Diversity
The discipline of architecture weaves form, space, and use through design, through humanities, and through sciences. Our field needs to actively take on the complex unraveling of race, marginality, and exclusion in our studies. the basis of our pledge is that the architectural curriculum and design pedagogy serve as barriers to inclusivity and diversity.
As a department, we pledge to take action towards a cultural transformation of our processes, our infrastructure and our curriculum through the graduate diversity pilot program, the department of architecture has outlined initiatives and has pledged to improve the department across the areas of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
As a first step since receiving a pilot grant to enact change, the department has established an equity steering committee dedicated to the implementation of the initiatives of the pledge below. Since 2020, the committee is now developing initiatives to be put into place.
Departmental Goals and Pledges
- Increase diversity + inclusion of minoritized identities
- Provide sustained + targeted support for all students
- Facilitate engagement with social justice movements across scales
- Improve the ways we teach
We pledge to advance diversity among community members, including students, faculty, staff, visiting lecturers, visiting critics, and colloquium speakers by re-imagining and investing in diversity efforts in outreach, admissions, and recruiting. We welcome the broadest range of voices to engage with us in all these goals.
We pledge to develop an infrastructure of wellness, health and equity that supports all students from the time they consider college until long after they graduate. This begins with outreach and moves to policies in admissions, scholarships and fellowships to ensure a departmental climate that prioritizes wellness and belonging. We also pledge to develop specific resources for students of minoritized identities including career counseling and strong alumni networks.
Authentic engagement with local and global movements toward equity will require investing departmental time and resources, executing tangible projects, and building individual, research and professional connections. It is the pledge of the architecture department to encourage and facilitate student engagement with these issues so they enter the profession as sensitive and considerate practitioners and community members.
The surest way to build enduring change is to transform what and how we teach. as such, we pledge to expand literacy in spatial equity and environmental justice in architectural design, architectural humanities and architectural sciences. It will take a sustained effort and coalition to nurture the collective conversations and research necessary to challenge entrenched assumptions, canons and precedents.