Weitzenhoffer Fine Arts Year in Review

The Weitzenhoffer School of Fine Arts finished the year off with a bang... or a pirouette... or twenty. The Oklahoma Festival Ballet company performed their annual show mixing many different styles of dance, from Spanish to contemporary, from classical ballet to comedic.

The show lasted around two hours and was a great closing to the school's successful year in allperforming aspects.

The Fine Arts School opened it's major productions with the School of Musical Theatre's performance of Rent. The famous ultra-contemporary rock opera drew a great mix of dramaticacting to a complex, yet simplistic sounding score. The music, accented by an incredible stage and subway set in the middle of the auditorium truly put the musical over the top.

The next major musical the students performed took place in the Spring. Titled, A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum, the light-hearted musical based in ancient Rome left myself and und

oubtedly many others still chuckling at the many role reversals the actors and actresses displayed. They also all seemed to truly master the art of satirical comedy.

The musical was directed by James Brennan, a well-known Broadway actor and choreographer.

Dean Rich Taylor of the Weitzenhoffer School of Fine Arts, talked about how great it is to have so many different well-known actors, directors, dancers and artists come to speak and teach the students.

"We bring a lot of guest artists in and guest lecturers in to talk to (the students) about the real world. Whether it's in art, art history or da

nce... We try to bring real-world people here... to help collaborate on things... the real world is collaborative and college isn't always real collaborative." Taylor said.

One of, if not the greatest fine arts collaborative performances the School has performed was

the Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. It combined the Colleges of Music, Dance, and Musical Theatre. The show was the first in the United States, and had one world premiere performance from an Andrew Lloyd Webber song. The "Music" was also led by one of Lord Webber's most trusted directors, Hugh Wooldridge.

The College of Drama, while taking part in just about everything that takes

place in the Performing Arts Center, had a few shows that were solely their students putting it on. Those were Ah, Wilderness! and The Odyssey: A Play.

The "Odyssey" used a more interactive stage set, by having a rotating stage, that allowed for spectators to sit on all sides of it as the action took place all around the Weitzenhoffer Theatre.

For the year, the Schools of Performing Arts had another successful run and it is certain that they are planning for bigger and better performances next year.

OU Preparing Pilots Amidst the Looming Shortage

There is a shortage of pilots in America, and the source of the problem is two-fold.

Robert Meltzer, a professional pilot senior from Frisco, Texas explained one side of the problem, "The mandatory retirement age for an airline pilot is age 65. And since all those 'Baby Boomers' are reaching that age they are going to be retiring soon. And they are all at the major airlines, meaning American, Delta, those kinds of carriers. . . they are going to be moving on and the regional captains are going to be moving up. So it's going to be opening up a large pool of available pilot slots in the regional carriers."

While that problem is tangible there are many facts backing this up. The Boeing Company projects there will be 30,000 more planes in the sky and upwards of 466,600 pilots will be needed to fly the planes. In Canada and the U.S. alone, they have estimated there will be a need of about 97,000 pilots within the next two decades.

In 2010, legislation passed the pilot-safety bill that required pilots to have at least 1500 hours of flying hours before they can hired by aircraft carriers. The previous required mark was 250 hours. However, this rule will not be required to be followed until year 2013.

This is clearly a marked difference for piloting schools around the U.S. where 250 hours is the accepted minimum for graduation. While that is still the case, most pilots will now be at the regional carriers for longer than ever before. Bloomberg Business Week reported that these changes might raise the cost for hiring pilots to national carriers because more experienced pilots demand more money generally.

That leads to the next problem, money. From the beginning of the process at the flight schools, to the national carriers, costs will be higher than ever. Coupling that with the demand for pilots and the weak economy at the moment, there is a problem.

Meltzer presented a different argument when considering this problem, "I can say that OU is one of the cheapest schools you can learn how to fly at. We run about $135 an hour for a Warrior Flight, which is our primary training aircraft... If you go somewhere else, it could be upwards of $150-160 an hour." He continued, "It's really just trying to get the word out there to have people enthused about joining and flying... because if you 're really that passionate about flying, you're going to find any means necessary to be able to do it."

The Cutting Edge News found that the majority of pilots, who entered the field over thirty years ago, have taken significant pay cuts when transferring from one carrier to another. In fact, some of the pilots are being paid at entry-level wages after having flown for over thirty years.

Likewise, the desire for young pilots who are hearing about these trends is waning. Over the past few years the FAA experienced a decline of about 13-percent of the student pilots getting their certificates. The decline was a little under 10,000 students from 2006-2008 average to 2009.

In 1964, when we were experiencing a pilot shortage the outlook was very positive. TIME Magazine wrote, "The pay is high, and can become skyhigh. Pilots who handle the large jets begin at $6,000 to $6,720 the first year, then soar to some $35,000, plus many benefits, by the ninth year–for 85 airborne hours a month."

But with two years left before legislation comes into action, there are many questions that need to be answered.