News and Information

AIAS Representatives Serve on Accreditation Teams
Every year, student members of the AIAS serve as full voting members on every visiting accreditation team for architecture schools accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board. The opportunity for AIAS student members to serve in this capacity is both unique and important to the process of architectural education.

You Are Invited to Participate
Student members on NAAB accreditation teams bring critical perspective to issues of accreditation and facilitate a relationship between the student body of the school and the visiting team. Teams are led by a team chair and are composed of one member from each of the collateral organizations: AIA, ACSA, NCARB, and AIAS. A team visits a school for several days (Saturday-Wednesday) to perform an on-site review of student work, and to meet with faculty, students and administration. At the conclusion of this visit, the team will draft a Visiting Team Report (VTR) and recommended a term of accreditation. This recommendation will be considered by the NAAB Board of Directors for the final decision on the term of accreditation.

Travel costs, accommodations and meals during the on-site team visit are reimbursed, per the guidelines outlined in the NAAB Procedures.

How to Get Involved
Applicants must be an U.S.-based AIAS member in good standing at time of application and during the year of team assignment and must have completed one of the following:

Academic Enrollment
• Three years in a NAAB-accredited professional degree program
• The third year of a four-year pre-professional degree program in architecture accepted for direct entry to a two-year NAAB-accredited professional master's degree program
• One year in a NAAB-accredited professional master's degree program following receipt of a non-professional degree.

Furthermore, applicants will be selected based on their academic enrollment and letters of reference. Preference will be given to students with advanced experience in their academic career, such as teaching assistantships and other leadership/academic opportunities. The selection process will also look to represent a diverse collection of geographic locations, backgrounds and characteristics.

The following timeline has been established for this year's application process:
Summer 2009--Students submit application materials (due September 8)
September 2009--AIAS President forwards nominees to the NAAB
October 2009--NAAB contacts students for the Spring 2010 semester as chosen by the NAAB Board of Directors
Spring 2010--Team assignments made and visits conducted

Nominees from fall 2009 will be considered for participation on NAAB teams in spring 2010 and/or spring 2011. Your nomination by the AIAS to the NAAB does not guarantee participation on a team, as final selection of students will be made by the NAAB Board of Directors.

Application Process
Students interested in applying for this opportunity should submit the following materials by the posted deadline. Only electronic submissions will be accepted.

First, complete the online Contact Information Form

Second, please prepare a single (multi-page) PDF file under 3MB:

• File name: "LASTNAME_NAABteam09.pdf"
• Submit the file to: mailbox@aias.org
• Subject line of the message: NAAB Accreditation Team Application

The application should include:

• Letter of Intent (stating name, school, contact information, type of degree, year in program, interests in education/accreditation issues, prior experience within program, school, AIAS, and/or NAAB)
• Curriculum Vitae or Resume

• Letters of Reference (1 minimum-2 maximum) should be sent separately and directly by the recommenders as PDF files (LASTNAME_NAAB09_Recommendation.pdf) to the e-mail address listed above

For Further Information
Additional questions can be sent to president@aias.org.

Additional information is also available from the NAAB at www.naab.org.