"Trading Spaces" spurs college enrollment.

• Position: Education - Brief Article

"My job exists because of "Trading Spaces,'" muses Janet Fick, interior design instructor at Ball State University, Muncie, Ind., of the popular cable television program in which neighbors swap homes and decorate a single room in each other's house. Fick maintains it is no coincidence that the increase in interior design majors mirrors the success of decorating programs like The Learning Channel's "Trading Spaces" and Home & Garden Television's "Designers' Challenge."

"These [types of] shows get students interested in the field. Once they see the wider aspects of interior design, they stay in the program." Two years ago, Ball State had 80 interior design majors. That number has since tripled.

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