by Caleb Fort
Daily Lobo
The UNM School of Architecture & Planning acted on the accreditation team's last recommendation six years ago.
"Their biggest recommendation was that the program needed to be housed in one building, and we're getting that," said Geraldine Forbes, director of the school. "It's the big, noisy hole across the street."
George Pearl Hall, the new architecture building under construction, will be completed in July 2007.
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Right now, the program is housed in three buildings. Two of them are on Central Avenue, and they also have a building on Vassar Drive.
A team from the National Architecture Accrediting Board spent the last four days examining the architecture degree program at UNM.
Forbes said accreditation is a useful process for the program.
"It's an indicator. You always want to be the best," she said. "So if the indication they give is that there's some area we need to work on, it will really help focus us on that."
Roger Schluntz, dean of the school, agreed.
"It gives us a chance to internally assess and review the curriculum," he said.
The school took action based on the team's recommendation during the last accreditation process six years ago, she said.
The team, made up of five members, looked at students' projects, Forbes said.
"They look at student work as evidence that certain competencies are being met within the program," she said.
The team might not be impressed with the work, said architecture student Calandra Cook.
"I've seen work from other schools, and I kind of feel like we are below that," she said. "I feel like that's because we don't have access to the same resources as they do."
Cook said architecture students should have access to more design computer programs.
However, the team's examination was not limited just to the architecture school, she said.
"They meet with all the various constituencies of the program, but they also meet with all the various constituencies of the University," she said. "They try to look at the program in the broader context of the whole University."
The team examined the library resources available to architecture students. The team will also look at UNM's finances before issuing its final report sometime in the summer, Forbes said.
The maximum term for accreditation under the program is six years, which the school received last time. Forbes hopes the school will receive the full term again, she said.
"Three years is about the harshest they would go," she said. "But I hope that's not very likely."
The board will probably recommend some changes, Schluntz said.
"The standards keep changing and the bar keeps getting raised, so we'll just have to see what they say," he said. "I would anticipate that there will be the need for some relatively minor changes to the curriculum."
Cook said architecture students should have more choices between classes.
"I just wish we had more choices than we do now," she said. "I don't feel like we have a wide range of electives."
Architecture student Carolyn Mead said the program needs more professors.
"I think they need more full-time faculty. We have a lot of good material, and that material is the students," she said. "I think we as a student body are very committed, but it seems like some of the tenured faculty seem to be coasting. Of course, some of the tenured faculty are excellent, excellent instructors."
The program has 14 regular and 20 part-time faculty members, said Lisa Stewart, an administrator in the school. There are about 250 students in the architecture degree program, she said.
The board's criteria for accreditation have changed since the last time the school was accredited, she said.
"It's not as academically centered," she said. "Some academics feel that the criteria is a bit more practice-based than it used to be, and perhaps more than it should be. I'm not sure if that will hurt or help us."
Forbes said the board's maximum of a six-year accreditation can make it difficult to respond to their recommendations because it is not enough time implement a lot of changes.
"It kind of takes a while for any curriculum to change, particularly in a large university like UNM," she said. "So by the time we change our curriculum and it gets implemented, it's almost time for them to come back again."
Accreditation is meant to ensure that the program is comparable to other programs across the country. To be licensed in New Mexico, an architect must graduate from an accredited program, Forbes said.
The accreditation process will cost UNM about $15,000, she said.
The accreditation team will hold a public meeting today at 10 a.m. to discuss some of their impressions.
Forbes said the team would not talk to media before the meeting.
