i. institutional support and commitment to continuous improvement

I. Institutional Support and Commitment to Continuous Improvement
I. INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT AND COMMITMENT TO
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
I.1. IDENTITY AND SELF ASSESSMENT
I.1.4. LONG-RANGE PLANNING
The departments of the School engage regularly in both departmental and school-wide strategic
self-assessment and planning exercises. The MArch program’s department, AIADO, performs periodic
self-reviews that consider faculty experience, student feedback and observations of the field of art and
design in an ongoing effort to keep the curriculum responsive to educational goals and savvy within an
innovative profession. Also, the School continually evaluates its effectiveness, undertaking major, multi-
year plans such as the current Strategic Planning process.
A) Departmental Planning
To plan, secure approval of the Faculty Senate, and implement new programs in their department, the
faculty of the Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects have already
made significant collective investments of time, energy, commitment, and focus. The full-time and
adjunct members of the department have participated in eight intensive curricular retreats to date
since 2001, during which the programmatic vision and structure has been articulated, core curriculum
has been determined, and course descriptions have been discussed and drafted. In 2007 the AIADO
department held a series of faculty meetings to determine how to increase the degree of technical
architectural and building science competence in student work, in response to the exhibition mounted
for the NAAB candidacy team’s visit. These plenary meetings have continued on a regular basis to
further refine the programs as they are implemented.
In September 2009 the department held an all-day retreat at the Dean of Faculty’s home to review
current administrative structures and review curriculum. At that time the faculty asked to delay a
search for a chief director while advocating for a transitional model that appointed three discrete
directors—Douglas Pancoast as Director of Graduate Programs, Thomas Kong as Director of
Undergraduate Programs, and Helen Maria Nugent as Director of Designed Objects.
The curricular and financial impact of the new professional Masters degree programs has already been
studied in depth through the due diligence exercises followed by the School as a whole in conjunction
with its Board of Governors, its Design Advisory Committee, and the Faculty Senate, Curriculum
Committee, Design Initiative Committee, and the AIADO Department. While the programs have been
met with enthusiasm in their public debut, and the School is pleased with both the caliber and the
quantity of applicants to each of the programs, it has been necessary to continue the refinement
process as the program has been implemented, long-range plans for staffing have been executed,
new full-time faculty members have been hired, new and remodeled facilities have been designed
and delivered, and data on student satisfaction and outcomes are gathered from both NAAB and the
student body.
Formal student input is crucial as well. The Studio Culture Committee (now folded into a recognized
AIAS chapter) met regularly and attempted to encompass undergraduate BFA and BIA students as well
as MArch students, as they share many facilities. In 2007, undergraduate and graduate students from
the department were asked to meet with and evaluate finalist candidates for Fall 2007 faculty hires in
Architecture and Designed Objects, and their responses were critical in the final selection process.
1) Recent Planning Initiatives
Departmental planning and assessment are intrinsically linked. Planning serves not only the
development of procedures for the regular administration of the department, but also is the
27 | Spring 2011
SECTION I Institutional Support and Commitment to Continuous Improvement