An Interview with Professor Del Parson

I've had the recent pleasure of interviewing Professor Del Parson of Dixie State College on his efforts to bring a 4 year Bachelor of Arts program to the college. Del is a well respected artist who first gained notoriety painting western themed gallery paintings and rose to greater popularity doing religious themed work, having a great deal of influence on the modern day representation of The Christ, especially among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Del has worked as an art professor at Dixie State College for 20 years and in that time has influenced countless budding artists, like myself. In our interview Del mentioned that he has been pushing for Dixie to get a Bachelors of Arts program up and running for 6 years now. When asked what the hang-ups in the process were, he stated that; “…the administration has to make a decision on priorities and we were not on the top of the list… you’d need to have reason for a degree and what are the potential jobs [students] would have. That would make a big difference on where you’re going to put your money. Say if you were a dental hygienist you’d probably have a much better chance getting a job than say an art major, … So that was the priority.” It was a practical argument that Del understood and conceded.

The problem with that argument though became more evident as the interview went on and I asked Del what advice he gives potential students who inquire about attending DSC as an art major. “…if they want a degree, I have to tell them to go somewhere else. I’ve probably told hundreds of perspective students over the years that they should go somewhere else.” If hundreds of students desire to come to Dixie for art instruction, what kind of numbers were we talking about here? Del related that BYU-Idaho has 1400 art majors at its school, over 10% of its student body. Certainly that many students’ tuition could be attractive to a school like Dixie State College.

For Del it’s not about the money though. He says he enjoys teaching art because he gets to be around artists all day. When asked why it’s important to him why he pushes for a 4 year degree he says simply; “It’s not for me, it’s for the students. I see students that say, because they don’t have the financial means to go to a big art school, or they have a wife here with a job, or family and they can’t really go somewhere else, it’s really for them.”

Certainly attracting that many potential students and serving the community of upcoming artists that would like to attend Dixie are big plusses for Professor Parson, but the school and the community as a whole are served as well. Del said it best at the close of our interview when I asked why would it be important to Dixie State College that they have a 4 year art program; “Enrichment. Art is enrichment. Without it, it would be like going outside and there are no birds. It just gives that kind of flavor.”