Last week the National Architectural Accrediting Board released a first draft of the 2014 Conditions, opening a 90-day comment period. The draft contains many substantial changes over the 2009 Conditions that reflect the comments by ACSA and the other collaterals in official position papers and during the Accreditation Review Conference in July.  
The number of Student Performance Criteria has been reduced. Most notably, Comprehensive Design is now called Integrative Design and stands apart in its own realm among the other SPC. 
The so-called Five Perspectives that programs must address in their Annual Program Report were rewritten. Leadership, Collaboration, and Environmental Stewardship are now out of the SPC and anchored in the Perspectives, reflective of the way these values cut across architectural education. 
Many other details related to changes remain unclear. In its companion document to the new draft, which explains the major changes, NAAB notes it will move instructions for what to include in the APR to a separate document. How these requirements will change over 2009 is still not clear. These details affect whether or how much the amount of content required for an accreditation report and visit has been reduced for programs, a key tenet of ACSA’s. 
I invite you to download the documents and begin considering them, as the ACSA Board of Directors has started to do. You can post quick thoughts below or send an email to arc@acsa-arch.org. 
In coming weeks, we will develop a formal feedback mechanism, once the board has had more time to digest and discuss the change.  
Norman Millar
President


             
Download the 2014 NAAB Conditions for Accreditation First Draft		    


             
Download the ACSA/ARC Position Paper