The Proposal

This is going too slowly so far. It's hard to organize a collectively written proposal, so I started over from the ground up on this. Let's have some suggestions. Once we've refined it enough that people have agreed it's okay, we need to get as many people as possible to give their permission to have their name included at the bottom for when we send this off. Maybe ideally we can plan to include all names, and prompt anyone who does not want their name included to be vocal, so that we can amend this proposal so that everyone is satisfied. I've included some of the thoughts and wording of other people here, and I hope that's okay. PLEASE SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS so we can take care of this and be done with it. We're so close, and then we will have done our part.

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Dear Directors Allen, Guillemin, and Professor Purvis,

We, the 2009 class of undergraduate graphic design seniors [[DON'T WORRY I won't word it like this if we can never reach a point of agreement over the issues in this proposal...That's why I need people to be vocal if there are things they don't agree with or would like to see altered]], are writing to share our thoughts about the state of the College of Fine Arts' graphic design department. We'd like to give you the student perspectives of its strengths and its potential areas of growth. We are all very satisfied with the fine arts foundation courses and with all of our professors. We greatly appreciate the efforts being made to give us the best years possible at Boston University. We want to make it clear that the suggestions we are offering are restricted to the current framework of the overall curriculum, and are directed more at the class-to-class level. We are excited to see this design program continue to improve, and to cooperate in giving momentum to these improvements.
In the fall of 2007, some students from the classes of 2008 and 2009 began meeting outside of class as part of an inter-class design club. The meetings were eventually dominated by discussions about our classes and we agreed that there were improvements that we wished could take place. As these discussions continued, they've recently been fueled by concerns of getting the most we can from our remaining time amidst the resources of this university, before we're truly out into the real world. These discussions are now taking place among nearly the entire class. We care deeply about our education, and we've given much time and thought to this, so we hope you will give your full consideration to the following ideas.


The Problems With Oversized Classes
We understand that the the administration knows how problematic oversized classes are, but we feel it's necessary to give our perspectives. Professor Craine's graphic design class and Professor Purvis' typography class have been based solely on critiques, and with the current number of students, a weekly full-group critique would typically take around two hours. Because students and professors already know that having critiques of this duration for every class session would not be the most productive use of time, both courses have been split into two sections, where half the class meets at the beginning of class, and the other half meets an hour and a half into class. Each critique lasts about one hour, so each section meets for about one hour--not three hours. This is a major problem. Students are entitled to three hours of class time and instruction but are receiving much less.
The root of the problem is in the class sizes. Because critiques (group critiques or one-on-one meetings with professors) are so crucial, they cannot be ignored, but by holding critiques every class session, there has been little time for anything else. Unless the school plans on accepting fewer students into the program, the solution is to hire more instructors (part time and/or full time) in order to accommodate the excess of students. The benefits of hiring more instructors go far beyond alleviated class sizes, and would result in broadened pedagogical sources of insight. While this cannot happen overnight, and the money can't come from nowhere, we all know that there are steps that can be taken to make this happen. These are problems that come with being farther down the funding ladder, but improving the student-to-professor ratio is absolutely crucial to the success of the graphic design department.
In Steven Heller's The Education of a Graphic Designer, Design educator and AIGA fellow Hand Richardson writes, "I am fortunate that my school is small, following the Bauhaus archetype, wherein you truly get to know the students. The policy in my office is pretty much open door. Students hover around for hours, working on their laptops, waiting their turn. A student calls an instructor with a question about a project, and, next thing you know, the two are discussing Jean Baudrillard at Starbucks. Larger schools might benefit from assuming a more 'boutique' mentality. This is a challenge for big colleges and universities, but it can be done." Imagining BU's design department as a school like this is almost comical with the current student-professor ratio. To teach all of the practical and theoretical fundamentals for an evolving industry in just three years is already a great challenge, but accomplishing this with so many students is simply asking too much of the professors.

