To: Faculty Senate
From: Academic Planning Committee (Nadia Avendano, Lynn Cherry, Christian Coseru,
Julia Eichelberger, Stephane Lafortune, Jess Miner, Pam Riggs-Gelasco)
About: Curriculum proposal & program concept for Program in Traditional Building Arts
During our extensive analysis of this proposal, the committee met with Dean Valerie Morris,
Robert Russell (HPCP), and Marian Mazzone (ARTH). Following up on this meeting, the
chair of the APC met with the Speaker of the Faculty and representatives from the Budget
committee and Academic Affairs. In this memo we will summarize why we support this
proposal in principle, and then will identify a number of logistical concerns for the
implementation and merging of this program with our institution.
Background:
 American College of Building Arts in Charleston will be closing their doors
 The ACBA was trying to offer both a program in the Building Arts with a traditional
college liberal arts sequence (including math, foreign language, etc).
 Currently there are ~40 students in their program
(25% already have a degree, 25% are 18-20 years of age, 50% are non-traditional)
 The mission statement of the ACBA:
“The American College of the Building Arts educates and trains
artisans in the traditional building arts to foster
exceptional craftsmanship and encourage the preservation,
enrichment, and understanding of the world's architectural
heritage through a liberal arts education”
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The College has a narrow window of opportunity to absorb both the faculty members
(7 faculty) and the students from this program
Overview of Proposed Curriculum for C of C:
 Students will take a substantial number of existing and new Historic Preservation and
Art History courses (15 credit hours)
 Students will participate in a capstone course in Building Arts
 Students will select one of the artisan skills (architectural stone, carpentry, ironwork,
plaster, preservation masonry or timber framing) and will enroll in a sequence of 4
credit hour courses, one each semester, where they develop their skills towards an
“advanced apprentice” level
Points in favor of the proposed Program in Traditional Building Arts:
 The Strategic Plan calls for us to build programs that take advantage of the unique
environment of Charleston and the Lowcountry. The need for skilled artisans in
historic Charleston is apparent even on the confines of this campus. This program
will not only produce skilled artisans, but these artisans will have a broad educational
training in both the liberal arts and historic preservation.
 The program would enhance the successful program in Historic Preservation and
Community Planning. Current students in these programs will benefit by sharing
classes with a more diverse student population who will add differing perspectives
and skill sets to HPCP classes.
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The program will be unique in the country.
The program will help to preserve the Building Arts as a trade while giving these
artisans a theoretical and societal framework for this trade.
HPCP coursework will ground the curriculum so that graduates will have a
framework for their artisan work and its importance in historic preservation.
Students will have BOTH traditional coursework (HPCP and ARTH courses, and all
required general education courses) and the added dimension of their experiential
learning in the artisan courses. The latter courses share attributes found in lab
courses, study abroad, service learning, studios, and performances---all of which
differ from traditional academic assignments but offer a wealth of intellectual and
practical gain for the student.
Students will begin as novices in their chosen building art, and, through the sequence
of experiential learning courses, build greater expertise over the duration of their
career at the College. All of our majors likewise rely on this steady accumulation of
knowledge and analytical skill over the course of several semesters.
In the same way that one can be a self-taught, skilled musician without any formal
training, it is possible for one to become skilled in a building art with just practicing
the art. In the same way a person’s musicianship is enhanced by understanding the
theoretical underpinnings of music and the history of musical styles, these artisans
will benefit from being intellectually informed of the historic context of their work.
Like our music and art students, they will simultaneously be developing both their
skills and their understanding of the discipline.
Acquiring an intellectually informed knowledge of a discipline and understanding its
relevance to the world beyond academia is the hallmark of any liberal arts education.
Logistics of Merging the Programs
 The program would only be continued if it is self-supporting through differential
tuition. This is the second time this year where differential tuition for a “selfsustaining program” has being proposed to the Faculty Senate. We realize that both
of these cases (the MBA and this program) are fairly unique cases, but we do worry
about initiating a climate on campus where a program’s worth is judged on its ability
to self-sustain or to generate substantial revenue.
 If the program proves to NOT be self-sustaining, Academic Affairs should have a
Phasing Out plan in place. What happens to the students? Similarly, what would
happen to the curriculum if the Plaster master and the Metal forger decide to suddenly
leave? Are there enough of these artisans that a replacement could be found so that
the students’ studies would not be interrupted? We need to be informed now of a
potential network of artisans should this occur.
 Is there a time limit for when we would pull the plug on this program?
 The imported faculty members would not be occupying tenure-track lines. The
details of how these faculty members will be evaluated and what their official title
would be needs to be clarified.
 Art History faculty emphatically do not want this program housed within their
department, nor do Historic Preservation faculty wish to form a separate department.
Academic Affairs should decide on where this program will be housed and to whom
the Program Director would report.
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Faculty in SOA are understandably nervous about the possible loss of revenue from
their programs if College resources earmarked for SOA are redirected to this
program, even if only initially. SOA faculty would need a written assurance from
Academic Affairs that these faculty positions will not affect future allocation of SOA
lines.
The current student body of ~40 would be automatically admitted to the College. We
do not know the academic credentials of these students. Are they academically
prepared for the rigor of C of C coursework? We do not want to set these students up
to fail here.
In a similar vein, will future students interested in this type of program in general be
academically prepared enough for our admissions standards? Some data on the
present student body at ACBA would help alleviate some of these concerns.
The physical location of the artisan courses is to remain rented space on James Island.
Is the College prepared to find new space and to commit resources to this program if
this rented space is sold? Is there a contingency plan?
The logistical questions we have posed could all be resolved through leadership by
Academic Affairs and through existing mechanisms of shared governance.
Appropriate faculty committees should participate in creating protocols for evaluating
all facets of the program.