In response to this presidential election, we reaffirm our commitment to tolerance and to the full spectrum of diversity among the members of our community and in our pedagogy. As a school of architecture, we are committed to active participation in the democratic process by doing what we do best: creating spaces that invite public gathering, open discourse, and civic empowerment. We believe in the power of the citizen-architect to engage at all levels of politics and discourse, acting with integrity through the potency of design in the pursuit of solutions to the most pressing problems of our time: economic inequity, climate change, resource scarcity, and intolerance of social and cultural richness.
We believe that our school is a role model for the direction in which the profession is heading – improving gender parity and ethnic diversity among its members, and reaffirming the importance of ethical conduct and social responsibility. Ours is a welcoming community for every race and orientation, and we resist acts of intolerance in favor of thoughtfulness, generosity and kindness. The economic, ethnic, and academic backgrounds of our students reflect Southern California itself. We are determined to provide a place for open debate, the respectful airing of differences, and for rich forms of expression and imagination.
With hope in action.
Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter
Interim Dean, Woodbury School of Architecture
Image: Student work from studio taught by Yasushi Ishida