i. institutional support and commitment to continuous improvement

I. Institutional Support and Commitment to Continuous Improvement
of courses that provide structure to the undergraduate curriculum and making advising
processes more pervasive is expected to alleviate these concerns. Greater student
satisfaction and higher retention rates are some of the goals of this initiative.
o Strengthen Research and Collaboration
Many areas of the School—especially in the professional programs like MArch—have
established, collaborative projects with other art institutions and other industries. Still,
the School wants to increase the number of student and faculty research projects as well
as cultivate a better School-wide awareness of those projects better. Improving alumni
participation in current School activity is seen as part of this effort. An appreciable
increase in the kind, frequency, and value of such partnerships over a five-year period is
the goal of this initiative.
In Fall 2010, the Strategic Planning Committee will begin its final function as a steering committee,
working with SAIC administration and faculty governance to identify or establish Action Groups,
who undertake addressing the Strategic Initiative, using the Core Values as a guide to adjudicate
their actions. The Strategic Planning Committee will oversee these activities, and help coordinate
collaborations among the Action Groups, which may be working on similar goals from different angles.
Finally, the Strategic Planning Committee will continue to help each Action Group evaluate its progress
over the five-year period.
I. INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT AND COMMITMENT TO
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
I.1. IDENTITY AND SELF ASSESSMENT
I.1.5. Self-Assessment Procedures
As in planning initiatives, assessment procedures happen at both departmental and institutional levels.
A) Departmental self-assessment
Historical and recent assessment activities of the AIADO department are discussed below. A final
section gives an overview of regular departmental assessment procedures.
1) Self studies in 1991 and 2001: strengths and challenges
As an institution that is both regionally and nationally accredited—as a charter member of the
National Association of Schools of Art and Design since 1944, and continuously accredited since
1936 by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools—the School is subject to self-review
in preparation for re-accreditation every ten years. Each department is required to both quantify and
qualify its programs, faculty and student population through three lenses—by defining the present,
then projecting ten years in the future, and reflecting ten years in the past, and comparing that view
to what was projected ten years prior for the previous review as the department imagined its future.
Reports written by and about the Department of Interior Architecture in both 1991 and 2001 provide
compelling overviews of the department and its evolution in the past twenty-five years. Over
time these reports are a privileged piece of history, and serve as a springboard from which the
department can continue to assess its progress as it meets programmatic, curricular, and facility
upgrade and expansion. In 2001 the department identified seven full-time faculty associated with
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SECTION I Institutional Support and Commitment to Continuous Improvement