Daniel Williams/Collegian
Art major junior Anna Holsclaw is not in danger of losing her major, although the art department recently dropped the Art Education major.
Deciding on a major is difficult, but worrying about that major disappearing is another matter. Numerous issues have finalized in the cancellation of the art education major at Hillsdale.
Chairman and Professor of Art Samuel Knecht said the final decision to eliminate the program was made with reluctance.
“Key administrators, the admissions director, education professors, the registrar, and myself… met in a lengthy meeting recently in which the matter was seriously debated,” Knecht said.
One of the factors tipping the balance was the retirement of a key professor.
“The individual who has taught the courses as an adjunct to the college, Professor Bill Bippes (fulltime art professor at Spring Arbor University) is retiring soon with no immediate prospect for a successor either there or here,” Knecht said.
Furthermore, the state of Michigan has changed the requirements for art education certification which involves 50 hours of coursework, including 12 hours in art education methods courses.
“Such is not exactly ‘liberal arts friendly’,” Knecht said. “The fact of the matter is that the local demand for the major is low….To top it all off, the state insists that the endorsement henceforth be K-12, with no opting for merely elementary or secondary.”
Jon Fennell, associate professor of education, said students could become elementary teachers and then become certified in art, but “that would require quite a long program.”
“It is in part because we do not foresee demand to do this that we have decided that the college will not develop a program to comply with the new standard,” Fennell said.
Senior art education major Kara Mack anticipated the new standard as well.
“When I got into it [they] told me ‘we’re going to have this problem,’” Mack said, “but that as long as I graduated by 2006 I would be ‘grandfathered’ in by the old standard.”
Mack is one of the few who will graduate in time to participate in the major, and has plans to teach elementary art and later move to high school art education.
Despite the cancellation of the major, Knecht says students intending to pursue art education should not become distressed.
“Let it be known that the art department will work with any student desirous of earning a teaching certificate and counsel that person in how best to proceed through our curriculum, both in art and education, while aiming at completing certification coursework through another college or university.”