School of Architecture Vision Statement Existing in two places - the physical setting of north Louisiana and the virtual realm of the Internet - the School of Architecture brings together educators, students, lecturers, practitioners and interested public to mutually collaborate in an architectural education that blends tradition and innovation with craft and technology in order to impact its region and operate globally. More specifically, this entails: Providing educational opportunities for multiple constituencies through undergraduate and graduate degree programs, post-professional certificate studies, continuing education programs, domestic and international study tours, public lecturers and symposia, and exhibitions. Providing educational opportunities that value collaboration, and involve the life-long student of architecture in the continual discovery and understanding of the production of architecture as a multi-discipline design and cultural practice. Contributing to architecture and architectural education through leadership and participation in research, creative work, community service, and professional organizations. School of Architecture Mission Statement Recognizing that architecture is one of the basic or root arts in human culture, the primary mission of the School of Architecture is to provide an accredited professional degree program in architecture that is reflective of the architect's role as the primary shaper and steward of the built environment throughout the life cycle of its buildings and communities. Additionally, the School of Architecture acknowledges that the conscientious making of the built environment is a collaborative endeavor, and consequently its secondary mission is to provide accredited degree programs in allied fields of study that share responsibility for influencing and effecting the nature and quality of the built environment. More specifically, this entails: Teaching architecture in a manner that places a premium on design excellence understood as transcending mere utility to meet the needs of the intellectual, aesthetic and spiritual. Teaching architecture with an emphasis on design excellence informed by ethics and an appreciation of the cultural, social and physical contexts. Teaching architecture by placing value on design excellence as the preservation of the environment, the maintenance of sustainable growth and change, and the embodiment of appropriate cultural patterns, values and forms Teaching architecture through understanding the relationship between what has been and what could be, and investigating both the timeless and the topical as measures of design excellence. Teaching the critical theoretical framework and skills necessary to challenge current methods and paradigms of practice in architecture and its allied fields. Teaching architecture and its allied fields within the context of the liberal arts and sciences by stressing the integration of knowledge from other disciplines in a process of design comprised of analysis, synthesis and production.