Promotion and tenure standards for design educators

While the promotion and tenure (P&T) process plays a significant role in the professional life of many design educators, the topic is often ignored in our typical discourse, possibly due to its sensitive nature. We may occasionally hear from colleagues concerning their particular experiences with P&T processes, but little formal discussion has occurred concerning the need for more consistent P&T standards across US institutions of higher learning. (in Discussion) Comments (0) (Sep 10)

What's the effect of the economy on you as a design educator?

The recent merger of the graphic and industrial design areas at North Carolina State University exemplifies how design departments in Universities and Colleges are responding to the economic downturn. Other institutions have cancelled entire degree programs, reduced the number of courses, or furloughed faculty and staff. The DEC Steering Committee wants to hear from directly from you--how is the economic downturn affecting your design institution and you? (in Discussion) Comments (4) (Aug 21)

Design Educator Conferences past and upcoming

Every three years the Design Educators Community Steering Committee selects 4 design educator conferences to each receive $10,000 support grants thanks to the generosity of Adobe.

The current cycle (2008-2010) kicked off in Baltimore, fall 2008 with Social Studies: Educating Designers in a Connected World organized by Ellen Lupton, Jennifer Cole Phillips,and Brockett Horne. In spring, 2009, Linda Bracamontes-Roeger, Joerg Becker, Sharon Oiga, Philip Burton, Marcia Lausen, and Matthew Gaynor presented Future History 3: 21st Century Curriculum. Many of the presentations for these events are archived on their sites.

Next spring, 2010, Response_Ability will take place in Bowling Green, Ohio. Organized by Matt Davis, Amy Fidler, and Jenn Stucker, Response_Ability "aims to foster an ongoing dialogue and debate about design ethics, sustainability and design education. How can we (should we?) create students who feel a responsibility to their world? How do we, as educators, instill the capacity for our students to become thinking, ethical designers? How do we teach them to look beyond specifying recycled paper at a project's end, but to instead, think creatively in the conception of their project to be wholly sustainable from the start?"

In fall, 2010, Object User Context will be presented in Raleigh, North Carolina. ... (in Events) Post a comment (Aug 12)

Add to our collection of images!

We're gathering examples of student work to showcase on our website and share with the community. To add images, look for the "AIGAdec" group on Flickr. Note the style guidelines for crediting images. (in News) Post a comment (Jun 12)

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