Since the reconfiguration of the College of Design last fall, students have been confused about whether the Arts and Administration (AAD) program will continue to run.

According to the PPPM school’s webpage, “the Arts and Administration program, within the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management, is not currently accepting applications.”

Alexis Garcia is a freshman anthropology major who was looking forward to starting an AAD minor. After receiving no response from the general information email for the AAD program in February, Garcia talked to an undergraduate advisor for the PPPM program, Heather Mutony, who told her that if the program reopens in the next year or two, she will have time to complete the minor.

Alexis Garcia is a freshman anthropology major who was on track for starting an AAD minor but is now looking for new plans to fit her degree . (Sarah Northrop/Emerald)

According to Garcia, AAD 250 and 251 were on the spring course catalog for the AAD program before registration; however, when it was time for her to register, the classes disappeared from the catalog, and currently on DuckWeb, the lowest-level AAD class is AAD 315.

“It kind of threw a wrench in my plans. I was really hoping to be able to minor in this program, and now that it seems I might not be able to,” Garcia said. “I’ve been scrambling to find something else that fits with my degree and that I also would enjoy.”

The only other information about the matter on the department’s website is an informational blog for students currently enrolled in the program, and there is no further explanation of when or if the program will reopen to students.

This has led to confusion over whether the AAD program will cease to exist in the future, because up until this term, students have been able to register for AAD classes below the 300 level.

Students who visited PPPM advising were not told that the program has completely ended, and were given ambiguous answers about whether or not they will be able to enroll in the future.

According to the dean of the College of Design, Christoph Lindner, the AAD program merged with the PPPM school during the restructure because they seemed compatible.

“The driver of the decision [to merge] was to create a sustainable future for Arts and Administration as a discipline in the College of Design,” said Lindner. “The School of Planning, Public Policy and Management is an ideal academic community because collaboration between disciplines is at the heart of PPPM’s culture. It has been a welcoming and productive new home for Arts and Administration.”

The head of the school of PPPM, Richard Margerum, said there have been and will be more discussions about what the AAD program will look like in the future for prospective students.

“We are considering some options for creating a concentration (“focal area” as we call them) within our undergraduate PPPM major for students interested in arts and administration,” Margerum said. “Up to now, our focus has been on the courses required for current students.”

According to Margerum, there will be an AAD faculty meeting later this week to discuss longer term options for students interested in the AAD program.

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