as actor. Notable among his performances have
been "The Captain" in HMS Pinafore, "Othello" in the Shakespeare
Play and as "Bynum" in August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone"
in March, 2000.
In 2000, he was awarded the title Distinguished Hoosier by the
Indiana State Legislature, the Herman Wells Image Award by the
Indiana University Black Students Union which he founded in 1978,
and the Silver Medal by the National Interfraternity Conference. The
Indiana University All-Greek council named a chapter Innovation
award the Michael Gordon Chapter Award. In March 2001, the Campus
Life Division named their Annual Dean of Students Award for Faculty
who contribute to Student Life in an admirable way, the Michael
Gordon Faculty Award for Student Life Contributions. Over the last
several years, he has received numerous awards from student groups
and student life organizations nationally and from over 25 colleges
and universities.
He served as the first Executive Director of The National
Pan-Hellenic Council International Headquarters, which he was
instrumental in locating in Bloomington, Indiana in January of 1992.
The National Pan-Hellenic Council has been since 1930 the national
umbrella organization for International historically African
American Fraternities and Sororities whose undergraduate and
graduate chapters comprise 1.5 million members.
He served Indiana University as Vice Chancellor and/or Dean of
Students 1981-91. As Chief Student Advocate for more than 35,000
undergraduate and graduate students his responsibilities included
Residence Life, Student Activities, Fraternity and Sorority Affairs,
Student Rights and Responsibilities, Career Development, Disabled
Student Services, Veterans Affairs, Health Service, Child Care,
Commission on Multicultural Understanding, Racial Incidents Team,
Gay, Lesbian & Bi-Sexual Students Concerns, Student Advocates
Program, The Campus Personal Safety Commission, and the Campus
Recreational Sports Committee. During his tenure as Vice
Chancellor/Dean of Students he established or developed a number of
new programs, including the Alcohol-Drug Information Center, The I.U.
Chapters of BACCHUS and SADD, the Residential Education Programs,
Faculty Fellows Programs in all Residence Centers, The Foster
International Living-Learning Center, The Commission on Racial
Understanding, The Student Advocates Office, The I.U. Parents
Association, The Robert Shaffer Endowment for The Quality of Student
Life and the I.U. Chapter of the Golden Key National Honorary
Society. In 1992, he returned to teach full time in the Music
Education Department of Indiana University School of Music.
Prior to his appointment to the Indiana University School of Music
in 1975, and after many years of teaching and administration in the
public schools of New York and other places, he was the District
Supervisor of Music and Art for the New York Public Schools in
Bedford-Stuyvesant and East Harlem where he developed nationally
recognized educational programs in the arts.
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