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The Daily OrangeStudents dismayed, angry at VPA administration over program cut
By Bethany Bump
Posted: 3/5/09, 3:25 AM EST Section: News
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 Studio space has been minimal and cramped, computer labs are outdated, and the dean's office has largely ignored the concerns of the students over the years, students said.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.'"
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.'"
Viewing Comments 1 - 10 of 20
Kaylen Thorpe
posted 3/05/09 @ 7:51 AM EST
Oh the outrage! Surface pattern design?! My god we are really denying these kids a future, whatever will they study now?!
How the hell can you study "surface patterns" for FOUR YEARS? No wonder modern education isn't teaching anything. (Continued…)
Art Director in Real Life
posted 3/05/09 @ 9:24 AM EST
Kaylen, you plainly demonstrate your ignorance. Every object you come in contact with in your daily life has been designed by someone, and every one of those objects has a surface design. (Continued…)
fight the power
anonymous
posted 3/05/09 @ 10:39 AM EST
I agree. It's really sad that Arts and Sciences produces such an ignorant student and is about to hand them a diploma.
Kaylen Thorpe
posted 3/05/09 @ 1:06 PM EST
What kind of major produces such ignorant students who are "experts" in one area and know absolutely nothing about any other. Pattern design should be taught as part of any proper fashion or textile design study - and doesn't take FOUR YEARS of study to accomplish. (Continued…)
spd alum
posted 3/05/09 @ 2:38 PM EST
These type of comments are nothing that us SPD-ers haven't heard and defended before, so you need to save your breath because you aren't on the fore front of anything with these arrogant and closed minded assumptions. (Continued…)
anonymous
posted 3/05/09 @ 2:59 PM EST
True. That ignorant comment above makes me embarrassed of my school. It sounds like someone who has nothing better to do but whine about something they don't understand in a college they are not even a part of. (Continued…)
Anonymous
posted 3/05/09 @ 4:13 PM EST
Kaylen, clearly your superior intellect of your political science major has made you able to judge every other major offered at Syracuse University.
Thank you for not only insulting a program that has been around for more than 70 years, but for also showing the caliber of students coming out of other majors. (Continued…)
Kaylen Thorpe
posted 3/05/09 @ 4:15 PM EST
INTERNET ARGUMENT!!! :-)
Yep I am bored because I've wasted 4 years of my life at this place when I could have been off making money in one of a half dozen business ventures I have lined up. (Continued…)
Jill Morgenweck
posted 3/05/09 @ 4:45 PM EST
sad in so many ways.
Theodora Lopez
posted 3/05/09 @ 5:32 PM EST
So much ignorance and arrogance in one comment thread. It just makes me sad.
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