Mission
The Department of Human Sciences and Design (HSD) at Baylor University develops scholars and leaders who apply a Christian worldview to improve the quality of life and human experience for individuals, families, and communities by advancing education, scholarship, and service related to nutrition, apparel, the built environment, human development, and family relationships.
Purpose and Profile
The purpose of the Department of HSD is to prepare graduates to function as practicing professionals with a major focus on individual, family, and community well-being. Each of the programs within HSD addresses a particular aspect of life firmly supported by a strong knowledge base. Each professional program provides breadth and depth in the content area of specialization and develops student competencies essential to contemporary practice in the professional field, excelling in areas of capacity building, wellness, resource development and sustainability, technology, and global interdependence. Educated in service-based disciplines, students enter the job market in positions related to marketing consumer goods and services, developing and improving products and services, ensuring food safety and nutrition, and caring for and supporting the needs of children and families. Graduates are also involved in market research of clothing and textiles, designing functional, safe, and aesthetic environments, and teaching in public and private settings.
Students in HSD are strongly supported by faculty members in their various disciplines representing a diversity of interests and backgrounds related to their specialized fields. Faculty prepares students for future career paths through leadership and involvement in professional and service experiences. Students are prepared to enter the work force with a deep sense of responsibility and shared concern for all mankind, ethically embracing opportunities and accepting challenges.
History
The Department of HSD at Baylor was established as a department with a curriculum leading to a degree in 1933. It was recognized at that time as the Department of Home Economics. Classes were taught at six different locations across campus with Bachelor of Science degrees offered in home economics education, general home economics, and fashion merchandising.
In 1977, the department moved into its own new quarters at the corner of 8th Street and M.P. Daniel Esplanade and was named the Mary Gibbs Jones Home Economics Building in recognition of the wife of Houston businessman and philanthropist Jesse H. Jones, whose generous gift made this facility possible. The department name was changed to Family and Consumer Sciences in 1994 and Human Sciences and Design in 2020. The Mary Gibbs Jones Building also houses the Parker Design Center.
Today, the department offers six professional degree programs: Child and Family Studies, Nutrition Sciences, Apparel Design and Product Development, Apparel Merchandising, Interior Design, and General Family and Consumer Sciences.
Two other facilities also support departmental programs. The Goebel Building houses a computer lab and resource lab for the Interior Design program. Additionally, the Goebel Building houses textile, body scanning, and wear testing labs. The Piper Center for Family Studies and Child Development serves as an early childhood laboratory school for students in the Child & Family Studies program.