{"id":191613,"date":"2026-04-10T01:18:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T01:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191613\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T01:18:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T01:18:27","slug":"pratt-faculty-fight-proposed-cuts-to-architecture-writing-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191613\/","title":{"rendered":"Pratt faculty fight proposed cuts to Architecture Writing Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pratt Institute<\/a> faculty members have launched a petition<\/a> aimed at reversing proposed cuts to contact hours for the Humanities and Media Studies Department\u2019s Architecture Writing Program (AWP).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The AWP\u2019s goal is to strengthen the critical thinking capacities of Pratt architecture students<\/a>. Writing workshops and course readings introduce students to the humanities and are meant to help them better articulate their designs in the studio.<\/p>\n

Instructors affirm that the AWP is important for counteracting AI in the classroom, as more architecture students lean on AI for writing assignments. The AWP is also majorly beneficial for students whose first language is not English, faculty note. Pratt School of Architecture students conduct research in coursework in a dedicated reading room that opened in 2023<\/a>. The space in the basement of Higgins Hall holds the William \u201cBill\u201d Menking Book Collection, the library of AN\u2019s cofounder and longtime editor-in-chief.<\/p>\n

The provost office at Pratt first proposed cuts to AWP contact hours in the 2024 academic year, according to Cameron Crawford, AWP faculty. Professors started pushing back against the cuts that summer. The administration again floated the cuts earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Casey Mack, AWP faculty, told AN that professors met with the administration in early April, however the administration refused to make concessions. Mack said he and AWP faculty members will continue to fight the cuts. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are continuing to organize and I am hopeful that through this organizing we will find a way to continue serving our students and the School of Architecture,\u201d Mack said.<\/p>\n

The proposed contact hour cuts are \u201carbitrary\u201d and \u201cwill not save [Pratt Institute] money,\u201d the petition states, and will \u201cradically deteriorate course outcomes.\u201d They contradict \u201cthe letter and spirit of Pratt\u2019s Strategic Plan<\/a>\u201d for 2030, the petition states.<\/p>\n

This administrative action contradicts \u201crepeated recommendations\u201d established in an external review conducted by Parsons professor Brian McGrath<\/a> in November 2025, the letter said.<\/p>\n

Signatories affirm the proposed cuts are also a violation of the faculty\u2019s Collective Bargaining Agreement, and the \u201cprinciples of shared governance,\u201d more broadly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Pratt Institute, we offer distinctive and valued one-credit undergraduate courses in Architecture Writing,\u201d a Pratt spokesperson told AN, in response to the petition. \u201cThey are components of larger architectural design studios, taught through the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and capped at 12 students.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Pratt spokesperson continued: \u201cWe are planning fall sections closer to that capacity, following our approved curriculum, with the goal of stewarding resources effectively and serving all of our students well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The petition to reverse AWP contact hours cuts was launched March 9. It is addressed to Pratt Institute president Frances Bonet, provost Donna Heiland, school of architecture dean Quilian Riano<\/a>, and school of liberal arts and sciences dean Peter West. Riano did not respond to AN\u2019s request to comment.<\/p>\n

What the proposed cuts mean for faculty members is that \u201cwe will have half as much time to bring about the same amount of curriculum\u201d for enrolled students according to Crawford, who has taught in the AWP for over ten years.<\/p>\n

The cuts would impact 13 adjuncts and part-time faculty members at Pratt. Each instructor would lose approximately $4,400 per semester albeit without a reduction to their teaching load should the cuts come to pass, per AWP faculty.<\/p>\n

Pratt is concurrently increasing enrollment caps on fifth year classes, from 12 students to 16 students. \u201cThis means Pratt will be running less sections and we will have 30 percent more students to deal with in half the amount of time,\u201d Crawford said.<\/p>\n

Crawford told AN the provost office is \u201cthe driver behind all of these changes\u201d and has \u201cdeclined\u201d to meet with the faculty regarding the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Petition signatories are now calling for an \u201cadministrative affirmation of the value\u201d of AWP and \u201ca written commitment to support the alignment of Student Learning Outcomes with existing contact hours,\u201d and the labor involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pratt Institute faculty members have launched a petition aimed at reversing proposed cuts to contact hours for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-191613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-ny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}