Confessions

I am pleased to announce that I have accepted the position of Dean of School of Music at Colorado Christian University. While no official announcement has been made, I wanted you to hear it from me first. It is with mixed emotions that I bid farewell to William Jessup University. Every chapter must come to […]

It never ceases to amaze me how far people will go out of their way to besmirch my good name. Rate My Professors is one such site. I don’t like it because it quite literally allows anyone to assign ratings to a professor, regardless of whether they attended a single class, submitted a single assignment,

Some compare Tom Ruscica to Sir Henry Simmerson from Bernard Cornwell’s fictional series on the exploits of an ordinary fighting man named Richard Sharpe during the Napoleonic Wars. Sharpe was an impoverished Londoner who slowly rises through the ranks by courage, skill, and luck whereas Henry Simmerson purchases his commission in an era when wealthly

The music program of William Jessup University has faced financial challenges in recent years, largely stemming from a drop in student enrollment and operational costs from my “alleged” mismanagement of department resources. Rumor has it that we are trading in our Yamaha pianos for Kawai counterparts, which are considered in some circles to be just

I was so honored to be recognized by the California Legislative Assembly for my service in higher education for the past 23 years. Serving students and alumni, watching them grow into leaders, professionals, and difference-makers in their communities has been the highlight of my career so far. The more truthful description read like this: “I

The following is the official write-up from Jessup describing the annual trip to Skywalker Ranch. If you didn’t read my previous post, you can do so here. “Jessup University music students get to experience a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to record albums at the world-renowned Skywalker Ranch, home to one of the most prestigious recording studios in

When the Ruscica family wants to vacation in Europe, I convince Jessup to sponsor a trip to “evangelize” the continent, and the Abbey Road Studios trip was the result. I sold it as an opportunity for the UCO to sing across the pond. It was a lie that everybody in the UCO was invited. Only

I have never been accused of nepotism even though there is a wealth of evidence to support such a claim. My wife, Brandy, is an amazing entrepreneur who has used my connection with Jessup to run some of her business – Ruscica Music – from within the confines of Jessup. She gets free access to

Have I told you about university’s absolutely unamazing recording studio? Jessup likes to think that it can compete with the likes of Biola University, but the shoestring budget I’ve allocated has purchased very little. Oh, don’t get me wrong. We have a Mac Studio with a large monitor and some speakers as eye candy, but

My sycophants like to tell me what a great leader I am. That’s their honest opinion and who am I to tell them otherwise? I like that brag that I’m a reader, and with my limited repertoire of books on leadership, somehow this qualifies me to be a great leader even though the evidence of