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16 architecture deans criticize and opt out of DesignIntelligence school rankings
Interior view of Milstein Hall at Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, one of the schools voicing criticism against a prominent academic ranking system. Image courtesy Cornell AAP/
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Academic ranking systems, and their methodology, in particular, are once again at the center of a nationwide conversation that has brought together the deans of sixteen prominent architecture schools. In a recently-published joint letter, the signees voice their concern over what they call "lack of rigor" — and the subsequent negative implications on the design community — of the annual DesignIntelligence survey and ranking, describing it as "out of touch" with the goals and ambitions of their respective programs.
"However well-intentioned they may be," the letter states, "we believe that the DI rankings have the potential to create a disservice to the public." The deans express their disappointment that, despite allegedly sharing their concerns with the DesignIntelligence leadership and following a short hiatus at the beginning of the pandemic, the publication returned as "ratings" instead of "rankings."
Acknowledging that many of the represented schools have done very well in past DI reports and thus benefitted from the publication, the letter criticizes that the rankings had a negative impact on smaller schools in particular due to the fact that fewer students and alumni were able to respond to the surveys. Architecture programs at big-name universities, such as Cornell, Harvard, Yale, or Rice, whose deans are among the sixteen signees of the letter, have consistently ranked very high in DI lists over the years.
Closing with "Design education is not a popularity contest," the letter, signed by the following academic leaders, declares an end to the participation of the represented schools in future DesignIntelligence surveys:
- Deborah Berke, Dean and J.M. Hoppin Professor of Architecture,
Yale School of Architecture
- Carmon Colangelo,
Ralph J. Nagel Dean and
E. Desmond Lee Professor for Collaboration in the Arts,
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts,
Washington University in St. Louis
- Renee Y. Chow,
William W. Wurster Dean, College of Environmental Design,
University of California, Berkeley
- Rodolphe el-Khoury,
Dean,
School of Architecture,
University of Miami
- Robert Alexander González,
Dean and Professor of Architecture,
School of Architecture + Planning,
University of New Mexico
- Marta Gutman,
Dean and Professor of Architecture, Spitzer School of Architecture, City College of New York | CUNY,
Professor of Art History and Earth and Environmental Sciences, Graduate Center | CUNY
- Igor Marjanović,
William Ward Watkin Dean and Professor,
Rice Architecture
- Jonathan Massey,
Dean and Professor of Architecture,
Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning,
University of Michigan
- Mónica Ponce de León,
Dean and Professor,
School of Architecture,
Princeton University
- Florencia Rodriguez,
Director and Associate Professor,
School of Architecture,
University of Illinois at Chicago
- Hashim Sarkis,
Dean and Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning,
School of Architecture and Planning,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Brett Steele,
Dean,
UCLA School of the Arts & Architecture
- Frederick Steiner,
Dean and Paley Professor,
Stuart Weitzman School of Design,
University of Pennsylvania
- Sarah M. Whiting, Dean and Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture,
Graduate School of Design,
Harvard University
- Weiping Wu,
Professor and Interim Dean,
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation,
Columbia University
- J. Meejin Yoon, Gale and Ira Drukier Dean,
College of Architecture, Art, and Planning,
Cornell University
Read the full statement here on the website of MIT's School of Architecture and Planning, whose dean Hashim Sarkis is one of the signees.
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9 Comments
Thank goodness. Those rankings have become a racket unto themselves. The one that somehow contrived to rank Stanford's "Architecture" department alongside accredited ones really took the crown.
Fantastic.
Came here expecting a bunch of schools I've barely heard of... found most of the schools getting airtime from DI. Kudos to them.
https://taubmancollege.umich.e...
Guess they changed their tune since July.
I always thought school rankings were a payola thing...
not payola but the DI methodology (and i participated in it for almost a decade before it went fully 'open' to anyone) always seemed flawed. basically, they ask you to rank schools that you have experience with (which... ok, that's a really small pool overall) and then rank those graduates in terms of various abilities. once they went "open" and anyone could apply, it became this tendentious exercise for each school to rally as many of their alumni to respond and (hopefully?) get their school more highly ranked.
the reality is - i don't believe they've ever sent 'boots on the ground' out to the schools themselves to see what the reality is. if your school generated a lot of grads and those grads were employed by (largely) firm owners who thought highly of them... your school was going to come out with better scores.
Indeed. These organizations simply do not have the resources or incentives to conduct an independent and in-depth survey of the schools polled.
It speaks to the value of these rankings that the more renowned schools no longer see any point in participating in their surveys. On rare occasions, I've seen some Asian schools highlighting their rankings in brochures ... but again, the notable ones simply don't need to.
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