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
b) Strategic initiatives
If the Core Values are the principles with which the planning process is to be guided, the Stra-
tegic Initiatives are the tactical instructions for how to reach the School’s five-year goals. These
marching orders are intended to be carried out by one of several Action Groups that will be
formed in Fall 2010 semester. The Action Groups may be newly formed committees of faculty,
staff, and, where appropriate, students, or they may focus the efforts of existing committees.
Drafted and vetted simultaneously with the values, the initiatives describe a challenge the
Strategic Planning Committee has identified as both pressing and actionable. Then they out-
line expected outcomes, which would arise from the ameliorative activity of the Action Groups.
Finally, each initiative charges an action group with an ultimate goal, suggesting benchmarks
and assessment tools that may be helpful in adjudicating each goal. By their nature, each of
the strategic initiatives is less succinct than the values; therefore, the Strategic Initiatives, with
summaries of their contents are:
o Develop Funding Beyond Current Tuition Sources
This initiative refers both to the situation in which the School gains the majority of its
revenue from tuition and that the number of newly college-age students over the next
several years in the United States is expected to decline. Finding avenues to diversifying
income and bolster development efforts is the goal of this initiative.
o Focus on Organizational Effectiveness
This initiative highlights that SAIC, known for its innovativeness in vanguard art
instruction, is more experienced growing the organization through new programs and
degree tracks than efficiently maintaining its day-to-day operations. Establishment of
increasingly transparent, predictable, and fair administrative processes is the goal of this
initiative.
o Develop a Campus Master Plan
This initiative focuses on how to better, more quickly, and more predictably address the
always-advancing technology needs of art and design-making equipment, particularly
in an urban, vertical campus, which minimizes the collective, community-building spaces
associated with the university quad. Making a flexible, responsive plan for the physical
plant of the School is the goal of this initiative.
o Build Diversity
This initiative continues the centrality of desire for a diverse SAIC, free from systemic
impediments in faculty, students, and staff recruitment. It also charges the Action Group
to consider the diversity of opinions and practices embodied in the School as well as the
community’s national, racial, class, and gender identity profile. Setting new, distinctive
benchmarks for assessing and methods for improving our diversity is the goal of this initiative.
o Find the SAIC Student
This initiative recognizes that the open, flexible curriculum of SAIC is not easily navigated
by all students. Nuanced recruitment procedures to better identify ideal students as well
as the establishment of a more robust transfer-student orientation processes are the goals
of this initiative.
o Provide Structure and Support for Students
Even when recruiting the ideal SAIC student, the open curriculum can be daunting for
new students, particularly young undergraduates. Monitoring and evaluating a new series
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