Heated exchange and impassioned speeches overwhelmed a meeting Wednesday when officials from the College of Visual and Performing Arts announced they are cutting the school’s surface pattern design program.

The announcement was made at a mandatory 11:30 a.m. meeting for the 20 students in the SPD program in 232 Shaffer Art Building. Ann Clarke, dean of VPA, Lucinda Havenhand, department of design chair, and Arthur Jensen, associate dean of VPA, handed out letters to the students before addressing their concerns.

Students will no longer be admitted to the bachelor’s of fine arts in surface pattern design and the degree will be phased out in the next two to three years, as current sophomores, juniors and seniors complete their degree requirements, the letter said.

The cut is part of a larger problem of program neglect for years now, students at the meeting said. Studio space has been minimal and cramped, computer labs are outdated, and the dean’s office has largely ignored the concerns of the students over the years, students said.

Five minutes into the meeting, Jill Morgenweck, a senior SPD major who worked on some of the design renovations in E.S. Bird Library’s bottom floor, was the first student to express her anger.

‘I don’t think that you understand what we really do,’ Morgenweck said. ‘I don’t see how you can just integrate us into different majors, because you don’t understand what goes into surface pattern design majors. You don’t just take one class and it’s something you can just pick up. I just feel completely disrespected that you don’t understand what I do and what I’ve worked for.’

Clarke said the curriculum will be integrated into other majors, which resulted in a chorus of girls asking why the major was getting cut if the curriculum would stay the same, the professors would remain and if they were getting improved space in the Warehouse downtown within the year.

‘I have given all this money to the program, that personally I don’t have,’ Morgenweck said. ‘I spent my free time painting the Warehouse for you, and now you’re just saying, ‘We’re not gonna make any more of you. See ya! Here’s your degree.”

Students continuously peppered Clarke and Havenhand with questions of why the program was being cut.

‘You’ve made a decision that doesn’t help the problem,’ said Zoe Nemetz, a senior SPD major. ‘We’re wanting an answer as to why we’re being cut and none of you have given us a reason, you’re just putzing around.’

Clarke responded by saying creating an interactive design program is not putzing around.

‘I can see by your faces, you’re just not going to receive this information,’ she said.

Clarke said there had been conversations about classes and curriculum with Marion Dorfer and Eileen Gosson, associate professors in the SPD program.

‘We wanted to determine how to configure programs and restructure the curriculum because having programs that have one or two faculty members are problematic, in terms of load and in terms of money,’ Clarke said.

Students attempted to start a club last year to raise money and recognition for the program, said Amy Turoff, a senior SPD major. When they approached the school to recognize the club as a campus group, they were told it would be taken care of and nothing happened, she said.

Turoff wanted to know what it costs the university to keep SPD as a major. Clarke said thinking about cost per program is not how budgets are done.

‘It’s virtually impossible to determine what costs this much and what costs that much,’ Clarke said.

Five minutes before the meeting ended, Havenhand asked if students wanted her to ask ‘higher-ups’ to see if the freshman class could finish out the major. Students yelled, ‘yes,’ and clapped in response to the suggestion.

Havenhand said she plans to have an answer for students when they come back for Spring Break – the week freshmen have to declare their major – but that she couldn’t guarantee anything, and that the major would still be cut.

Students were also upset that their classes would be integrated with the fashion and interior design programs. Some felt that if the major had to be cut and integration had to occur, their curriculum should shift to the school’s textile program.

Students said very few people would ever take SPD classes as electives because the amount of work that goes into them is something someone would only take on if it were their major.

The dean and department chair couldn’t be heard over students chiming in to get their opinions heard.

Morgenwreck spoke out.

‘The point is, it’s a shame that you’re not going to produce any more people like us,’ she said.

Miranda Shilati, a senior SPD student, agreed.

‘We’re probably the most versatile major,’ she said. ‘And it’s a shame that you’re getting rid of us first because we can go into about six different industries.’

Havenhand assured students they weren’t getting rid of them, resulting in unanimous disagreement from students.

An hour into the meeting, students were still asking why the program wasn’t working and why it had to be cut.

After a long pause, Clarke said the students in the room were actually telling VPA officials why it’s not working.

‘You guys just go back and forth,’ Shilati said after this heated exchange. ‘You tell us it’s about the numbers; it’s not about the numbers. You tell us it’s about the facilities; it’s not about the facilities. What is it about then?’

Jensen said the department of design’s focus is how to reshape the curriculum so students gain the same skill sets they are already getting. He said there would be a curriculum individuals can navigate as they choose.

‘It may not be a major,’ he said. ‘It could be a concentration. I understand the mindset that one needs a major with these specific courses. Right now the curriculum is very strict. What I don’t think you’re getting is to rethink how to get there.’

After an hour of aggressive back and forth, some students opted out of the argument to focus on designs at their lab tables covered in art supplies. Their one studio space had served as their home for more than a year, where their designs hung on each wall.

Shilati said she had recruited three high school students while she was a tour guide last year to come to SU specifically for SPD.

‘How are you going to tell a freshman who spent a year at SU, who came in for SPD to specifically take SPD that they can’t take it?’ Shilati asked. ‘Are you going to tell them? When are you going to tell them? Are you going to reimburse them? That’s not fair to those freshmen who just spent a year of their life at this university.’

blbump@syr.edu

Published on March 4, 2009 at 12:00 pm