The interior design program at UNLV has been granted an initial three-year accreditation by the Foundation of Interior Design Education and Research (FIDER), the national accrediting agency for interior design programs.

UNLV is now one of approximately 120 interior design programs accredited by FIDER.

With the accreditation, UNLV's interior design program becomes the only accredited program in the state of Nevada, which is one of 17 states that register interior designers.

The accreditation will help future interior designers from UNLV as Nevada, beginning in the year 2000, will require all interior designers who wish to register in the state to be graduates of a four-year, FIDER-accredited program and to take the national exam administered by the National Council of Interior Design Qualifications (NCIDQ).

Founded in 1988, the UNLV interior design program is under the direction of architecture professor Attila Lawrence. It is one of three design programs within the School of Architecture. The architecture program was granted accreditation in October 1997, and the school's landscape architecture program expects an accreditation decision in late July.

For more information about the interior design program, call the UNLV School of Architecture at 895-3031 or visit the interior design website at http://architecture.unlv.edu/.