Is the grasscloth greener on the other side?

Originally Posted:

Tuesday, July 4, 2006

6:43:00 PM CDT

Is the grasscloth greener on the other side?

Part of what I've made it my mission to do while I'm here is to figure out 1)What makes SCAD's Interior Design program the 4th ranked in the nation and 2)Why they are not FIDER accredited. Many of the things you'll read or see (photos) on my blog are observations about SCAD's program.

This journal entry is an introduction to the School of Building Arts and the building in which it is housed (Eichberg Hall).

Eichberg is an old train dept saved from ruins by SCAD. There is a large three story building that faces MLK Blvd where the offices and lecture classrooms are located and a very, very long wing that used to be the train loading/unloading docks where the studios are now located.
The Architecture program has about 500 students, ID has about 150 and HP has about 150.
First year architecture and interior design student studios are on the first floor of the entire building. Arch students take up 90% of the wing and ID students are stuck in the main thoroughfare area. All studio spaces are totally open with mobile marker boards and tackboards as the only source of visibility division. The problem with all this openness is the lack of audible control. Professors (ALL faculty are referred to as "Professor" by their students) have to battle with the adjacent studio for their own class to hear them. It's very distracting and annoying. The interior design resource room is in the farthest part of the dock wing on the other side of the arch studios. This means that ID students have to walk a mile through the arch studios to get to the room.

Second and third year arch AND interior design studios are on the third floor of the street front part of the building. They live harmoniously together sharing space. They take classes together and everything. Novel idea!

Fourth year and graduate ID and Arch student studios are on the second floor of the street front part of the building. I've been told that anyone who is on the second floor is to be bowed down to. (That's the floor where all my classes are, but no one has bowed down to me yet. Maybe it's because it's summer and there are not enough first-years here for idol worshiping. That's gotta be it. Otherwise, I would expect to clap twice and have man servants at my feet with offerings of grapes and gold.)

Pecking order is established as such: Historic Preservation students are low on the food chain. They feel like they are the red-head step child that gets second hand clothes and no extra portions at dinner. HP majors think both ID majors and Arch majors are domineering and know so much more about building systems than the HP majors do. Next on the food chain are the first year ID and Arch students. Arch students are ranked slightly higher and have much more of an attitude. Moving up the chain are second and third year ID and Arch students. Once again, ID students take a backseat to Arch students between the two majors. Almost at the top of the food chain are the fourth year ID and Arch students. By this time the 4th year Arch students have a God complex and think they rule the world. Both ID and Arch students have a constant look of seriousness on their faces because they have to maintain the aura of being worthy of the Second Floor. At the very top of the food chain are graduate students. Under grad groups parts to clear the way when any graduate student walks down the hall.

Apparently my non-compliance of respect to the pecking order is where PITA and I butt heads. One of the HP majors in my group informed me of that after she watched me drive PITA nuts for a whole day as I challenged him and wouldn't back down when he went off on one of his "I know more than you" tangents. I explained to her that we all have a part to play in this project and it's our responsibility to make sure our own areas of knowledge are represented and taken into account. She saw the light. PITA did too after that day. I am now Yoda.

This entry has 4 comments:

#4 Comment from tracypace

7/11/06 3:21 PM

Alice,I'm sure karma got your Xacto thief and she/he has probably suffered from knicks, cuts and chewed up paper edges from stealing the knife. Burning at the stake seems a little extreme. If we follow Hammurabi's code then just her/his hand should be chopped off. So much less harsh!

#3 Comment from kaydeeldybg

7/11/06 2:00 PM
Yeah...stupid bandit taking my exacto knife. They should be burned at the stake....

#2 Comment from tracypace

7/9/06 7:14 PM

I left out the part about how the resource room always has creepy crawlies in it. Since it's an old building and this part of the building is not entirely sealed (the big depot doors have 1-2" gaps from the bottom of the door to the floor) they have a bit of a bug/spider/creature problem back there. Eeeek!

#1 Comment from ssflener

7/9/06 1:12 PM
Not impressed with the resource room, must show students they have it better.