The SIUC School of Music is tuning up for the future with the appointment of a new director who is already a familiar face around the department.

The new director, Robert L. Weiss, Jr., who has also served as acting director of the department, said he considers the appointment an honor. I’ve been a part of the School of Music for over 17 years, Weiss said. This position is really an honor and a chance for me to give something back to the faculty and the students in the department. The job entails a lot of paper pushing, but the most important thing, probably, is providing the direction to create a positive environment for learning and research.

John S. Jackson III, dean of SIUC’s College of Liberal Arts, said Weiss was the perfect choice for the director’s position because of his strong background in the music department.

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Weiss was assistant director for the School of Music for 10 years and has a strong administrative background as well as a strong teaching background, Jackson said. The director position entails providing leadership to a very diverse group of faculty and students in the School of Music. Weiss has proven he can do this in the professor role and University leadership role very nicely.

Fredia Doody, administrative assistant in the School of Music for the past 20 years, said she is very impressed with Weiss and hopes he continues as director for many years to come.

He’s really working hard on recruitment of new students, and he keeps an open door policy if anyone needs to see him, Doody said. He’ll be a really great director. I hope we keep him at least until I retire. Seriously, when you get a good boss you really want to keep him.

Mike Hanes, director of bands, said Weiss is extremely dedicated to music and education and there will be a lot of good things to come from his administration.

It has honestly been a pleasure to work with Weiss, Hanes said. I expect to see continued growth in all our performance areas and music education. He and I share many of the same philosophies on music and music education and I can only see good things to come.

Weiss, who was officially appointed new director in August, said he hopes to do the best job he can, and said he takes the position very seriously.

It’s frightening. A lot of people maybe think that all there is to the director’s job is pushing papers, but the job is more demanding than that, Weiss said. I have to be fair and still motivate 25 diverse faculty members to work together and have some common goals. It’s the most challenging thing I’ve ever tried to do.

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Weiss succeeds Robert P. Roubos, who resigned as director in 1994 to return to teaching.