Students and a professor have lodged a growing list of complaints concerning facilities and support for music programs at Georgetown.

Students in some music programs suffer from a lack of administrative support, must use poorly maintained equipment and sometimes complete class projects at 4 or 5 a.m. due to overcrowding, the professor and students have charged.

Robert Fair, an adjunct professor in Georgetown’s performing arts program, said several Gelardin studios that his students use for their musical compositions “completely fell apart” this year.

Because of technical difficulties in the studios, most of his students must use a crowded New North studio to do their work and have to carefully ration their time, he said. He also said that numerous pieces of musical equipment are obsolete in need of updating and added that despite numerous requests for emergency help, the administration has been unresponsive.

Fair said that an $85 fee which is supposed to go towards equipment updates has been misused by university officials who won’t release the money to him.

“I think they won’t release the money because they used it for something else and don’t want to admit it,” he said.

But according to Robynn Stilwell, interim director of Georgetown’s music program, Fair’s accusations are “unfair” and are due to “miscommunications and misunderstandings.”

Stilwell said that the equipment that Fair requested was not ordered until two weeks ago because he did not follow protocol.

“We need an itemized and prioritized list saying what he needs and we didn’t even get it until a couple of weeks ago and it wasn’t prioritized and was insufficient,” she said. “He has made verbal requests but he never sent that prioritized list.”

Stilwell said that most of the musical equipment arrived a few days ago and added that the music labs in Gelardin required software updates and are “on the way to getting all fixed.”

“We’re absolutely responding, we care about the students and we’re taking what we’ve been told very seriously,” she said.

According to Stilwell, the $85 lab fees have multiple uses, “are not necessarily used just to upkeep the labs” and can’t immediately be released to professors who request the money without following a special process, which she said Fair has not done.

Stilwell called a Monday town hall meeting between Fair’s students, Jane McAuliffe, dean of the College and other administrators “productive.”

“We had a lot of talk about everyone’s expectations and discussed the lab fees and what students needed in order to finish their projects,” she said.

But Fair said that the new equipment which Stilwell ordered is inferior.

“Unfortunately, nothing has been resolved,” he said. “Robynn . has decided to purchase several cheap and non-professional microphones and accessories that I would have never approved.”

Fair said that students in his Songwriting and MIDI Production and Studio and Sound Editing Class may have to receive incompletes as their grades if the situation does not improve.

For their part, Fair’s students said that they just wanted to finish their work for the semester.

Aaron Shneyer (COL ’05), a student in one of Fair’s classes, blamed university officials for the equipment difficulties.

“Their position is that they haven’t done anything wrong but there are huge equipment problems, too many kids in the classes and huge demand for them,” he said. “I’ve had to come in many times at three or four in the morning and spend many nights without sleeping. The lack of commitment they’re showing is absurd.”