Leading the way to specialized programs

To Marissa Prulello, nothing could seem more fitting than the merger of the University’s undergraduate leadership program with the graduate School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy (SUAPP), which took effect July 1.

Prulello, CHEP ’02, ’05M, earned her bachelor’s degree in leadership and consumer economics in what was then the Department of Consumer Studies and her master of public administration (MPA) degree in SUAPP. Both programs are part of the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy.

“In my case, the leadership program was excellent training for the MPA program,” Prulello, who now works as special events coordinator for the Delaware Valley Alzheimer’s Association, says. “I think the two are a great match, and the administration has done a good job of explaining the change to students.”

The reorganization has separated the two components of the former Department of Consumer Studies into their own specialized programs. While the leadership major has moved to SUAPP, the majors in fashion merchandising and apparel design make up the department that remains, now called Fashion and Apparel Studies. Karen Stein, chairperson of the former consumer studies department, says the reorganization allows both areas to offer more opportunities to students and faculty.

“The underlying principle of our department had been service to consumers,” says Stein, who has moved to SUAPP, where she is director of the undergraduate leadership program. “For many years, that principle gave us all a focus and made us a strong department, but we really had taken it as far as we could. We realized that, to continue going forward, we needed to specialize.”

Students majoring in leadership now have expanded opportunities, in addition to “a more specialized experience,” as a result of joining with the urban affairs and public policy school and the resources it offers, Stein says. Those opportunities include more prospects for conducting undergraduate research, because of the ready access to a larger faculty, and the availability of more internships, because of SUAPP’s numerous partnerships with governmental and nonprofit agencies.

Stein also notes that an accelerated program for leadership majors who want to earn a master’s degree in public administration, although previously established, will be easier to coordinate and expand now that the two programs have joined in the same school. That accelerated program allows qualified leadership majors to take some MPA classes during their senior year and so complete their graduate work in less time than usual.

For students in SUAPP’s graduate programs, the merger also holds benefits, according to Jeff Raffel, director of the school. He says those include the creation of four teaching assistantships, for doctoral students to instruct some undergraduate classes. SUAPP students didn’t have that opportunity when it was an all-graduate school, and Raffel says the change will give students teaching experience that will help them if they pursue careers in higher education.

Three faculty members—Stein, Audrey Helfman and James L. Morrison—have moved to SUAPP, and  four new members are being hired. The merger also means that previous SUAPP faculty have new opportunities to teach undergraduates as well as graduate students, Raffel says. For example, Leland Ware, the Louis L. Redding Chair for the Study of Law and Public Policy, is planning an undergraduate course in civil rights leadership.

“If you look at what our school has done over the years, a large part of our mission is to prepare leaders and agents for change, so that’s a natural fit with the leadership program,” Raffel says. “A lot of our graduates and our faculty members are recognized leaders, so there was already a connection between the two programs.”

He says one difference between the programs is that leadership graduates often go on to careers in the private sector, while many urban affairs and public policy alumni work in public or nonprofit agencies. But, he adds, there are many areas—housing, for example—in which public policy and private business are closely intertwined. In addition, many graduates of both programs change jobs more than a few times over the course of their careers and might very well move between government agencies and for-profit businesses.

Another way in which the two programs are connected, Raffel and Stein say, is in their emphasis on experiential learning. SUAPP, with a host of internships and other hands-on experiences, is well-known for having both faculty and students who combine academic and real-world work, Raffel says.

“When you look at SUAPP and the leadership program, our philosophies about education are very compatible,” Stein says. “The leadership program has had a very active internship program, and our classrooms have always served as safe laboratories where students can learn leadership skills and also practice them.

“We expect that those opportunities for our students will increase and broaden now that we’ve joined with SUAPP.”  

—Ann Manser, AS ’73, CHEP ’73

 

Where art, business are in fashion

High school and transfer students interested in fashion marketing or apparel design never seem to have had difficulty finding information about UD’s program, which until July 1 was part of CHEP’s Department of Consumer Studies and now is its own Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies.

“We have lots of apparel design and fashion merchandising majors already, so I don’t think prospective students have had any trouble learning about our program,” Karen Stein, chairperson of the former consumer studies department for 12 years, says. “Where I think the change is going to make a difference is with our external audience, especially in our contacts with the fashion industry. While people in industry might have thought of ‘consumer studies’ as more generalized, I think the new department will make it very clear that the focus is on fashion.”

That focus, she says, encompasses both the artistic side of fashion, with the apparel design major, and the business side, with the merchandising major. Many students combine the two, graduating with a double major.

With Stein’s move to CHEP’s School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, where she is director of the leadership program, Marsha Dickson has joined the UD faculty as chairperson of the new fashion and apparel studies department. Dickson says she sees the new, specialized department as having many benefits for students and faculty, and she agrees with Stein that expanding partnerships with the fashion industry is a key goal.

“I knew there were a lot of exciting things going on at Delaware,” Dickson, who came to UD from the faculty of Kansas State University’s Department of Apparel, Textiles and Interior Design, says. “The faculty win a lot of design awards and do a lot of interesting research, and Karen Stein did a great job with the program. But, with the reorganization, this is an incredible opportunity to focus on fashion and highlight that program.”

The department remains small enough for faculty members to continue to interact personally with students and to be able to respond “nimbly” to trends and changes in the field, she says.

She notes that the department has established ties with the fashion industry, offering students and alumni such experiences as internships and full-time employment, and she says she hopes to strengthen those connections, as well as creating additional partnerships with business and other organizations in the state and the region.

Dickson, who was on the Kansas State faculty for five years, previously taught at Ohio State University and worked as a designer in the fashion industry. Her interest is in socially responsible sourcing and production of garments from the perspective of both workers and manufacturers. She has conducted research in Mumbai, India, focusing on a group of women who do embroidery for the apparel industry.

She serves on the board of directors of the Fair Labor Association, working with executives of multinational corporations to improve working conditions for their employees.

Dickson cites the University’s and the department’s emphasis on study abroad programs and other international learning opportunities as another reason she was drawn to her new position.

Stein notes that the new department’s specialization, as well as the leadership program’s move to join with the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, is just the most recent change for programs that have developed over the years to better meet the evolving needs of students and society.

“This latest change is just one more natural step for us,” Stein, who joined the UD faculty in 1978, says. “It’s another element of change in a department that has a long history of evolving and producing students who themselves can be agents of change.”  

—Ann Manser, AS ’73, CHEP ’73