1. Sustaining Interior Design Education Kimball Office Work Group Spring 2009

2. The Problem…  At NeoCon 2007, the issue of a shortage of ID educators was brought up to ID practitioners…  Over 120 interior design faculty positions open across North America  Nearly 50% had fewer than 3 qualified applicants  85% had fewer than 6 qualified applicants

3. The Cause…  Increased number of ID students Value of design thinking HGTV  Increased number of ID programs  The graying of America…retirements…

4. The Cause…  For full-time teaching, generally a masters degree is required; sometimes for part- time teaching as well  Majority of ID first-professional degree programs are at the bachelor’s level; not masters, therefore, few interior designer practitioners can be hired to fill these positions; must have graduate degree

5. The Solution…  Kimball Office gave $10,000 (the first time!) to support the challenge of increasing the pool of qualified ID educators, thereby sustaining ID education  Call went out in Spring 2008 for applicants to form an IDEC Work Group…

6. Sustaining Interior Design Education Work Group  AKA…Kimball Office Work Group (KOWG) Joy Dohr, Chair, University of Wisconsin- Madison (retired) Andrew Furman, Ryerson University Denise Guerin, University of Minnesota Eileen Jones, Perkins + Will Nila Leiserowitz, Gensler With… Georgy Olivieri (instigator, consciousness- raiser) Jeff Beachum (IDEC)

7. KOWG – Summer 2008  Reviewed materials Surveys Conference notes Data from CIDA…  Set agenda for a 3-day meeting

8. KOWG – September 2008  Outcome of the meeting was five recommendations  Strategies were developed  Budgets for each recommendation were developed  Presented to Issues Forum, November 2008

9. KOWG Recommendations 1. Credentials for several types of ID education positions be identified and developed via an IDEC White Paper  Practitioner-educator, part-time  Practitioner-educator, full time, non-tenure track  Practitioner-educator, full-time, tenure track Approved for funding; needs team members; small stipend available Completion by August 2009

10. KOWG Recommendations 2. Courses, methods, and materials be developed to teach ID practitioner- educators  About teaching, education as a career path  About contributing to scholarship…connecting practice to scholarship This is being addressed by the IDEC Academy; partially completed Needs team members; small stipend Completion by end of 2009

11. KOWG Recommendations 3. Identify existing graduate education program information  Type of degree; Type of program  Resources required to complete a degree  Available resources  Why do a post-professional graduate degree?  What type of course work is done in this type of program?  How does a practitioner get started?

12. KOWG Recommendations Almost completed by the Graduate Network and by a Strategic Initiative (Ray-Degges, Nussbaumer, & Stockwell) Still a few things to complete, the Graduate Network has been asked to do them Funding needed for the dissemination as a source of information to practitioners Electronic…LinkedIn—Twitter—Tweet…

13. KOWG Recommendations 4.a.Create and advance relationships, opportunities, and understanding of needs for qualified educators among students, practitioners, and educators… Short-term Strategies Appoint/develop a conference liaison among educators, practitioners, and students for presentations about ID education as a career path Prepare consistent message/literature for Career Day presentations; disseminate

14. KOWG Recommendations 4.b.Create and advance relationships, opportunities, and understanding of needs for qualified educators among students, practitioners, and educators… Develop Centers of Excellence within Academia Connect with business and industry to shape research topics Dialogue between educators and practitioners on research questions Immersed in each other’s environments Focus on integrating students

15. KOWG Recommendations 4.b. Create and advance relationships, opportunities, and understanding of needs for qualified educators among students, practitioners, and educators…  Develop Partnership Centers in regions across North America Develop courses that reflect outcome of discussion among educators, practitioners, students, industry… Develop studios in which faculty and practitioners can be exchanged (design-swap)

16. KOWG Recommendations Recommendations 4a and 4b… Funding is being sought Team members are needed Small stipend available

17. Other Unexpected Outcomes…  IDEA-line Hot line for practitioners to call educators to find out about teaching  Believe Brochure to be disseminated in hard copy and on-line

18. KOWG Summary… Much of the work is underway Some funding has been secured IDEC, Kimball Office, and Teknion Need team members (practitioners and educators) to work on all recommendations See IDEC Web site for Call for Participants to be members of this ongoing work… www.idec.org

19. Questions…Comments… Contact Denise Guerin, University of Minnesota (dguerin@umn.edu) with questions.dguerin@umn.edu