i. institutional support and commitment to continuous improvement

I. Institutional Support and Commitment to Continuous Improvement
o AIC’s Department of Architecture and Design
The historic collection comprises more than 150,000 architectural sketches, drawings,
and plans focusing on architects and buildings from Chicago and the Midwest, from the
1870s to the present day.
j) Libraries
Below find brief descriptions of the institution’s many libraries, archives and collections. In
addition to the School’s holdings, inter-library loan and 70 web-accessible, licensed digital
databases are available to members of the SAIC community.
o John M. Flaxman Library
The primary library for the school, the Flaxman library maintains over 100,000 books,
picture files, 400 periodicals, and 2,000 audiovisual items including films, videos, audio-
tapes, records, and CDs.
o Special Collections of SAIC
The six Special Collections provide researchers with intimate access to original archival
materials, works of art and supporting documentation. They include: the Fashion Resource
Center; Film Study Collection; Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection; Randolph Street
Gallery Archives; Roger Brown Study Collection; and the Video Data Bank.
o MacLean Visual Resource Center
The MacLean Resource Center maintains the Madison Digital Image Database (MDID), a
growing in-house database of over 90,000 images. These collections, which are closed
to the general public, support the educational programs and curricula of the school.
o AIC’s Ryerson and Burnham Libraries
The Ryerson & Burnham Libraries constitute a major art and architecture research
collection that acquires approximately 10,000 volumes annually.
o The Ryerson and Burnham Archives
The Ryerson and Burnham Archives’ collections are notably strong in late 19th- and 20th-
century American architecture, with particular depth in Midwest architecture.
o The Chicago Architects Oral History Project
The CAOHP was begun in 1983 under the auspices of the Art Institute’s Department
of Architecture to record the life experiences of architects who shaped the physical
environment in Chicago and surrounding communities.
o The Ernest R. Graham Study Center for Architectural Drawings
Administrated by AIC’s Department of Architecture and Design, the collected works of
the study center concentrate on designs by Chicago architects and for Chicago buildings
from the 1870s to the present day.
B) Architecture Education and Students
SAIC students participate in the structure of their education most notably through student evaluations;
moreover, MArch students influence curricular direction and departmental concerns in both formal and
informal ways. Those include impressions shared during the full-time faculty hiring process and self-
evaluation as well as a governing board of student-elected representatives.
1) Students participation in departmental faculty hiring
Students have a particular role to play in the search for new full-time faculty. The search process
includes on-campus presentations by finalist candidates selected by the committee of full-time
faculty. Students attend these public presentations, evaluate candidates in class critique sessions, and
report to the Search Committee on their opinions. This feedback has been instrumental in the Search
Committee’s deliberations.
19 | Spring 2011
SECTION I Institutional Support and Commitment to Continuous Improvement