USU Department of Art and Design Receives National Accreditation

The National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) has accredited Utah State University’s Department of Art and Design in the Caine College of the Arts.

“This is another step in establishing the Caine College of the Arts as one of the premier colleges of the arts in the western United States and among our land-grant peer institutions,” said Craig Jessop, dean of the Caine College of the Arts at Utah State University.

NASAD accreditation or membership is obtained after a thorough self-study process and a comprehensive peer review.

“It is a marvelous achievement for the faculty and staff of the Department of Art & Design, and for the Caine College of the Arts,” said Jessop.

Founded in 1944, NASAD includes more than 300 accredited schools of art and design primarily at the collegiate level. It is recognized as the national accrediting agency for art and design and art and design-related disciplines. USU joins three other Utah-based institutions with association membership, including Brigham Young University, Southern Utah University and Weber State University.

“The commission’s vote to accredit the Department of Art and Design means that we meet NASAD standards for excellence,” said Laura Gelfand, USU Department of Art and Design head. “Because the accreditation is institutional, it also indicates that USU has given us sufficient support to meet national accreditation standards. At a time when many universities are cutting programs in the arts and humanities it’s important to have USU’s ongoing support of the program recognized and validated.”

When the Caine College of the Arts was founded in 2010, one of the primary goals was to attain accreditation for the Department of Art and Design, said Jessop. “I am so very proud of professor Gelfand and her marvelous colleagues of the Department of Art and Design. My sincere congratulations to each of them on this outstanding and most significant milestone in the history of the department and for the college.”

Accreditation was a time-intensive, three-year process, said Gelfand. The department evaluated and tweaked its curriculum for a year after working with an outside consultant. Then department faculty members worked together to complete a detailed self-study. Expert, trained evaluators from peer institutions visited USU and provided additional feedback on the department’s programs and facilities. The NASAD Commission on Accreditation met last week and voted to accept USU’s application for membership, thus granting the university membership in the organization.

“Institutional membership in NASAD puts us in the same league as major private art schools and other comprehensive universities that have earned accreditation,” said Gelfand. “It means we will be able to recruit the most accomplished students and faculty because our programs and facilities have been shown to meet the highest institutional standards.”

NASAD membership will benefit current and future students in the art and design programs. The department prepares students for careers in visual art and design fields by training them to develop their skills and conceptual ideas. Accreditation attests to the department’s commitment to provide the best possible education for USU students.

In addition to the Department of Art and Design’s NASAD accreditation, the department’s Interior Design program recently had its specialized accreditation through the Council on Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) renewed for another six years.

The department currently has 455 undergraduate student majors and just under 30 graduate students studying in one or more of its nine areas of concentration.

Related links:

USU Department of Art and Design

USU Caine College of the Arts

Contact: Denise Albiston, 435-97-1500, denise.albiston@usu.edu