At its October 2013 meeting, Conway’s Board of Trustees voted to rename the school’s graduate degree. Conway will now offer a Master of Science in Ecological Design and the graduating class of 2014 will be the first to receive the new degree. The graduate program will retain the name Graduate Program in Sustainable Landscape Planning + Design.
“The new name fits what the graduate program has grown to become over recent years,” said Conway’s director, Paul Cawood Hellmund. “The applied nature of the program is better represented by “master of science” than the previous “master of arts,” and “ecological design” does a much better job conveying the whole-systems approach we practice.”
In developing the new name, a special committee with trustee/alum and faculty members conducted an email survey of all Conway graduates, as well as polling graduates of related programs and prospective employers. A member of the class of 2014 wrote, “I feel strongly that the M.S. in Ecological Design degree better conveys the scope and orientation of our studies and work to the public, our clients, and future employers.”
