The Facts: The College of Design announced Tuesday the merger of its industrial and graphic design programs. The merger will save the college a considerable amount of money and remedied its budget crunch, at least temporarily. In general, mergers tend to eliminate administrative positions whilst saving teaching faculty.

Our Opinion: The merger in the College of Design seems to be a good budgetary solution for that college but should not be applied as a cure all to other programs on campus.

The College of Design announced the merger of its industrial and graphic design programs in a meeting Tuesday. The merger appears, at least initially, to be well-thought out and a good step toward economic viability for the college. The situation surrounding the merger was very unique though, and other colleges should be cautious about trying this approach.

The College of Design spent several years analyzing its industrial and graphic design programs with the intention to combine them. Essentially, the college was able to identify the two programs as well suited for a merger. Marvin Malecha, dean of the College of Design, said the programs wouldn’t have merged if he didn’t think the combination had an opportunity “to make [the college] better.”

The programs will probably benefit from the increases in interdisciplinary cooperation, diversity and research cooperation.

Malecha indicated that the budget crunch played a role in their decision to merge the colleges this year, but the budget did not cause the merger. This is critical to identify and remember.

What will most likely work for design is not the sort of budget solution that would work for, say hypothetically, physics and industrial engineering. The merger of any two programs will eliminate administrative costs but can have enormous repercussions on the integrity of degrees and the quality of teaching.

It’s not that the University is proposing a merger between physics and industrial engineering, but this is the sort of thinking that creates a slippery slope.

The College of Design saved $400,000 and was able to preserve its faculty through the merger — although, a large portion of the administrative staff was eliminated. The College of Design should be commended for the hard work it did to alleviate the budgetary impact on the students, but this is definitely not a model for other colleges.

In general, mergers will only increase the University’s already ballooning class sizes and lead to degrees that are out of touch with students needs.

During this challenging budget crisis, the University must do its best to find and implement innovative economic solutions. The College of Design merger was particularly commendable for the way it cut excessive administrative as opposed to teaching staff.

Colleges must resist the temptation to try this method while continuing to think creatively and find solutions to the University’s 8-percent budget crunch.