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Art department earns national accreditation |
| By
Jon Strunk |
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Dec 22, 2004 |
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| Tiffany Fling, a senior majoring in art, works on a project for her Drawing I class. |
The University of Toledo art department recently completed a three-year self-evaluation and accreditation process and received accreditation by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).
The new accreditation is in addition to the department’s long-held accreditation by the North Central Association (NCA) and National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).
UT now is able to offer five nationally accredited art degrees: a bachelor's of art in both art and art history, a bachelor's of fine arts, a bachelor's of education in art education and a master of education in art education.
"Our art students have nationally accredited programs, which are extraordinarily valuable for them when applying to graduate school and starting a professional career," said Joel Lipman, UT professor of art and English who chaired the art department's accreditation committee and served as principal author of the more than 300-page department self-study. “NASAD accreditation is also a strong recruitment tool for faculty,” Lipman said, “in that association membership provides benchmarks indicative of the highest national standards of professional facilities, curriculum and instructional outcomes.”
NASAD is a national accrediting agency comprised of more than 240 schools, colleges and universities nationwide. Among its members are several Mid-American Conference schools, including Bowling Green State University, as well as Ohio State University, the University of Michigan and nationally significant private art schools such as the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Fashion Institute of Technology.
"This is a stamp of approval by the most distinguished accrediting agency in our field," said Dr. David Guip, professor and chair of the art department.
While UT's NASAD accreditation is new, Guip said the quality of instruction NASAD demands from its members has existed at UT for quite a while. Program enhancements and changes — the transfer of art programs and faculty from the Toledo Museum of Art to the University in 1987, the completion of the Center for the Visual Arts and Center for Sculptural Studies in 1993, and the development of new curricula in the late 1990s — were instrumental in the department’s inauguration of the lengthy accreditation process.
"We wanted to raise the bar a notch higher," Guip said, noting that NASAD accreditation was a voluntary extra effort undertaken by an art department already accredited by NCA and NCATE.
Due to UT's membership, future major curriculum changes will need NASAD's approval. The agency will conduct a five-year site review of the department in 2011 and then once a decade after that.
Lipman highlighted the University's partnership with the Toledo Museum of Art as a strong argument in favor of NASAD's accreditation of UT.
"We were singled out for the unique relationship between the art department and the Toledo Museum of Art," he said. "It's a tremendous educational advantage and an institutional plus."
One point of concern NASAD did have was the department's reliance on part-time faculty. UT hired three full-time lecturers in the spring to remedy that situation. NASAD site visitors also noted that the Center for the Visual Arts, the award-winning building designed by Frank Gehry, is not large enough to accommodate significant further growth in the art program.
The art department is in good company on campus when it comes to its newly acquired national standing. The UT music department also has earned national accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Music, and the theatre and film department is in the early stages of its own accreditation process from the National Association of Schools of Theatre. All three organizations share a national office but each is comprised of member universities from which professors and educators volunteer to assist in the accrediting process of new applicants.
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