[CAUT] Protecting pianos from student and faculty beverage spills

[Israel Stein]

Wed, 2 Dec 2009 11:11:13 -0800 "Newhouse,Larry R." <lrn at SFCM.EDU> wrote: 

>
> Hello everyone,
>
> I have not been subscribed to CAUT for many years and I apologize in advance
> if this question has already been discussed to exhaustion.  We have more
> than 100 pianos with approximately 88 practice rooms, classrooms and
> studios.  While I have had placards placed on a wall of each room stating no
> food of beverages allowed and discuss this at the beginning of each semester
> we invariably have a few spills a year on average.  I haven't found away to
> search for past threads on the subject.  If that is possible I would welcome
> some direction.
>   
Larry,

Here at San Francisco State it has also been a big problem. Last month 
we had the latest spill  - it required rebushing the keys on one of our 
practice room Yamaha P-22's.  In the past we had strings, dampers and 
hammers on a Yamaha C-7 ruined by hot chocolate, and strings on a 
Baldwin F damaged by some sort of sticky goo. The Director, who is very 
protective of the pianos (he's a violinist - so go figure...) basically 
hit the ceiling and decreed a policy of total prohibition of any food or 
drinks in the practice rooms or anywhere near pianos elsewhere. The only 
exception - water bottle, on the floor. There is a student lounge 
designated for eating and drinking...  He decreed rather severe 
penalties for violations (loss of practice room privileges for a week 
and/or automatic failure of a required course for the semester) - and 
posted signs all over the building announcing it all. This is far beyond 
anything that I or the other technician would have recommended - but 
apparently he lost patience. So far the harshest penalty has not been 
invoked, but we regularly kick people out of practice rooms for any 
violations and suggest that they thank us for not reporting them to the 
department office - which would result in course failure. It certainly 
has drawn attention to the problem...  We'll see what happens in the 
long term. I do have to say that the majority of students are quite 
understanding and cooperative. Faculty is a different story...

Israel Stein