Pratt Institute School of Architecture announced in late July the launch of the Kathryn and Kenneth Chenault Scholarship, an initiative started by Pratt Board of Trustee member Kathryn Chenault and her husband Kenneth to "support diversity in the School of Architecture."
The school has selected three incoming undergraduate students to receive funding from the initiative, which has been launched with an initial $1 million endowment.
The three students are:
Pratt School of Architecture Dean Harriet Harris shares in a statement, "A Pratt education empowers students to use their creativity and talent to make positive change in the world with a curriculum focused on key real-world issues from climate change to growing inequality and a goal of graduating a new generation of socially-engaged, inclusive architects and designers.”
With talk of diversifying student and faculty representation within architecture departments across the globe reaching a newly heightened state in recent months, schools of architecture have embarked on a growing effort to provide resources and points of change for students from diverse backgrounds. Simultaneously, calls from students and faculty at a variety of institutions continue to press for additional resources, as well as institutional and cultural changes to repair how architectural academia has encouraged systemic racism and suppressed Black and minority designers over time.
23 Comments
not a lot of diversity among those recipients of the scholarship, they're all black females(!)
you are small person, feeling the need to deride good news like this. go find a qanon thread for your petty bullshit.
not trying to deride anything, lighten up... https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/19979/what-does-an-exclamation-mark-inside-parentheses-mean/19984
All the cars in the ADA spaces have ADA plates(!)
(!)
Lowering tuition would help a lot
I wouldn't wish my worst enemy a career in architecture!1!!(!)
If inequality and upward social mobility is really that important, help minority students pick a decent direction with better pay and return on tuition and better work-life balance...than freakin' architecture.
Everybody is always complaining how this field is underpaid, people are burning out and are overworked left, right and center and yet they still want more people from different minority backgrounds to come and join us in this perpetual struggle, even if they don't want to, that's just deviously and sardonically cruel...
oh boy. though in some sense i agree with your sentiment, the solution is in your comment.. maybe, just maybe, widening the pool of thought and background would remove the hegemonic control that (trigger warning!!) economically privileged white males have on this profession, fostering an environment of cooperation instead of competition and fair pay instead of exploitation.
and yes, would love to join others from different backgrounds in the struggle.
and yes, any group can become an entrenched hegemony, but the path towards real change involves continually bringing those who are disenfranchised and on the edges into the conversation.
Okay, so tuition fees are lowered, and there is an influx of minority students and eventually architects, that get licensed even...after which they will be stuck in an underpaid and undervalued profession, with shitty clients, and expensive revit subscriptions, overworking themselves and burning out...not having any time for their families and loved ones etc. How does that help anyone? Best way to help people from minority backgrounds and their communities is to stay away from these Nine Circles of Hell called architecture...
.
Remember Animal Farm.
remember 1984?
Do you remember President Nixon? Do you remember the bills you have to pay?
what about Animal Farm?
Don't have to
follow me here on this train of thought...when I was a Freshman (before 2000) I read an essay about the first lady to become a self-made millionaire in the US (she was black and they just made a movie about her recently) and at the time Oprah was in Forbes top list... I remember thinking, just like Rhode Island License plates, not something you see a lot of in architecture - so I figured (considering my high school class of black women, #1, #3 in class rankings on grades and many outspoken ladies) maybe they just have to much self-respect. Maybe all you whiny people who hate the hours and abuse will benefit from this!
(also Archinect, if you want to a see a very diverse organization of architects and engineers, try the NYC Building Department, in all my exams, and we're talking 100's, I would say at best maybe 10 were white dudes and half of them 1st generation American. Check the commisioner and borough director lists, it looks like NYC....vs when I go into other towns, it's always some good 'ol boy who is also a Fireman and thinks I'm dumb for going to school....)
I tried to follow your train of thought but it has no engine or caboose. All I see here are some boxcars languishing on a siding.
1- Madame CJ Walker.
2- Home designed by Vertner Woodson Tandy.
3- I'm not following the point. Are you suggesting that these folks need to work harder and just ignore the micro-aggressions, dismissive attitudes, and inconsistent mentorship?
MM - not clear who you are adressing. Just wanted to point that out.
dude, hit the reply button, based on #1 that was for me. Which home by Tandy? and #3 - in short yes and no. yes (as #5, #7, and #10 in my class did - all white boys who received nothing but - well you know - (just assumed by everyone) if you're already have it all no one will help you - its just understood) and no the girls I went to school with #1 and #3 they wouldn't take any of that shit, trust me. I had to break-up a #1 and #7 fight once in history class.
1- Yes.
2. CJ Walker's.
3. Fights inschool are one thing. Promotions are another... How many of them are in the A/E industry- in places of recognition worthy of the no shit attitudes you are praise? Vs. how many of them hit a ceiling because someone decided their self-determination was too loud or disruption, not a good representation of the office? How many of them stuck with A/E as long as you have?
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