On March 13, while many students were excitedly adding potential classes to their carts for the upcoming semester, students in the College of Design program were blindsided when they noticed there was no fibers studio being offered for the fall term. This caused many students to worry that the fibers program was being cut from the College of Design.

However, in a meeting held for College of Design students on March 21 with Pamela Jennings, a professor and head of the Department of Art + Design, she confirmed that the fibers program is not being cut; the fibers studio is just not going to be offered for fall 2019.

Evan Smith, a third-year studying art and design, said that the issue began to unfold when students began to put classes in their registration cart for the upcoming semester.

“[Students] emailed [professors] to ask when the studio was getting posted, because some of the time, classes don’t get posted in a reasonable time,” Smith said in the meeting. “That’s when [a professor] told us it wasn’t happening.”

Smith’s enrollment date has now passed. He said that his graduation has been complicated by the lack of communication between students and professors in relation to the studio class.

“I’m supposed to graduate in the spring, and I wasn’t informed [about the studio],” Smith said in the meeting. “We [students] don’t need to know everything, but it was a little upsetting to be put in a position where I had no idea about my future.”

In the meeting, Jennings suggested that students who will not have a studio for next semester should take elective courses instead.

However, many students, like Morgan Cardwell, a second-year studying art and design, took issue with this solution, stating that most have already fulfilled their elective requirements.

“[Electives] are not really a substitute for studio, because studios are 6 credit hours a semester; we’re there for at least 12 hours of class time a week, probably 20 hours of free time being used for free time and projects,” Cardwell said. “An elective, a 3-hour class where you work on a project, isn’t really an adequate substitute… because it’s not like studio, where you are really forced to focus on innovation. We are in studio-based majors. Electives are there to teach you new techniques; this is not an adequate substitute. It will not fill up the curriculum.”

In addition, Cardwell recognized the lack of resources and faculty in their department, as well as issues with how the two different concentrations, fashion and fibers or animation, in art and design are advertised to students.

“In my studio, the two suggested concentrations [are] either fashion and fibers or animation,” Cardwell said. “I started to realize this whole semester, every project we did in the joint studio was animation related. The one project that was planned for [fibers], which was constructing different backpacks and bags, they switched out with another illustration, animation project, and that’s when we realized there really was no resources available, and we started to really panic.” 

Jennings also mentioned that students in Art + Design do not officially declare a concentration within the department, despite how it may have been advertised to students that they could focus on either animation or fibers.

“There is nothing on your degree that says you have a bachelor’s in art and design in ‘blah blah blah,’” Jennings said in the meeting. “It may be what you came here for, but that’s not what your degree says.”

In response to Jennings, Cardwell said she sees the inability to declare a concentration within art and design as an issue. According to Cardwell, the fashion and fibers animation programs have been advertised as two distinct programs from day one.

“It is [how it] is advertised,” Cardwell said. “Students in the past and what I have been putting in my resume is ‘art and design with a concentration in fashion and fibers,’ because they are two very distinct programs. They’re so unique in their own ways and not really interchangeable.”

According to Cardwell, as students in Art + Design talked to distinct professors and completed distinct projects, everything was advertised as separate. 

“The most frustrating part of this entire ordeal is that they are trying to backtrack on how it was being advertised to us, which makes it feel like they are trying to trick us in a way, or they were giving us false promises for the education we would be getting,” Cardwell said.

In addition, during the meeting, Smith brought up concerns about the program’s budget. He said that he felt the slight cuts made have been an issue and are affecting everyone in the program.

Jennings stated that the budget cuts are effective across the entire university. However, some research departments have a different revenue stream to sponsor and pay for studios. 

“Some of our departments are quite prolific in terms of getting sponsorships and corporate nonprofits to be able to support studios,” Jennings said in the meeting. “The Department of Art + Design, historically we have not been there. As the new head of the department, I do have a vision and a focus toward doing more of that for our department as well… But unlike graphic design and industrial design that has a lot of sponsored studios, we don’t. There are various different things that come into play beyond state budgets that help different colleges and departments to be able to support what they do.”

Sharon Joines, associate dean of the College of Design, explained at the meeting that the college doesn’t know how it’s going to calculate its budget for next year. 

“They are surprisingly moving targets we’re given,” Joines said in the meeting. “Sometimes we don’t get our budget until September.”  

In terms of solutions to the issue at hand, Jennings took into account that students next semester may be allowed to do an independent study or have a joint studio with the Wilson College of Textiles, but no official announcement about a plan has been made. However, a verbal confirmation was made by Jennings at the meeting that there would be a fibers studio in the spring. 

Looking at long-term solutions, Jennings said that students and faculty are not currently on the same page about the future of the department, and that must change. 

“The long-term solution finding is within the Department of Art + Design,” Jennings said in the meeting. “How do we start to look at our foci and our mission and our vision to make sure that what we do in this department is a) aptly advertised in places where people see descriptions of the department; b) all students and faculty and staff are on the same page of how we are doing that.”

Cardwell said that the entire ordeal has been frustrating because of the sheer lack of communication between students and faculty.

“The lack of transparency, especially when we are investing so much of our time and money and future into this program [is frustrating],” Cardwell said. “It is a public school, not a private school, and there’s nothing private about taxpayer dollars, and that lack of transparency is probably very upsetting to the community as well.”