SCAD adds five new majors to curriculum
By Gregory Sims
As students get ready for winter quarter registration, some may want to look at some of the new degrees being offered. The new majors provide a unique opportunity to take courses in fields that SCAD has newly added to the curriculum.
The new degree programs offered are Design for Sustainability, Service Design, International Preservation, Television Producing and Equestrian Studies.
Design for Sustainability
The new Design for Sustainability program was started Fall 2009 by professor Verena Paepcke-Hjeltness, offering an M.A. degree as well as an undergraduate minor.
The program teaches a synthesis of disciplines such as architecture, service design, industrial design, civil engineering, advertising and more to design products and services that make environmentally friendly materials and processes their priority.
Paepcke-Hjeltness stated that students who complete the program will be prepared to “communicate and apply sustainable methodologies into conceptual development of environments, buildings, products and services.”
The undergraduate minor class titled Design for Sustainability currently has 18 students enrolled and they are working on a collaborative project with the Tybee Island city council.
The project is designed to develop a method to reclaim rainwater to use for the public beach showers. These showers alone used over 64,000 gallons of water a month last year and recently had to be shut down in order to conserve drinking water.
With interest increasing in the program, Paepcke-Hjeltness said “we will hopefully launch the M.F.A. next fall.”
Learn more here.
Service Design
Also opening Fall 2009, the new Service Design program, headed up by professor Peter Fossick, offers B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees. SCAD is the first university to offer the degrees.
Service design seeks to design new ways to employ digital, material and experience resources within a company in order to streamline its methodologies and to maintain its ability to attract customers and clients.
When asked about the difference between service and industrial design, service blueprinting student Chris Cantrell said, “it’s all about theory. More about streamlining services rather than designing products.”
He added that all the students in his class are extremely excited about the program, where it’s headed and the projects that go along with it.
Degree holders in service design will be prepared for positions such as customer experience manager, design project manager, service designer, among others.
Learn more here.
Television Producing
The new Television Producing program began in Fall 2008. The program offers a B.A. degree and is only offered in Atlanta. The reason? Atlanta is the eighth largest television market in the United States, home to CNN and Turner Broadcasting.
SCAD acquired NBC affiliate WXIA’s former building in Atlanta to house the new program as well as expand the film and digital media programs in Atlanta.
Film and Television Dean Peter Weishar explained, “The program prepares students for producing careers in broadcast and cable television as well as web-based programming.”
Weishar also said “[programming like] segment entertainment shows, reality based TV, events, sports, talk, etc [have] become the pervasive format of the medium.”
Students in the program will learn how to produce television with skills predominately for these types of programming.
When asked how the program differs from film, Weishar says that the Savannah film and television program “focuses on the creation and production of narrative content”, whereas the television producing program would focus on the production aspect of creation.
According to Weishar, a national search is underway for a full-time department chair for Television Producing. Matt Maloney is the acting chair.
Learn more here.
International Preservation
The International Preservation program began in Fall 2009, offering a M.A. degree. Whereas some courses existed as part of the Historic Preservation curriculum and an M.A. in International Preservation already existed online, this is the first instance it has been offered on campus in the college’s history.
When asked to define international preservation, department chair professor Connie Pinkerton said, “International preservation is the practice of sustaining and strengthening communities by protecting their cultural resources for continued use.”
International preservation takes the approach that historic preservation takes domestically and shifts it to a global context.
“There will be many opportunities to compare and analyze preservation policies, traditions, and techniques between nations and cultures,” Pinkerton said.
The program is currently working with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Lacoste, a project that professor Jeanne Lambin is currently heading up.
Pinkerton says that they are planning collaborations with the International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) and the Asian Academy of Heritage Management (AAHM).
On a related note, the historic preservation department welcomed new faculty member Dr. Tom Taylor, who came to SCAD after nearly 30 years preserving historical architecture in colonial Williamsburg, Va.
Learn more here.
Equestrian Studies
The new Equestrian Studies program began offering a B.A. degree in Fall 2009, after being offered as a minor beginning Fall 2008.
According to department chair professor Andrea Wells, the program was instituted as a response to a high level of interest from students and other outside people and organizations.
The college has long had an award-winning equestrian team and in 2006 introduced the Ronald C. Waranch equestrian center to use with the team, host events and board outside horses.
Due to the success of the equestrian team, students were expressing a great interest in becoming involved on an educational level, so the institution of a new degree program was the next logical step for the college, according to Wells.
Wells went on to say that class registration was at capacity for most of the classes and at least one was at double capacity, so she had to add a section.
The program starts in fundamentals in horse care and riding. The curriculum grows more complex as the student progresses through the program. These classes can be used as electives for students not in the program, as well as for the minor and major programs.
The equestrian field also invites other art forms. Artists will be commissioned to create paintings, drawings, photographs, videos and even sculptures.
Currently, the fashion program is planning collaboration with the equestrian program to design riding gear.
The program has attracted students nationwide to SCAD just to be a part of the program.
“I love it,” said Henrietta Armstrong, a transfer student from Texas A&M.
Visit the Equestrian Studies Web site for more information.
