Let's talk about standards

My first DMA recital is in two weeks. It has been planned for about eight months now - before I knew I was transferring to NEC, I had already picked out the rep and begun to learn it - and my 'pre-recital' was last week.

Let me talk for a moment about how things go for the voice pre-recitals. You type up your program, you make ten copies and show up fifteen minutes early to sing in front of the voice faculty. You dress nice, you check the spellings and accents on all of your songs, and you choose your first piece. They can keep you for as long as fifteen minutes, picking various songs from your language groups. If everything is up to snuff, they pass you and you go on your way. But just before you leave, the chair says, "you can pick up your comments in the registrar's office later today."

I had a rather nasty case of bronchitis that really didn't make its departure until a few days ago, so I tried my best to sing as safely as possible without pushing my larynx into my eyeballs. I took my double-dose of cough medication, put on my nice sweater and pants and pointy-toed boots, did up the hair and the makeup, even put in my dreaded contact lenses. Where I come from, you wear dresses for auditions and recitals, but anything academic-oriented, you wear pants.

I would like to point out at this time that there is a voice department handbook that details the procedures for just about everything - promotionals, masters' auditions, program notes - everything except DMA information. There is no sheet stating what our repertoire is to cover, whether or not we're allowed to include opera arias, content, language, medium, instrumentalists, NOTHING. So I put together a recital that represented my languages, my styles, and showed off a lot of different things that I can do. And now for the focus of this post, the comments made by the faculty:

Two teachers said that I should 'show more attention to appropriate dress for a pre-recital.'

One teacher said that I should choose my repertoire more thoughtfully for a DMA recital.

And the rest of them thought my repertoire was wonderful and that I sang very well. These two teachers, whose comments were virtually illegible, chose to discuss standards of dress and repertoire.
First of all, what would indicate that this is a formal event when the faculty are wearing khakis, polo shirts and denim skirts?
Second of all, if you want women to wear dresses you should say so and then be prepared for my letter to the provost asking when this became the New England Conservatory of Fashion.
Third, why the hell does it matter if I was wearing pants? Can I sing? Am I ready to give this recital?
Fourth, if there are no standards published speaking to the content of my recital, it seems up to the intelligence and aptitude of the student and their teacher to determine content that is age, voice and artistically appropriate for the student.
Fifth, and finally, am I kicking that much ass that you have nothing to say about my singing and you are reduced to commenting on my attire? If so, then you need a thesaurus and I need a better scholarship.

If I had to pick one thing that drives me the most crazy about this institution it's the fact that very little is in print, leaving a great deal of leeway for every nabob to interpret exactly what they think these small phrases mean: appropriate repertoire, electives within their field of study, the list goes on. At what point in time will NEC hold its students and faculty to standards - published and defined - and realize that it is only through standards that you are able to measure the greatness of your students and the levels at which they achieve? When will NEC come out from behind its reputation and really take a position as a conservatory in the 21st century?