The MSHP program meets the academic standards of the National Council for Preservation Education.

Comprehensive Instruction
Ball State's graduate Program in Historic Preservation was founded in 1979, one of the first of its kind in the Midwest. As part of the Department of Architecture, the MSHP is an interdisciplinary degree drawing from a variety of fields, including history, architectural history, law, economics, landscape architecture, and urban planning.

Classroom instruction and applied experiences cover all the major aspects of preservation practice. Students study architectural history while also learning the details of preservation law and funding. The preservation laboratory supports class projects in preservation technology, which is vital to a preservation professional's work.  Muncie and the University itself provide tremendous historic resources, including a campus historic architecture tour developed by Preservation students.

Degree Curriculum
In the first year of the program, students learn fundamental knowledge and applied skills in a broad range of subjects, including architectural history, the history of the preservation movement, European and international conservation, research methods, preservation technology, documentation, preservation law and planning, and preservation economics.

In year two, students engage in a preservation design studio class with a community client organization and draw upon their classroom and field experiences in writing a master's thesis or creative project. Complementary elective courses can be taken in other disciplines. View a course-by-course sample curriculum for this degree.

Hands-on Projects
Many classes in this program include hands-on components that enable students to produce drawings, reports, plans, and government applications for preservation.

In the preservation design studio, students engage in a consultant experience working with an actual community client organization and produce a needed service, summarized in a report. Such classes provide experience and a professional product to take into job interviews.

Other projects emerge from graduate assistantships and internships with the Center for Historic Preservation. Professional experiences with the Center complement classroom work and have included historic structure reports,  Main Street preservation and design recommendations, a pictorial history of the gas boom in East Central Indiana, an architectural heritage education program for school children, and meticulously researched walking-tour brochures of local historic architecture.

Writing and Research
Writing is an important aspect of success in historic preservation, and Ball State's MSHP. program provides many opportunities to improve this skill. Students write research papers and prepare a master's thesis or creative project. The thesis proves that students can complete a large-scale research and writing project in a timely manner.

Thesis/Creative Project
A required master's thesis or creative project demonstrates students' ability to design and carry out a large research project of current significance to historic preservation. This work offers a chance to carve out a niche of special knowledge in the field and to improve research and writing skills for a professional position. A four-semester course sequence helps students finish this requirement.

Internship
Students gain firsthand experience outside the classroom by completing a required internship with a professional agency, firm, organization, or institution involved in preservation work at the local, state, or national level. The internship is 10 weeks of full-time employment or 400 hours of continuous part-time employment, usually done during the summer between the first and second years of the degree. The work may be paid or voluntary. Students arrange their own internships with assistance and approval from the program director.

Assistantships
A number of graduate assistantships are available each year to qualified students in the preservation program. These assistantships include stipends and either full or partial tuition waivers. However, students are still responsible for the dedicated fees.

First-year graduate assistants work for faculty members on architectural history, while second-year assistantships feature work with the Center for Historic Preservation or outside preservation organizations. Applicants are encouraged to submit their Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores. Learn more about our graduate assistantships.

Special Activities
Noted professionals in the historic preservation field share their expertise with students as lecturers in the College Guest Lecture Series, guest speakers in classes, and adjunct professors.  There are also regular gallery exhibits on preservation-related topics. See upcoming events on the College's calendar of events.

Preservation students also take trips to significant historic communities and places, attend conferences, and participate in field study programs. Find out more about our field study opportunities.

Students in the preservation program get involved in preservation-related community and state activities, and students organize social events during the school year. The Associated Students for Historic Preservation (ASHP) offers many interesting opportunities.

Program Newsletter
Learn more about Ball State's historic preservation program, the Center for Historic Preservation and its recent student activities and projects through issues of The MSHP News.

For More Information
Jonathan Spodek, Interim Director
Graduate Program in Historic Preservation
Department of Architecture
(765) 285-1900
preservation@bsu.edu

For complete information on program requirements, please consult the Ball State University Graduate Catalog.