Part of an ongoing series about Iowa State’s response to state budget problems.

Budget cuts have affected the administration and services in the College of Design during the past three years, but faculty and students within the college are confident the effects will not be detrimental to the programs offered.

Mark Engelbrecht, dean of the College of Design, said he is not sure what cuts will be made for next year, but he is expecting it will be significant. He said the College of Design has had three years of significant cutbacks and most of those have been absorbed within the administration.

“We’ve had to do some restructuring,” he said. “Now we have one chair for two departments in some cases.”

Engelbrecht said there have also been cutbacks on some of the services of the college.

“We used to have a very vital, well-financed gallery, but it is not nearly the resource it used to be,” he said.

Arthur Croyle, associate professor of art and design, agreed the losses in the gallery are a concern.

“I used to be the Gallery 181 Director,” he said. “We had a budget and it sufficed to bring in outside artists. That was a couple of years ago and I bet a lot of students now aren’t even aware that that used to be a more typically active gallery.”

Croyle said the last few years of budget cuts have been difficult.

“We have had a tight budget and then cuts in the last few years. I can’t imagine coming to work and ever hearing anything but the worn phrase of ‘We are going to have to do more with less this year,’ so the issue of cuts to education is pretty common.”

As of yet, the college is still trying to avoid letting cuts affect faculty and courses.

“We have had to cut back on some courses, but those have been largely elective. We have been successful in protecting prerequisite or required courses that the students need to graduate,” Engelbrecht said.

He said the college had the opportunity to hire four new people last year, so faculty loss has not yet been a problem for the college.

Engelbrecht said although he does not know the dimension of the cutbacks, he fears there will be additional losses in course opportunities for students. He said the college administration is doing everything possible to prevent this, and budget cuts don’t seem to be scaring students away.

“Enrollment has been growing steadily in the College of Design and it seems to be steady for next year, so the cuts don’t seem to affect the enrollment of the students,” he said.

The College of Design has about 1,950 students and 115 full-time faculty members, but there are about 150 faculty associated with the college, he said.

“About 25 percent of our faculty members are adjunct professors or lecturers, so they only teach one or two courses. This is good because many of them spend time in practice and the students can learn a lot from them,” he said.

Advising and career planning for students is one area Engelbrecht said the department plans to avoid cutting.

However, he said it may be tougher for students to get the courses they want and need.

“Many of our studio-centered classes have limited space and can’t just add more students in,” he said.

Engelbrecht said he sees the frustration in students, but he does not believe the budget cuts have been debilitating yet.

Melissa Daniello, junior in art and design, said she has had some problems getting into classes because the times art studio classes are offered tend to overlap.

“I’m sure this is probably because of budget cuts because most of the studios I am in have only one, maybe two, sections,” she said.

Daniello said she would also like to see more options available in the summer, especially in the area of art history. “This is a requirement that I think a lot of people would want to take in the summer because of its infamous difficulty and there just aren’t many to choose from,” she said.

Croyle does not blame the university for budget cuts.

“I think that a lot of people work hard here every year to minimize the damage that so many deep cuts make, and from semester to semester the little things that we do without are harder to perceive,” he said. “Over the long haul, though, we are giving up tremendous ground and quality does suffer, but students can’t generally know what we used to do or what opportunities are no longer available.”

Engelbrecht is confident in the future of the college.

“I think, as the uncertainties in the world begin to be recovered, the situation should improve. I feel very good about the College of Design. We are the only set of programs like this in the state of Iowa,” he said. “Our programs are worth doing, and doing well.”