Faculty Information

The Individualized Degree Program (IDP) is an academically sound, interdisciplinary degree program developed by the student in collaboration with a faculty advisor and the Center for Individualized Learning to meet specific educational goals not met by other majors and minors at the university. Since 1976, the IDP (and formerly Contract Major) has had around 5,000 graduates.  

For more information about the IDP process for students see the IDP Student page.

An IDP faculty advisor is a full-time faculty member who mentors an IDP student to design their degree plan. 

The faculty advisor’s main responsibilities are to give advice on the student’s coursework, brainstorm IDP titles, and provide field-specific career and graduate school advice. 

 Advising commitments vary based on the level of each student’s self-directed capacity, complexity of content, and your availability.  

The Faculty Designed IDP serves as a testing ground for faculty to develop new academic programs to meet emerging needs in the community and workplace. This provides faculty members and programs the opportunity to track demand and experiment with the relevant curriculum before submitting the new program for review through the established curriculum approval process. 

We also house Faculty Designed IDPs that do not easily fit within one department including the International Studies Concentration, Aerospace Systems Engineering Technology (ASET), and Aerospace Physics. 

The Faculty Oversight Committee serves in an advisory role for CIL programs and meets twice each year. The committee includes the Associate Deans (or designee) responsible for IDP approvals from each College/School, two faculty members from each College/school appointed by their respective Dean, the CIL faculty associates, and the faculty liaisons. A representative from any department with a new Faculty Designed IDPs is also welcome to participate. All professional staff members of the Center for Individualized Learning attend meetings as appropriate. 

Each year, three faculty members are selected to work with the Center for Individualized Learning. These faculty work with CIL staff to support IDP students, enhance awareness of the program across campus, and support special projects. For example, projects could include data analysis, outreach to alumni, policy development, and assessment.  

• Michael Botyarov, Ph.D. (Aviation and Aerospace Science) 
• Nicole Vowels, Ph.D. (Marketing) 
• David Klein (Industrial Design) 

Faculty liaisons are representatives from academic departments who support the IDP program. These faculty may serve as faculty advisors for specific IDP students, or they may recommend other faculty with expertise that fits a student’s interests. Faculty liaisons also serve as a point of contact for CIL news and updates and help share information within their departments.