i. institutional support and commitment to continuous improvement

I. Institutional Support and Commitment to Continuous Improvement
(students propose designs using Delta non-kitchen or bath home environment) and SAIC
Student Center Designed Surfaces (students propose logos for in-development student
center).
Proposed SAIC AIAS initiatives
o SAIC AIADO Open Studios: This in-development project would feature twice yearly,
“open studio” events so all students in the AIADO department can mingle and ask
questions about each others work.
o Professional Outreach and Networking: The chapter is developing a set of
initiatives, such as the professional dinners, to create a relationship with the Chicago AIA
community.
o Studio Culture: Our goal is to create a space for students to learn from one another
and exchange ideas, while serving as collective voice for the department.
o SAIC Community: Much like with the AIADO studio culture, the chapter will help to
foster exchange and collaboration with other departments within the school.
3) The role of students in the department’s self assessment
Since the MArch program was established in Fall 2006, it has altered its curriculum twice: first in
response to student concerns; and second in response to advice received during the first NAAB
candidacy visit. Student concerns expressed in course evaluations were used to modify the delivery
of topics during the initial summer intensive boot camp after Summer 2006, and again after
Summer 2007. Student concerns have also been used to change the pattern and timing of class
contact hours for the delivery of structural engineering topics after Fall 2008.
The MArch program is young, and its initially approved curriculum needs to be given time to gel while
remaining responsive to concerns raised by students and the accreditation process. In a timely way
students will begin to assume a more complicated role in the program’s self evaluation of its effectiveness.
The MArch program’s Assessment and Archiving System has been operational for four years, since
December 2006. It has collected assessments of student performance on the subsets of the thirty-
two NAAB performance criteria for every required class in the MArch program. The performance
criteria are only a minimum standard of understanding and ability, but they are also a foundation
stone for the professional goals of the MArch program. The significant identity and progressive
direction of the MArch program at SAIC are unique and evident in the work of the students, and in
the tenor of daily life in the Sullivan Center’s studios and halls.
Faculty assessments of student performance on NAAB SPCs are contained in metadata that has
been collected with the PDFs of student work that were evaluated by faculty teams and uploaded
to the system’s server. Starting in Fall 2009, the metadata has been sorted according to SPC with
high pass and low pass numbers for each SPC. This allows the MArch program to assess where each
student performance criterion can best be delivered. A review of this sort was just completed in
Spring 2010.
4) Additional Projects
The School’s AIADO department has successfully undertaken a number of unique projects that best
illustrate how students are supported and encouraged to assume leadership roles, set individual and
collective learning agendas, and are encouraged to cooperate with and respect fellow students while
being exposed to a national and international context of practice.
From 2005 to 2007, SAIC supported three projects that exemplify these experiences. They were: Red
Bull at the Art Chicago art fair—where students designed an ice sculpture for the corporate client; the
21 | Spring 2011
SECTION I Institutional Support and Commitment to Continuous Improvement