Executive Summary
Department of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Interior Design
Department of Graphic Design, Apparel Design, Retail Merchandising, and Product Design (User Experience Design becomes full major in fall 2024)
Design Interdisciplinary Programs (including Interdisciplinary Design, Human Factors and Ergonomics)
Research and engagement centers:
Goldstein Museum of Design
Center for Retail Design & Innovation Center for Sustainable Building Research Digital Design Center (with CSE)
Human Dimensioning Lab
Minnesota Design Center
Wearable Technology Lab
Enrollment: Fall 2023
| Undergrad | Graduate and Professional | Non-Degree | Total | %BIPOC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,439 | 224 | 2 | 1,665 | 30.7% |
Headcounts: Fall 2023
Five College of Design Characteristics
- The college offers four professional degree programs (BLA, BS Interior Design, MLA, MArch)
- One of the few colleges in the country that offers programs across scale from landscapes to products to user experience
- The college has presence on both campuses: Minneapolis’ East Bank and St. Paul
- Youngest program: User Experience Design is one year old; Oldest program: Architecture is over 100 years old
- Apparel design regularly receives funding from NSF, NASA, and others for expertise in wearable technology
Degrees, Retention & Graduation Rates
2022-2023 Degrees & Certificates Granted
| Undergrad Degrees | Masters Degrees | Doctoral Degrees | Certificates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 288 | 83 | 9 | 0 |
* Excludes $2.2M in sponsored revenues
Revenue does not include carryforward or net transfers.
* Excludes $2.2M in sponsored expenditures
Expenditures may exceed revenue when carryforward is used.
Key Areas of Strength & Strategic Opportunities
Introduction
When Dean Boradkar arrived in September 2023, the College of Design began a strategic planning exercise that engaged all faculty and staff through fall 2023 and spring 2024. Through that process, the college has begun to identify “Design with Care” as its guiding principle for the coming years. We imagine design as a process of shaping the elements of our physical and digital landscape with deep care in order to improve life on Earth, not only for human beings but for all species that inhabit our one shared planet.
Strength: Positive Change by Design
The college offers design programs across a wide scale, from small objects to large environments, and from physical to digital experiences. Design thinking and making are critical skills that have application within and beyond the University. Design tools developed by the college can be deployed for leadership training, creative problem-solving, developing innovation strategies, and more. Design can help tackle wicked social and environmental problems for corporations, nonprofits, and the government.
Strength: Unified Programs, Processes, and People
Following a reorganization process, the college now has two new academic departments, structured according to affinity of the constituent programs. This new structure supports programmatic and curricular enhancements, accelerates transdisciplinarity, and provides students more flexibility as well as a better college experience.
Strategic Opportunity: Design across Disciplines (Accelerating transdisciplinary problem solving)
Leverage and strengthen relationships with other colleges, research centers, and our external partners to ddress critical social and environmental problems. This priority includes, but is not limited to health care design, biologically inspired design, data-driven design, and more.
Strategic Opportunity: Design for Belonging (Enhancing access, diversity, inclusion, equity)
Advance our college’s efforts in accessibility, diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University and beyond through the Design Justice Collective. We are dedicated to redressing the imbalances related to race, age, gender, and ability that exist in design pedagogy and practice, and make us a more inclusive profession.
Strategic Opportunity: Design for the Planet (Launching sustainable solutions)
Further the ongoing sustainability work in each of our programs through new pedagogical offerings and research efforts, including but not limited to biomimicry efforts ongoing in the Kusske Design Initiative. Shift design thinking from human-centered to life-centered to ensure healthy futures for all species on the planet.