The interior design program is aiming to move from its current home in the Family and Consumer Science Department into the College of Architecture and Planning.
Reza Ahmadi, the program director of interior design, said the two programs are connected very closely, so it would make sense to bring the two together.
“If there’s any major connected to interior design, it would be architecture,” Ahmadi said. “Architects design the building, and interior designers design inside of the building. These two professions work together and often collaborate.”
Both architects and interior designers ordinarily design buildings simultaneously, and Ahmadi said when the two are done separately, the outcome isn’t as satisfactory. Currently, architecture and interior design students do not collaborate, but do share resources and software.
When the interior design major was first created, it focused more on home economics and included elements such as home decor and fashion. Over the years, it has grown and now involves elements such as building walls and analyzing whether or not a room has enough light, said Samantha Hooyer, a senior interior design major.
"People think interior design, you're just picking colors, furniture and making it pretty, whereas we actually do real science as well," she said.
If the program moved to CAP, Hooyer said interior design could be looked at more seriously and they would actually be thought of as "a certified person."
Brittany Lipscomb, a fellow senior interior design major, agreed with Hooyer. She said the Family and Consumer Science Department isn't the right place for them.
“I think if we were moved to the CAP college, it would help make everybody see us in a different light, because we always get confused with decorators and things like that," Lipscomb said.
Senior interior design major Stacy Myers said that in the future, they will most likely be working with architects, so it makes sense to start now.
“We can collaborate and learn from each other,” Myers said.
CAP is working to form a design department and when it's created, they will invite other departments to join them, Ahmadi said. Interior design will become part of it, and so will furniture and product design. Last semester, a committee was formed to look into the feasibility of forming the department.
The first year curriculum would change for students if the move happens, but Ahmadi said it wouldn't be a difficult transition. He hopes the move will happen by the fall of 2016, but if not it should happen in 2017.
Senior Alisa McDaniel said there are other ways to improve Ball State's interior design program other than just switching colleges. At other universities, the program was called interior architecture instead of interior design.
“I feel like that alone would give us more credibility because a lot of people do think of decorating when they think about design," McDaniel said. "I feel like we would be better suited in CAP."
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