2024 Administrators Conference

Coffee Break

NEW ADMINISTRATORS WORKSHOP
Sponsored by the ACSA College of Distinguished Professors (DPACSA), the New Administrators’ Workshop will facilitate a series of highly interactive, mentorship-focused conversations among new and experienced administrators on the challenges –and rewards– of academic leadership. (Sign-Up at Registration)

Coffee Break

WHAT IS CORE
What unifies and distinguishes us across our different programs and institutions? What is the eco-system of architectural education that spans community colleges, 4-year, and accredited degree programs? This session will examine the role and value of our different institutions and educational programs and speculate on their futures.  As an opening to our multi-day discussion on the long view for architectural education, this session asks us to define the values, principles, or attributes that we hold as our core.

INTERREGIONAL PERSPECTIVES
As the academy and profession struggle to meet the social, political, economic, and ecological crises impacting our communities worldwide, it becomes increasingly important to connect to our international counterparts. This session invites our allied architectural education organizations from Europe, Canada, and Austral Asia to share their current contexts, initiatives, and trajectories that offer points for us to align, speak, and act as a global community.

Coffee Break

NCARB COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK
This session invites members of the The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) to share new initiatives and working plans around future models for architectural licensure. Multiple pathways to licensure and alternative approaches to measuring professional competency impact the role and requirements for professional education. This session offers a space for conversation around these current and future shifts.

BUSINESS LUNCH (Lunch Provided)
Sponsored by Tau Sigma Delta (TSD), National Honors Society

CHANGING CONTEXTS, CHANGING PROFESSIONS
As we speculate on the future for architectural education, what is the future for our allied disciplines? This session invites representatives from allied professional built environments education organizations to share how their academic programs, teaching, and research are likewise evolving to meet changing conditions. Likewise, this session asks panelists to speculate on the future of their disciplines to allow us to co-envision the future of built environment education as a multidisciplinary endeavor.

Coffee Break

ROOM FOR DEBATE
Universities have often been viewed as spaces for free speech and debate. That view is now being challenged by legislative efforts that many view as censorship, by arrests stemming from student movements, and attacks that undermine the notion of the university as a safe and protected space for all. This session invites panelists to talk about their campus climates, political and legislative contexts, and strategies that aim to protect the people, pedagogies, and practices that are core to architectural education.

ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF CURRICULUM DELIVERY (Learning Tour)
Stories of Entangling Research and Teaching at University of Colorado Denver, College of Architecture and Planning (CU Denver). Join faculty members for a learning tour of the CU Denver. (Sign-Up Required at Registration)

THE LOAD WE BEAR: ADDRESSING FACULTY MENTAL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
Academic faculty have reported mental health concerns for decades. These issues have been attributed to various reasons such as chronic stress and anxiety, gender inequities, workload imbalance, lack of institutional support, competitive environment, and other systemic issues.  However, the recent pandemic has exacerbated the negative impact of the academic system on the mental health and well-being of faculty.  More faculty have reported suffering from depression and anxiety while also being expected to address students’ mental well-being needs. While there has been general research on faculty and students’ mental health and well-being, few studies have shed light on the specific context of architectural education. This session discusses the mental health and well-being challenges that architecture educators face especially in the post-pandemic era.

Coffee Break

CAPITALISM AND EDUCATION: A TURNCOAT DEBATE
A college degree’s value has never been questioned like it is today. The reasons are understandable. A college education costs more than ever. Concern over financial stability and long-term security is growing. Architects increasingly pressure our programs to demonstrate “job readiness” and prepare students to deliver billable hours on day one. Easily measurable technical skills push less quantifiable critical thinking and soft skills out of our curricula. In facing such challenges, do institutions embrace market-ready skill-building or resist the pressure to compromise long-held educational values? In this session, panelists will provide examples of how these economic pressures have shaped their institutions and then debate both sides.

WALKING TOUR: Downtown Walking Tour ending at History Colorado, Exhibit

EXHIBITION: Where is Denver’s Chinatown? Stories Remembered, Reclaimed, Reimagined
Visit the History Colorado Center and check out the exhibit Where is Denver’s Chinatown? Stories Remembered, Reclaimed, Reimagined by Leyuan Li (University of Colorado Denver) in collaboration with History Colorado and Colorado Asian Pacific United. The exhibition invites visitors to uncover the history of the neighborhood, discover what happened to it, and help imagine what it might become.

History Colorado Center
1200 Broadway, Denver, CO, 80203