The Textile /Surface Design Department offers three degrees in the major.
 2-year AAS Degree, 1-year AAS Degree, and 2-year BFA Degree.

A second 2-year BFA degree is offered in the Fabric Styling
program in the Textile/Surface Design Department.

The mission of the Textile/Surface Design Department is to provide a professional, multi-disciplined, career-ready education balanced by a comprehensive liberal arts education and a global perspective.

The TSD Department prepares students for careers in the textile and related industries including entry level and design track positions in many disciplines and fields: wearing apparel/,accessories and products, (women's men's and children's wear) home furnishing products and decorative design (residential and contract) and paper products and gift ware (hard and soft products).

Because of the diversity within the textile and related industries students are able to intern in the following areas: printed, woven, knitted, computer aided design for women's wear apparel, accessories and products, men's wear apparel, accessories and products, and children's wear apparel, accessories and products, home fashions soft and hard products, bed and bath, tabletop products, dinnerware, wall coverings, upholstery, carpet and rug design, lace and embroidery design, fiber arts, gift ware and paper products.

The Textile/Surface Design program develops the students' intellectual, aesthetic, analytical and technological abilities, integrating theory with traditional and digital hands-on application. The program is structured to provide students with the multi-disciplined skills needed to meet industry demands.

Textile and Surface Design is the art of changing the appearance of natural and/or synthetic surfaces by the application of traditional, stylized, digitized and/or illusionary techniques to embellish a product. Textile and surface design is also the art of changing the structure of a surface by the application of three dimensional techniques of weaving, knitting, embroidery, lace, devoré, beading and embossing to enhance a product. The design can dictate the product as in tabletop items, and the form can dictate the design as in swim wear silhouettes.

Examples of surfaces decorated and changed by the textile and surface designer are fabric, glass, metal, wood, rubber, porcelain, paper, plastic, and fiberglass. Examples of techniques used by the textile and surface /product designer are airbrushing, antiquing, batiking, beading, bleaching, bogolanfini, burn out, CAD, collage, combing découpage, devoré, digitalizing, discharging, dragging, dyeing, embossing, embroidering, etching, faux painting, foil application, glazing, glittering, graining, ikat, illusionary painting, japanning, jaquard, knitting, laquering, layering, lining, mapping, marbling, montage, mottling, patina finishing, painting, photographing, pouncing, porphyry, printing, quilting, ragging, resisting, rolling, rubbing, salting, sanding, scumbling, simulating, speckling, sponging, staining, stamping, striating, stenciling, stippling, taping, tinting, transferring, trompe l'oeil, underscoring, varnishing, war resist, weaving, wrapping, xeroxing, and zhostovo.

Every TSD faculty member has a minimum of six years of industry experience in his/her specific field of expertise. The faculty is carefully selected for specific industry credentials, dedication to teaching and commitment to providing students with the skills necessary to compete and succeed in industry.

Many faculty members are highly specialized and teach within one specialization or discipline: woven design, screen print design, computer aided design, computer graphics for textile design, fiber arts, lace and embroidery, knit design, paper products, color theory and application, trend forecasting and styling, yarn dyed patterns, rug and carpet design.