i. institutional support and commitment to continuous improvement

School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects
Master of Architecture
Master of Architecture with emphasis in Interior Architecture
2010 AIADO Response to causes for concern, regarding administrative load, in the 2009
Visiting Team Assessment
The AIADO Department’s 2008-09 administrative faculty contract time totaled 9 days per year, or
4.5 days per week per semester, divided between a Department Chair (Reynders), an MArch Pro-
gram Director (Nereim), and a Designed Objects Program Director (Nugent).
With reorganization, the AIADO Department’s 2009-10 administrative faculty contract time totals 11
days per year, or 5.5 days per week per semester, divided as follows: Undergraduate Program Direc-
tor 1.5 days per week per semester (Kong), Designed Objects Program Director 1.5 days per week
per semester (Nugent), and MArch Program Director (Pancoast) 2.5 days per week per semester
(1.5 for normal program direction duties, and 1.0 for NAAB accreditation duties above and beyond
normal program direction). This represents a 22% increase in contracted administrative support for
faculty administrators in one year. It places the AIADO department above the average for the school.
In 2009–10, a one-year, special projects Administrative Assistant was hired. This person position
expires in February 2011; however, AIADO plans to add a second Administrative Director position.
The SAIC has also hired Sharon Matthews, former CEO of the NAAB, as a consultant to help in the
ongoing preparations for the 2011 NAAB team visit.
3) Curricular Structure
2009 Visiting Team Assessment
The curricular structure has yet to integrate the program‘s vision. The team finds two concerns:
a) The opportunities available to a design program married to an art school have yet to be fully ar-
ticulated or realized in the curriculum. This conclusion was reached after student comments, faculty
statements, and hearing administrator observations.
b) There appears to be an over reliance on Student Performance Criteria to provide the curricular
structure rather than to use the history and sensibilities of the department as a source for defining a
coherent structure for learning.
2010 AIADO Response to causes for concern, regarding curricular structure, in the 2009
Visiting Team Assessment
a) The Dean’s office hosted a retreat in August 2009 for the AIADO department, with representa-
tives from the entire school’s faculty, to discuss different resolutions to this issue. These fall into
several areas of approach:
o A deeper ongoing investigation of the various manifestations of the art-design theo-
retical divide as it can currently be seen at SAIC and comparable institutions, under the
appointed leadership of a design history faculty member.
o Investigation of a wider range of electives team-taught by artists and designers, with
the Dean’s office supporting the extra expense of team teaching.
o Investigation of art-design transdisciplinary centers at SAIC to bring outside aca-
demic civic and cultural institutions to SAIC for special projects, that would naturally
involve art and design faculty members, center fellows, and students working together.
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