The face of Penn's arts program has changed -- both permanently in its overall vision, and temporarily in its leadership.
Most recently, John Dixon Hunt, professor of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, was appointed the position of acting dean.
Hunt will be holding this position until Jan. 1, 2004, when the official dean, Gary Hack, will return to campus after contributing to the plans for the reconstruction of the World Trade Center.
The announcement of Hunt's acting deanship follows that of the Graduate School of Fine Arts' name change: after reaching a unanimous decision, the Board of Trustees announced to the Penn community in August that the school is now called the University of Pennsylvania School of Design.
Hunt said that he was pleased with the decision to change the school's name -- now familiarly called PennDesign.
"I think it's a great move to change the name," Hunt said. "Design represents a larger portion of what we do now. It covers more of the activities of this school than any other word."
The name was chosen because it highlights two elements that both the school and the Board of Trustees want to emphasize.
First of all, the new name eliminates the word "graduate" -- a term that is considered to be a misnomer for a school that offers courses to as many as 1,800 undergraduates -- an "enormous increase," according to Hunt.
Secondly, the word "design" is said to represent an "element in common" between the school's six departments, Fine Arts Professor and Undergraduate Program Chair Julie Saecker Schneider said.
"Visual design is understood as the organization of space," Schneider said. "I am pleased with the name, as long as I can define 'design.'"
Schneider added that she was not bothered by the fact that the term "Fine Arts" had been eliminated from the school's name.
The Fine Arts Department is "such a presence on campus," she said. "We started small and now we're huge."
The name "Fine Arts" was initially given to the school because it endorsed the same notion of "art" as its French counterpart, l'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.
Now, however, "Fine Arts has a sense of old fashion," Hunt said. "PennDesign is so much cleaner."
Hunt added that the name is also a good representation of many of the school's ongoing projects -- among which is Hack's involvement with the projects for the World Trade Center.
The administration is not concerned that prospective students might be confused over the new name.
In fact, Schneider said that before the name change occurred, undergraduates -- confused by the term "graduate" -- may have not taken advantage of the option of taking courses within the school.
"PennDesign is snappier and will be more attractive to the students we want," Hunt said. "It's a gain in visibility."