Issues With The Current Class Model
Until more instructors are hired, there are still adjustments that can be made to improve classes, regardless of the number of students. As mentioned before, even the total meeting time of both sections does not typically approach the full three hours. The solution is not to turn this remaining time into a work period, mainly because adequate one-on-one sessions with every student would be impossible in this period. What's missing is general instruction, with professors presenting material while taking on a more actively didactic role. Currently, most instruction takes place in the context of discussions about specific students' pieces during critiques. While this kind of instruction is always helpful, relying solely on this is quite limiting. Our professors are too knowledgeable and experienced to not share more, and we are interested in the other instruction they can offer.
We are all in agreement over how important group critiques are. They represent one of the most important components of our schooling. However, we feel that a critique-only class model is not ideal. Right now, critiques are complemented by essentially zero other class activities. Assignments typically span multiple weeks, so for one to remain in class for a full critique, to see the tweaks made to graphic solutions students have usually already seen in a previous class meeting, often feels more out of courtesy than anything else. In theory, one stays to hear and learn from the suggestions professors and students give to one another, but this kind of observation becomes an increasingly less profitable exercise after the first two critiques on any given project. If for some reason one of us is not in class one day, there is very little feeling of having missed anything important. That's a shame, but it's a problem that is not entirely the fault of the student. We want to feel like we're missing something when we're not in class.
We feel the critiques need to be complemented by separate instructional activities, rather than have them stand alone as the only ingredient in class meetings. Right now, what's taught in class is limited by the points brought up in critiquing the handful of assignments per semester. We are proposing a restructuring of class time, and we invite the faculty to conceive of other class activities that could not only accompany critiques, but take center stage as the main activities for some days. The seniors have recently been meeting outside of class and organizing online discussions to assemble a list of examples for augmented class models and the additional instruction they might include to complement critiques:

Example A:
Hour 1: Group critique for Section A
Hour 2: Joint section meeting with additional instructional material
Hour 3: Group critique for Section B

Example B:
Alternating class activities each session, with one day designated for critiques only and another for entirely different instructional activities.



There are many things we feel are missing from our current classes. Here are some possible ways to fulfill our proposed instructional blocks:

Lectures:
--Prepress practices (largely for publication/editorial design) and print production logistics (designing with additive vs. subtractive primaries and other screen vs. print logistics, duotone limitations, spot colors, varnish options, different papers, etc)
--Typographic principles:
*type terms
*type crimes, do's/dont's
*font usage
*adhering to and departing from the grid, etc
--Industry essentials:
*networking in creative industries
*self promotion (including the production of promotional materials)
*portfolio presentation
*fundamental business procedures
*career options (the many jobs a graphic design graduate can pursue besides print-oriented jobs)

In-class exercises and workshops, independent of the homework assignments, addressing both practical and theoretical issues of visual problem solving, and stimulating discussion. Ranging from literal to more abstract, these exercises would depend on the creativity of the professors.

Deeper explanations and discussions about the concepts prompted by each assignment:
As of now, unlike most other college courses, our new design assignments are rarely introduced or accompanied by general discussion. For example, we know when we receive a magazine spread assignment what the point of the project is, but in the two to three magazine spread assignments we've received in our time at BU, there has been almost zero discussion about the principles of publication design. What are the challenges unique to magazine design versus designing for other media? When given a book cover assignment with the restriction of using no images besides type, it would be helpful to be shown examples (from today and throughout history) of successful typography from book jackets to other media, typography that adheres to or departs from grid systems, type as form vs. type as image, etc. Much of the research is up to the student when beginning an assignment, but subsequent self-initiated research could be much more fruitful with stronger initial direction.

As a side note, another topic we've discussed is team projects. Those of us who have had internships have already observed how important this will be in our industry, and we all agree that the occasional team project could be quite productive.


We would greatly appreciate a more open discussion of these areas of growth. Collectively, we feel strong enough about these topics to warrant a meeting between faculty and administration, whether it includes students or not. The new semester upon us will be a great opportunity to take new steps. More importantly, it will be an opportunity for improved expectations by everyone of everyone. We know that as this program continues to grow, there will be improvements after we graduate that we will never see. We hope some changes will be made before we're gone, but in the end we are voicing our concerns for the good of the department. Our design curriculum, when combined with the amazing fine arts foundation courses and the humanistic orientation provided by the classes outside of the CFA, has the potential to make the CFA one of the best graphic design schools in the country. It's just not there yet. If the faculty or administration have suggestions for the students, please be vocal. We want to do whatever we can to foster this cooperative effort and make this school the best it can be. Please consider these ideas and share with us what you can from any faculty/administration discussion that may come.