Executive Summary for Category 1 Proposal

Renaming an Academic Program Proposal

The College of Businessrequests that the University approve renaming our “Interior Design” undergraduate program to “Design and Innovation”. Students who have matriculated into the program prior to the implementation of the degree title change will have a choice of completing the program with the title ‘Interior Design’ or selecting the new title ‘Design and Innovation.’

Background

In 2012, the BS/BA in Apparel Design, Interior Design and Merchandising Management were moved from the College of Public Health and Human Sciences to a newly formed School of Design and Human Environment (SDHE) within the College of Business (CPS #83339). The Graphic Design Option in the Applied Visual Arts major within the College of Liberal Arts was changed to a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Graphic Design (CPS # 82870) and also moved to the SDHE within the College of Business. In fall 2015, admissions into the Apparel Design major were suspended pending a redesign of the major (CPS #96163). In 2016, the BFA in Graphic Design transitioned back to the School of Arts and Communication in the College of Liberal Arts (CPS #97966).

Proposal

This proposal is to change the Interior Design degree to become the platform for current and future design and innovation focused programs within the College. The new Design and Innovation major will have a curricular structure similar to the business programs within the College – a two year pre-design/innovation core with selection into discipline-specific majors/options at the end of the second year (see Figure 1 below). The pre-design/innovation program requires completion of coursework in the first and second year that build a solid foundation for the upper-division design and innovation programs. The pre-design/innovation coursework may be completed at OSU or at any accredited college or university that offers equivalent courses.

The first year coursework in the pre-design/innovation program will include the First Year Experience required of all incoming first-year College of Business students. These students are required to live in one of the College of Business Living Learning Centers (LLC) and enroll in a year-long sequence of coursework – BA 160, BA 161 and BA 162. First year students will also complete baccalaureate core coursework, with 14 credits double-counting to satisfy pre-design/innovation requirements.

In the second year, pre-design/innovation students begin taking business and design and innovation foundation coursework, as well as completing the lower-division baccalaureate core. In spring term of the second year, students will apply for selection into one or more of the options of the Design and Innovation major.

Admission into the professional school programs require that the students have completed, or are registered to complete, all pre-design/innovation coursework and have maintained a grade point average of 2.5 or above in those classes. Admission to studio-based options (e.g., Apparel Design and Interior Design) may be limited based on the availability of studio classes (typically, studio classes are limited to cohorts of 25). Admission to non-studio-based options (e.g., Merchandising Management and Design Management) will not be limited.

Figure 1. Curricular Structure for Design and Innovation Programs within the College of Business

Considerations

  • Current staffing does not meet minimum faculty requirements in the President’s Academic System Guidelines (see URL . The university requires a minimum of 4.0 FTE academic and professional faculty for an undergraduate major, and 5.0 FTE for a graduate major. The combined design programs currently have six tenured faculty (6.0 FTE) and four professional instructors (3.0 FTE). The total of 9.0 FTE is not sufficient to support the current three separate majors. Moving to a common two-year pre-design/innovation program allows better utilization of the limited faculty resources since all three of the former majors will now complete a common pre-design/innovation core.
  • Reduced time-to-degree for transfer students. Selection into the current design majors(Apparel Design, Interior Design, and Merchandising Management) occurs in spring term, at the end of the first year, and is based on grades in three DHE courses plus overall university GPA. Students transferring into one of the current design majors, from another major at OSU or from an Oregon Community College), were required to complete these first-year courses prior to being eligible for selection into one of the professional design majors. That is, they must complete four years of required design coursework regardless of prior coursework completed. The proposed Design and Innovation major reduces the time required for transfer students to complete the degree. The entire first year curriculum can currently be completed on-line through OSU or in-residence at every Oregon Community College. Of the second-year courses, all but five are available at every Oregon Community College. Transfer students who do not have access to these five courses may require seven quarters to complete degree requirements – vs the 11 quarters currently required.
  • Improved retention rates. Over the past three years, the average admission rate of first-year students to the Apparel Design, Interior Design and/or Merchandising Management majors was 60.4 percent. Note that students who were not admitted to one of these design majors must either switch majors to another college or delay progression for a year and reapply to a design major in spring of the next year. Over the same time period, that average first-year retention rate for the College was 74.9 percent. The low admission rate into the design majors negatively impacts the initiatives within the College to improve first-to-second year retention. Moving to a common two-year pre-design/innovation core, and offering professional school options that are not constrained by limited availability of studio classes, ensure that all students are eligible to return for the second year and have access to an option that can be completed within four years.