Nearly five months have passed since the tumultuous March 25 Basecamp panel discussion and the wave of controversies that came after. While the LA-based architecture school has slowly faded from heavy media reporting, the team at Archinect has kept an eye out for any updates and changes coming from the school.
However, recent news from the school sent out via email to the SCI-Arc Community has announced essential policy changes AND the resignations of Tom Wiscombe and Marrikka Trotter, who have received intense heat from students, alums, and the architecture community at large.
Our April 7 coverage reported on a slew of petitions, news of third-party internal investigations, public "apologies," new faculty appointments, and responses from the community. At that point, only time would tell how the school of "architectural thinking" could rebound and redirect its internal structures. However, as their school motto suggests, the administration and Board of Trustees did a lot of thinking and self-analyzing to find ways to break the ongoing ethical blindspots at the school.
In an email sent by the SCI-Arc's Director/CEO, Hernán Díaz Alonso, he opened by sharing:
To the SCI-Arc Community,
Over the past few months, SCI-Arc has been actively addressing internal issues of great importance to the overall health of the school. First and foremost, our focus is on the experience and education of our students. We have been listening intently, and we are committed to doing the right thing, the right way, for the safety of our students and community and for the betterment of architecture as a whole.
SCI-Arc’s Administration is moving forward to implement policy changes announced earlier today by the Board of Trustees.
What followed is a list of changes being made into effect. The list includes the...
The recent email re-announced the appointments of John Cooper, Erik Ghenoiu, and Marcelyn Gow, as well as the current status of the school's Undergraduate Program Chair, which faculty members William Virgil and Darin Johnstone are currently filling until a permanent replacement is announced.
An email from Kevin Ratner, SCI-Arc's Chairman of the Board of Trustees, also shared that "an outside, independent firm has completed a thorough inquiry into allegations that didn’t align with the values SCI-Arc has established in its first half-century [...] To the extent that we — or the industry — went astray, we take seriously our role as stewards of architecture practice and are working to restore any loss of trust that may have resulted."
Concluding his message to the community, Díaz Alonso explained, "we recognize that societies aren’t static, and neither are industries. Disciplines need to evolve and adapt, and we are committed to being part of the guidance of architecture."
The events at SCI-Arc clearly sparked important discussions regarding academia, labor, and ethical modes of practice. Students, alums, faculty, and the architecture community are now prompted to challenge old and outdated views on labor and professional practice across the industry. While SCI-Arc isn't the only school that suffers from severe problems that require serious reform, let's hope their announcement pushes other institutions to take note and do the same.
20 Comments
There goes both their insurance ... and labor.
Are we certain Tom and Marrikka won't still be on salary even after their resignation? I wouldn't put it past SCI-arc leadership to keep them on the payroll, after all they continued to get pay Tom and Marrikka even while they were on leave, and today's emails from the school didn't specifically indicate that they would no longer be paid by the school.
Good point - maybe they are on some kind of severance package that still includes certain staff benefits for a time period. Without the salary and benefits, TWA could fold quickly. I suspect the firm is heavily dependent on SciArc salary for its cash flow.
Not sure about that, they are into some huge middle east projects, as heard on the grapevine
Those projects are only rumors until they actually become a reality.
They have gotten paid huge fees for these already. But yes they will be never be built
I’m rooting for them. Sci Arc is a unique project and I want to see it endure and improve. It’s always frustrating when a design school fails to apply the design process to bettering itself. In my business and personal life, I’ve found that the design process is broadly applicable, and effective.
While Kevin Ratner and SCI Arc's BOTs may "take seriously our role as stewards of architecture practice," from this article is seems that until now, the school was operating without: a "Career Servies Advisor" [sic]; a "Group to Review Internship and Scholarship Policies"; any "Student Scholarship Process"; and no "Teaching Assistant (TA) Job Opportunities," all of which, in 2022 is incomprehensible for any NAAB accredited architecture program I know of. It's seems, egregiously unprofessional. Perhaps Ms. Guimapang misstates or overstates the situation, but if it's close to being true, it's difficult to align that with an institution that takes "seriously [its] role as stewards of architecture practice" or education for that matter as this is pretty basic stuff. As a life-long educator and one who has always admired the spirit of SA, I'd appreciate some clarification.
i don't know what's going on in detail but it's absurd that a teacher should resign for expressing their thoughts and for recruiting their students. who goes to sci-arc expecting some kind of conventional life?
Just shut up
The detail is that the students were apparently not "recruited", they were coerced and threatened into working without pay for the teacher's for-profit business.
Maybe you didn't read about the whole story but the faculty and his missus were blackmailing students into working for them for free - or risk getting their scholarship pulled, blacklisted in LA, or poor grading. Concurrently, they wanted students to skip school to work for them. It was this faculty abuse of power that seemed to be the ultimate straw.
Had they stuck to "merely" hiring students to work free, they might have continued to get away with it. But to use their academic positions to strongarm students was way over the line.
i listened to the audio somebody posted here, where TW said he wasn't aware there was anyone not being paid... nobody challenged that on the audio. where is the evidence of blackmail?
you have more work to do- there are other articles with accounts other than tw. listening to one audio recording is hardly enough.
If SCI-Arc is "committed to doing the right thing" they'll release the report. Otherwise it looks like they are cutting loose two PR problems so the culture that created them can survive without having to reform.
Resigned vs. terminated speaks volumes about this...I am sure there was some closed door meeting where Hernan was like, I did it, we all did it, but you got caught, so we need to make an example of you. Give it a couple of months, things will cool down and we will bring you back in...business as usual. In the meantime here is a nice severance package.
others need their jobs, power, and privileges protected; these two are a perfect scapegoat.
Historically nearly all the faculty at SCI-Arc have participated in the toxic practice of employing unpaid interns - not just Wiscombe. They should release the report and make the findings public. Everyone should be help accountable.
Imagine if a thing called a student rep existed at colleges…someone who actually advised students about loans, internships, etc…maybe a good solution would be to require educational institutions to have some independent representation for students and prospective students…
The classic conditional post-crisis statement that attempts to sound conciliatory without actually admitting anything:
"To the extent that we — or the industry — went astray, we take seriously our role as stewards of architecture practice..."
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