The University of St. Catherine announced Feb. 2 that it will be dropping its interior design program for financial and low enrollment reasons, affecting St. Thomas students who are enrolled as an interior design major as part of the ACTC program.

Students enrolled in the program received an email about the closure from Joann Bangs, dean of the School of Business and Professional Studies. According to Bangs, they had been considering closing the program for many years.

“Interior design was identified as a program we were concerned about several years ago, but it was very, very new at the time,” Bangs said. “It’s been three years since then, and since we didn’t see any more enrollment, we decided to close the program.”

The program has had 15 students enrolled for the past three years.

St. Thomas first-year Sydney Groteboer, who was enrolled in the interior design program, learned about the closure on her second day of classes spring semester.

“They pretty much gave us no information,” Groteboer said. “I had no choice but to switch my major to entrepreneurship because I really didn’t want to switch schools. They just really put us in a bad position.”

Student were given two extra days to drop classes for spring semester, but Bangs was willing to be flexible with students that needed additional time.

“When I met with students and their parents, if they needed additional extensions … we would figure things out on a one-on-one case,” Bangs said. “If students asked for extensions, we did whatever we could to meet those.”

The program will still be offering interior design courses through the spring semester of 2019. Once a program has been operating for two years and has graduated two classes of students, they are eligible to apply for accreditation. St. Kate’s faculty made the decision not to apply for accreditation because of the closure.

To become a certified interior designer, students must have 3,520 hours of work experience, pass the National Center for Interior Design Qualification exam and receive approved credentialing by the Minnesota Board of Architecture, Engineering, Surveying, Landscape Architecture, Geoscience and Interior Design.

Students who come from a non-accredited program are not automatically eligible to take the Certified Interior Designer test through the Center for Interior Design. They will need 60 credits of interior design coursework, but the St. Kate’s program only offers 48 credits. To get the students to 60 credits, St. Kate’s is redesigning their current textiles class to gear it toward interior design students and creating two other courses for students to take for free.

St. Thomas sophomore Neely Theisen, an interior design major through St. Kate’s, finds it nearly impossible to manage the extra classes being offered.

“With my minor and the fact that I need to take almost all generals on top of the three classes I have left, there is no way for me to fit in these extra classes,” Theisen said. “There are seniors graduating. Are they expected to come back to take these classes?”

If graduates have an area of deficiency after they take the exam, St. Kate’s will assist them in finding an additional course for them to take free of charge.

This also affects students who have already graduated with an interior design degree from St. Kate’s. The program is five years old and the CIDA has a five-year look back period for students who recently graduated from a non-accredited program, meaning that students are covered under that accreditation.

Since St. Kate’s will not be accredited, it will require added work for students who have already graduated.

“Graduates will need to either return to St. Kate’s and enroll in the two courses or obtain eight credits elsewhere,” Justin Wilwerding, interior design program director, said. “Since these students are employed, this will mean some added effort and time in addition to their full time jobs.”

Theisen has found it difficult to work with St. Kate’s on this transition and is feeling regretful of her decision.

“St. Thomas has been more helpful than St. Catherine has been through this whole process of uncertainty,” Theisen said. “I wish I could go back to my high school self and tell myself to choose my other school option, not St. Catherine.”

Bangs understands that students are upset and is willing to help them navigate through the process.

“It’s never pleasant to find out a program you’re in is closing, but our commitment is to finish the students who want to finish,” Bangs said. “We are also trying to make it easier for students who want to transfer, to transfer. We’re just trying to help students in whatever way they feel is their best solution.”

Mary Brickner can be reached at bric0029@stthomas.edu.

This is a corrected version of a previous story posted to TommieMedia.com in March.