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Design Department Expands
By Arthur Hur
In the past, some prospective University of Kansas students had to go elsewhere for their college education. The problem was not necessarily the distance from their families or high tuition but because the biggest school that offered the most majors in the state of Kansas did not offer their desired major.
Aspiring high school photographers can now put the University of Kansas on their list of prospective schools. Working professionals with design backgrounds won’t have to drive far enhance their business skills.
The KU design department is going to get a little bigger.
The department of design at KU will officially launch a new photography undergraduate major, along with two graduate degree programs in interaction design and design management, in the spring of 2008. However, students had the option of getting a head start and taking a few classes towards these new majors this semester. These new programs had been under development for some time. The undergraduate photography program was formulated last year while the graduate programs took longer, under development since the 2002-03 school year.
The new undergraduate photography major, photomedia, was created after the Kansas Board of Regents approval last spring. New courses in video and multimedia will be required in addition to the traditional film photography classes, giving the degree a unique dimension. Computer imaging, motion graphics and other digital media concepts are an important part of the curriculum.
According to the design department web site, the major most asked for by prospective students was a BA or BFA in photography.
“I would have definitely done it,” said Giao Pham, KU grad student. “I love photography and find it a shame that KU doesn’t offer the program.”
The move to include a photography major comes after every other Big 12 North school included it in their art or design curriculum except for Iowa State University, according to Big 12 school web sites. Now, the program is the only one in Kansas to offer a single photography and digital media major.
The working professional who graduated with a BFA long ago has not been left out of KU’s plan to expand its design program. An additional Master of Fine Arts degree will allow people who work full-time to learn again.
The new graduate degree will have two options. Students can choose to pursue a Master of Arts in Interaction Design or MA in Design Management. According to the department website, no other university in the area offers a similar program.
Both majors will offer courses at the Edwards Campus location in Kansas City to accommodate those who work during the day. Most of the students in the graduate program are expected to be professionals already working in their fields though anyone with an appropriate background is welcome, according to the design department web site.
No other Big 12 North school offers a master’s design degree centered around business management, according to school catalogs and web sites. Schools such as Kansas State, Nebraska, Colorado and Missouri all have programs offering an Master of Fine Arts or other graduate design degree specializing in ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture and visual communication. Iowa State offers a double degree program in architecture and business, but requires more credit hours than KU’s single-major design management degree.
The MA in Interaction Design will help students study how products, services and systems interface with users, while the MA in Design Management is designed to strengthen management skills, according to the design department web site.
There are only eight other schools that offer an MA, MFA or other graduate degree in Interaction Design, including Carnegie Mellon and the University of Baltimore, according to the Interaction Design Association web site. Of those eight, only six are in the United States.
To accommodate the anticipated growth of the department, a new photo area is planned. The old photo labs will be turned into multimedia classrooms and digital labs according to the design school web site. A senior professor in interaction design position had to be created, according to the design school web site.
Students entering the new programs this year will represent new growth that has been absent in the department for some time, according to the design department web site. In about three or four years, KU will finally be able to graduate its first photography majors.