EXHIBITS

An example of a finished product from the Clothing and Textiles program.

(USU Photographic Services Collection., 1943-1984, P0376, 38:7788C, Image 001)

During this period, cooking came to be thought of as its own science.

(USU Photographic Services Collection., 1943-1984, P0376, 38:7788B, Image 005)

The changes during the previous decades were not the end of growth. In 1985, the Department of Family and Human Development reached a major milestone, for the first time offering a doctoral degree to students. [1] Undergraduates in the Department of Home Economics and Consumer Education could now receive degrees in Fashion Merchandising, Housing and Interiors, and General Family life in addition to Home Economics Education. [2] Compared to the degree emphases from just fifty years prior, the difference is that these focused on preparing students to enter the workforce in areas which had before been limited to the individual household.

Textiles, family resource management, and child care remained, but students could also take courses in interior design, student teaching, and curriculum development. [3] The Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, together with the College of Agriculture, had turned what had been simply “cooking” under the Department of Domestic Arts into a science fit for the latter part of the 20th Century, incorporating chemistry, statistics, and even business administration. [4] The Department of Family and Human Development provided education in child-rearing, guidance, marriage therapy, social service, and human sexuality. [5] What had once been some of the most elementary parts of “women’s work” inside the home had become their own industries, and the changes in the college came to reflect that.