A new five-year dual degree program that would award students a bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degree from Brown and a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design is set to launch in 2008.
The idea of a dual degree program is not new, said Roger Mayer, professor emeritus of visual art at Brown and a member of the working group responsible for the new program. "It is also something that has been pointed out by visitors who come here, who note that the two schools are immediately adjacent to one another, but there's really nothing ... that (brings) students together in a more formal way," he said.
The proposal has been approved by Brown's Academic Priorities Committee and the College Curriculum Council, as well as by those committees' counterparts at RISD, but it still needs approval by both the Brown and RISD faculty. Administrators and professors in the program's working group told The Herald they expect the program to launch in 2008.
The program will initially be capped at 20 students per year. Students would have to apply and be admitted to both Brown and RISD separately before being able to apply for the dual degree program. The program will not accept transfer students and will not have an early admission program.
The main challenge in academic collaboration between the two institutions, Mayer added, was that the schools operate on different academic calendars, making it difficult for students to take classes at both at the same time.
The program started to come together after the committee devised a solution for the differing schedules - students will take all their classes in a given semester at either RISD or Brown, rather than taking classes at both schools in a single semester, said Shelley Stephenson, assistant provost at Brown and a member of the degree program's working group.
"Depending on at which point they are in the five-year program, they would live at the school where they are currently attending classes," Mayer said. "So if it's a semester or a year that is devoted entirely to being at RISD, they would live at the RISD dorms, and when they come to Brown for a semester, they would live at Brown."
"The breakthrough of this program was when the committee that came up with it began to think about students claiming primary residency in one institution or the other," Stephenson said. "At that point it opened up the opportunities of different schedules."
Students in the program would have two concentrations - one at RISD and one at Brown - and two concentration advisers who would work together.
The dual degree students at each institution would live near each other and possibly take a first-year seminar together in order to cultivate a sense of community, Mayer said.
"I think this will be a hugely interesting collaboration between Brown and RISD in that it will provide complementary opportunities for students who might be choosing between a university and an art design school and are in many respects conflicted about which one to choose," RISD Provost Jay Coogan told The Herald.
Currently, students can enroll in both institutions and receive degrees from both Brown and RISD, but managing the logistics of attending the two universities can prove problematic.
Gamaal Wilson '06.5 created his own dual degree program, requiring a summer program and spending 11 semesters taking classes at Brown and RISD.
"It allowed me to do a track that most RISD students aren't taking and most Brown students aren't taking ... a program like that enables students who are interested to have the best of both schools and make that happen," Wilson said.
But, Wilson added, he did not really feel at home in either community. He said the proposed program should improve the student experience and help dual degree candidates fit in better.
"I think it's great. I think they're trying to make some strides or some efforts to making it a little more conducive for students to kind of feel a little bit more part of a community at both schools and not feel kind of torn or pulled between the two," he said.
