College Restructuring Process

This idea has been a consideration since the college was formed in 2006 and it was strongly called for throughout the Coordinated Action Planning process soon after Dean Strohecker joined the college in 2017. While the formal motion to investigate collegiate restructuring was initiated in the spring 2020 Faculty Assembly, further feedback gathered from staff and faculty by the CSWG between November 2020 and June 2021 showed that a large majority of CDes faculty and staff strongly agreed with the following statements (which focus primarily on the academic departments and programs):

1. The college needs to revise its current structure of three departments with sub-programs into a new format to better reflect the needs of each program.
2. If disciplines are regrouped into new departments, CDes needs a structure of units that are determined by similarity of discipline/industry.
3. If disciplines are grouped into new departments, CDes needs a structure of units that is determined by optimization.

Read the full CSWG Report

Following feedback from faculty, staff, and current department heads, CDes has decided on a two-department structure. Both departments are currently unnamed but the configurations will be: 

• Apparel Design, Product Design, Graphic Design, Retail Merchandising 
• Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Interior Design

Fall 2022 | Apparel Design, Graphic Design, Product Design, and Retail Merchandising will form one of the new departments in fall 2022 with Professor Barry Kudrowitz has its head.

Fall 2022 | Interior Design and Architecture will come together to begin the formation of the second department. Architecture Head Jennifer Yoos will continue to serve as the head for this new department as it evolves. Beginning in fall, Interior Design will have sophomores, juniors, and seniors on the East Bank campus; primarily in Rapson and Nolte.

Fall 2023 | Landscape Architecture will join with Interior Design and Architecture and officially form the new department.

The new department names will be the Department of Graphic Design, Apparel Design, Retail Merchandising, and Product Design (GARP) and the Department of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Interior Design (ALI).

The most immediate impact to students will be in the spaces they use for classes and studios. For example, with Interior Design and Architecture joining in fall 2022, interior design classes will largely move to the East Bank. With that, more space will be available on the St. Paul campus for other units to use for studio and other teaching. In addition, the restructuring is accelerating conversations within these new departments, around everything from cooperative curricula to shared spaces.

A number of groups are digging into the implications and impacts that the restructuring will have on staff. Over the course of the summer, these groups have continued to work on, among other things, aligning job functions and duties within the new structure. As part of this process, we encourage staff members to share their thoughts, questions, and concerns about the restructuring with their department lead admins and/or unit leaders. Feedback can also be shared with HR Subgroup Chair Mia Riza or through this anonymous feedback form.

These groups include:

• The Lead Admin Community of Practice: co-chaired by Mia Riza and Trevor Miller with administrators Amanda Smoot and Bob Glunz.
• Design Operations (DesOps): Trevor Miller, Amanda Smoot, Betsy Mowry Voss, Miles de Klerk, Mia Riza, Jennifer Moreno, Alanna Nissen, Stephanie Dilworth, Steve Yang, Molly Sanford, Bob Glunz
• Design Operations Leaders (DOL): Trevor Miller, Steve Yang, Stephanie Dilworth, Jennifer Moreno, Mia Riza, and Carol Strohecker

One goal of the restructuring process is to align and streamline processes, forms, and procedures between departments to make things easier to navigate and more understandable. We know staff are feeling overworked and overwhelmed, and the CSWG groups intend to retool workloads to a level that feels manageable through this alignment process. To do that, we need everyone to approach this process with as much flexibility and cooperation as possible knowing that we may all be asked to make compromises in one way or another.

One impact will be to Faculty 7.12 plans. The 7.12 Subgroup has issued recommendations on how to revise 7.12 documents within the new structure, which department heads will refer to when guiding the revisions of their departmental 7.12 documents beginning this fall.

The college is working on adjusting office spaces and has begun to renovate studio areas in Rapson and McNeal. The Rapson renovation is taking place in Room 253. The Rapson renovation will transition existing office spaces to new student studio spaces and workstations. Construction on McNeal 32 started in July 2022. After renovations are complete, McNeal 32 will house the Dean's Office, CDes Student Services, Career and Internship Services, and studio space for students. Renovation on 1425 University Avenue will focus on refreshing Room 175.

No. The concern about job loss last year was due to extreme budget scenarios related to the pandemic, which the University asked all colleges to project. Fortunately, we did not need to implement any dire scenario. Any job attrition the college has experienced recently has been voluntary on the part of the employees who retired or left for new jobs or for personal reasons. The Great Resignation is real and our college is not alone in seeing turn-over at this time.

To address restructuring costs, the college’s FY24 Compact and budgeting anticipate the reallocation of the Dean’s discretionary fund to resource any salary augmentations and/or summer salaries needed to enable the restructuring. We are hopeful that an investment from the University, related to the M-Pact 2025 strategic plan, will provide additional resources for faculty collaboration, high-enrollment and high-tuition curricular development, and student recruiting and pathway programs.

After careful consideration, the Governance and HR Subgroups have recommended that a new position of associate department head be introduced in the new departmental structures.

Lecturer Frances Trice will be the inaugural associate department head for the Department of Graphic Design, Apparel Design, Retail Merchandising, and Product Design (GARP). Associate Professor-in-Practice Joe Favour will serve as the inaugural associate department head for the Department of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Interior Design (ALI).

Any philanthropic money dedicated to a program will stay with that program. We carefully steward philanthropic funds to align with the donors’ intentions, as specified in the accompanying Memorandum of Understanding. In addition to our own faithful management of such funds, they are monitored by the University of Minnesota Foundation with a keen and diligent eye toward honoring donors’ intentions.

If you have a question related to a specific area you can reach out to the CSWG Subgroup Chairs. Additionally, feedback can be shared with a member of the SLG committee, the Dean, or submitted through this anonymous feedback form.