By Tom Haydon | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
UNION — Kean University’s plans to open a school architecture now face opposition from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, which claims the program would be a wasteful duplication and that Kean has failed to seek approvals for the new school.
In October, Kean University announced the formation of the Michael Graves School of Architecture, named for the acclaimed architect who has a Princeton firm and is architecture professor emeritus at Princeton University. The new program will offer a four-year bachelor of art degree in architecture, and a two-year master’s degree.
NJIT in Newark contends the two public schools, about 10 miles apart, serve the same populations, and the Newark institute’s architecture school already has the capacity to serve the region with a program chartered by the state in 1973. NJIT’s program accommodates up to 250 students in a five-year bachelor’s program.
“If you have the state involved in sponsored programs, they would have to have a geographical disparity or offer different programs. I think it would hard not to come to that conclusion,” said Urs Gauchat, NJIT Dean of the School of Architecture and Design.
[…]James Castiglione, president of the Kean Federation Teachers, said faculty members also question the new program.
“The faculty’s primary concern is the always the quality of education. What effect will this program have on existing programs?” Castiglione said.
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