Sorry about the typos. It was written in a fit of anger.

it's called super star........... get alot of ego-tistical professors that want to teach a design/build/furniture class but yet doesnt even teach the students in the shop......haha....

just had to let it out

architecture school is a waste of time and money

damn, mdler, you just laying it out there like that, eh?

Well, as a student, hit the schools where it hurts - in the wallet. I suppose they will eventually want alumni donations, right?

And, as for promotion of work, when I personally was snubbed by the school for an exhibit they held, I submmitted my work to the first gallery I found - and they accepted it and gave me a month long exhibit.

But, yeah, you are right - if the school does not take an active role in the promotion of student work, then 1) the students should promote themselves and 2) they school shouldn't expect promotion/support once the students become alumni. Simple as that. I suppose I take a student view (since I'm a student), but hey, we pay for an education, we should get it. What more of a committment are students bound to?

Professors and professor's work being promoted...who knows? I can't concern myself with other people. Perhaps it's in a professor's contract (fat chance)? Perhaps the schools feel bound to them as employees, a more permanent relationship.

Believe me, Mr. Nice, there is life after school. A few years post graduation you won't give a hot damn what your alma mater did or does. Keep in mind: students flow through like water, while professors - the ones the school wants to keep - become more or less permanent fixtures, and the reputation of the institution rest far more on their shoulders than on the work of the student body.

I don't want to say student work and reputation doesn't matter, but compared to the life of an institution the work of a particular class is a millisecond. And of course you should get a good education, but I don't see what that has to do with getting "promoted" by the school or not.

wow, really well put lb.

My thought was undergrad programs should promote the students work, because they aren't gonna know shit in the beginning. But when looking for a grad program after my B.Arch, I didn't really care that much what the students work was like. At that point you should know what you're capable producing, and finding interesting professors may be more critical-

Re-reading, I should note that all schools should promote their students in the grand scheme of things; I was talking more specifically about marketing towards prospective kids-

Thank you Appleseed that is exactly what I was trying to get across. I quess it came out different when I wrote it. I was a bit sick of going to school websites and not seeing any work by students but mostly by faculty. I can go to individual faculty websites to see their work, most have their own offices. I just think instutions should have more stuff up for prospective students.

I agree that the websites should provide more (updated) information...the student projects on our school of architecture site is from 2003 or earlier, and the faculty roster - 2 of the professors I took in studio aren't listed, 2 of the professors I took in structures aren't listed, one professor I took in city planning isn't listed and one of the professors I had who passed away 2 years ago is still listed.

I'm not sure how that speaks to the original question, though...it wouldn't seem like anyone here is being promoted in that regard (on my school's website).

Aaah, Mr. Nice, that does make sense - and obviously I totally mis-read your meaning.

Yes, prospective students should have easy access to examples of current student work.

I had not heard that there are fewer and fewer student-published books coming out - is that waht you meant? - and that truly is a loss. U of Michigan put out a great one way back when - called "Dimensions" I think - I don't know if it is still going or not.

I mistook the original meaning of the post too- I thought you wanted your school to set you up with shows, publications, etc. to make you a star.

But on the real topic, I did notice in my grad school search that it was difficult to find student work from some institutions, or that it wasn't always clear whether it was graduate or undergraduate work. Most of the time I managed to find it on my own, but it would be nice if schools linked to those websites that the students/groups create, or even host them on their webspace.

check out art school confidential i love it when malkovich discusses how many year it took to master painting triangles.

Liberty Bell seems Michigan still puts out Dimensions. Thanks for that info.

Question to all: Do you feel it is important for Schools to have publications of student work or not? Does it help "promote" a schools philosophy and current interests? Is that important? Is it important for outsiders of institutions to know what the current students at that school are interested in? Are the students guiding the discourse of a school or the faculty or both?

Sorry if I came across like I was trying to get "promotion" from my school. I just feel that most schools do not feel it necessary to publish, put up, etc. work of their students on their website or in a yearly publication. I have noticed on some school websites work of professors/instructors is more prevalent. I just wanted to hear opinions on that. Is the students work important to highlight? Is the instructors work more important? In the end is it not the students that truly learn from each other. For prospective students shouldn't schools "promote" the students work more since prospectives are going to mainly learn from their mates?

Mr. Nice I do feel it is important to have some sort of publication of student work out there for the public eye. Here at Arizona State every semester each studio is responsible for putting together these "in-folios" displaying all the work produced by the students. A couple semesters ago they published an entire pre-fab book that was nicely put together with a joint venture with a graphic designer here in the college. After they are completed and printed they usually ship them to other schools and associations to get our word out there... so they tell us lol.

Now is it important for current students? Not as much as I feel it is important for the future of the entire institution. If anybody is going to benefit I feel it’s the institution and the future students developing their programs.

This all lays in the goals and ambitions of the faculty for their students present and future.

schools are nothing but business with bills to pay, and students are the customers...

look at the AA and the Bartlett, excellent examples of schools that push the students into publishing their own work, projects, studios, etc. and do promote the students quite heavily.

spyder is right. Contrary to what we may think, universities are a business and are about making money and promoting faculty who make money for the school. The more promotion said faculty receives, the more money faculty brings in, the more prestige they receive, and the more of us will come and give them our money.

From an administrative standpoint, there is much less concern by the deans as to what faculty are teaching students... as long as they turn in their workload certification forms, adherence to the national accrediting board standards, attendance at the faculty meetings, etc... and the faculty members are most concerned with your universities new guidelines for publishing, application process for receiving grant money, financial incentives for publishing, how to get their hands on that travel money, etc....

The workload demands placed on administrators and faculty are designed in such a way that the actual "content" of the classes tends to take a back seat to everyone except that individual faculty member.

I went to Berkeley last year with my boyfriend who is applying (and anxiously awaiting an acceptance letter) for MArch1. I was impressed by some of the beautiful work being produced by their students. They had a very nice hall dedicated to exhibiting current work. It gave me a strong sense that the competition and level of design sophistication would press my love in a direction that would make him feel satisfied with his education. A few months later I visited UCLA and couldn't find a stitch of student work anywhere. It made me wonder what kind of student achievement was being realized. Would my boyfriend feel like he was getting his money's worth? We also visited a local school in our current locale and saw the work on display and the work in the studios and realized that the school wouldn't be up to his level of creativity. The local school doesn't show ANY student work on their website. Which leads me to the hypothesis that when it's excluded in their marketing, they are leaving it out for a reason....to prevent potential students from realizing what lame peers and instruction they would receive from that school. Like I said, it's a hypothesis. Jumping to my own conclusions.

they don't? GSAPP has a lot of student work on-line. So do Princeton, Yale and GSD. I think Cornell as well. So...

fancy shmansy schools tend to have nice publications. and good work by good students too...maybe there is a correlation?

know wut you is sayin mr. nice. my own alma mater has a way out of date website, but does publish every year. thing is, while that publication is probs available if you look for it, i don't think the quality is particularly high or consistent in comparison to aa school work for example...i guess it comes down to lack of motivation in the school to have that kind of presence. not sure what that says about the school. is def annoying when trying to decide if students are learning and doing interesting stuff though...