Chaminade's Environmental + Interior Design BFA Program Receives Accreditation

Community website by MBC/Ernest Abrams. Call 808-739-9797 for advertising/sponsorship#KaimukiHawaii Community website by MBC/Ernest Abrams. Call 808-739-9797 for advertising/sponsorship#KaimukiHawaii

Kaimuki, Hawaii
News Item
Powered by MBC NewsMaker
Chaminade's Environmental + Interior Design BFA Program Receives Accreditation
Tweet

The Accreditation Commission of the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) has granted accreditation status to Chaminade's Bachelor of Fine Arts in Environmental + Interior Design program effective July 2013. Chaminade's program is the only interior design degree-granting program in Hawaii.

"The Accreditation Commission's decision was based on our program's ability to demonstrate compliance with 16 accreditation standards, which were evaluated within the context and overarching purpose and intent of the program," explained Joan Riggs, coordinator of Chaminade's Environmental + Interior Design program. "CIDA accreditation standards address the evolving components of graduate preparation for interior design practice, including critical thinking, professional processes and values, technical and aesthetic skill sets and a collaborative spirit that provide the framework of interior design practice."

Bro. Bernard Ploeger, SM, president of Chaminade University, added, "Professor Riggs, the program's faculty and students worked hard to bring about this success. This achievement of a specialized accreditation for our Environmental + Interior Design program attests to the quality of the interior design program. Parents, students and employers of our graduates can be assured that our program meets the rigor of peer review and develops the skill and knowledge required to practice in their career area."

Achieving accreditation is a strong indicator of a program's commitment to delivering a quality professional-level education that prepares students for entry-level interior design practice. Programs seeking CIDA accreditation voluntarily place themselves before the scrutiny of the interior design profession by participating in a rigorous peer review process. This process requires interior design programs to conduct a thorough self-evaluation of compliance with CIDA Professional Standards and report results to CIDA. The program must also organize an extensive display of student work for CIDA's review and host a three-member team of CIDA peer evaluators for an on-site assessment of compliance with CIDA Professional Standards. A report of the findings from this on-site evaluation as well as follow-up dialogue with the program forms the basis for a final decision on accreditation by CIDA's Accreditation Commission.

The Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) is an independent, non-profit accrediting organization for interior design education programs at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. For more than 35 years, this knowledge-driven organization has been passionately committed to the ongoing enrichment of the interior design profession through identifying, developing and promoting quality standards for the education of entry-level interior designers, and then encouraging, accrediting and supporting educational programs to aspire to those standards. Through a process of program self-evaluation and peer review, accreditation promotes achievement of high academic standards, while making education more responsive to student and societal needs.. More than 150 interior design programs are currently accredited by the Council, serving an estimated 20,000 students. The Council for Interior Design Accreditation is recognized as a reliable authority on interior design education by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). For more information, contact CIDA at 206 Grandville Ave, Suite 350, Grand Rapids, MI, 49503-4014 or www.accredit-id.org.

About Chaminade University

INTRODUCTION
Celebrating 50 years of educating students for life, service and successful careers, Chaminade University offers programs of study grounded in the liberal arts with day, evening, online and accelerated courses.

The main campus is located in Kaimuki at 3140 Waialae Ave., Honolulu, HI 96816, with 11 satellite locations around Oahu military bases and Catholic parishes and schools.

For more information, visit the Chaminade University website (link above) or call (808) 735-4711.

CHAMINADE UNIVERSITY'S MISSION
Chaminade University offers its students an education in a collaborative learning environment that prepares them for life, work and service. Guided by its Catholic, Marianist and liberal arts educational traditions, Chaminade encourages the development of moral character and personal competencies, and the commitment to build a just and peaceful society. The University offers the civic and church communities of the Pacific region its academic and intellectual resources in the pursuit of common aims.

CHAMINADE UNIVERSITY OVERVIEW

INSTITUTION: Chaminade University of Honolulu
PRESIDENT: Dr. Mary C. Wesselkamper
YEAR FOUNDED: 1955
SPONSORSHIP: Independent with Catholic, Marianist affiliation
DEGREE LEVELS OFFERED: Associates, Bachelors, Masters
CALENDAR PLAN: Semester, two summer sessions/four, ten-week evening sessions

FTE Student/FTE Faculty ratio: 10.97: 1
Students receiving financial aid -93.71%
Native Hawaiian ethnicity breakdown: 13.91 %

CHAMINADE UNIVERSITY -- DESCRIPTIVE OVERVIEW

Chaminade University of Honolulu is a small, Catholic, comprehensive university sponsored by the Province of the United States of America of the Society of Mary (Marianists). It is located on a hillside in suburban Honolulu, two miles from Waikiki beach. Chaminade's fall 2005 enrollment is more than 3,000 -- 1112 traditional day students, and approximately 2,000 students enrolled in graduate studies and the accelerated evening program offered at 11 sites on Oahu and via distance education. Chaminade currently offers three bachelors degrees in 21 undergraduate majors, six graduate degree programs, and several professional certificate programs.

Celebrating 50 years of educating students for life, service and successful careers, Chaminade University offers programs of study grounded in the liberal arts with day, evening, online and accelerated courses. The main campus is located in Kaimuki at 3140 Waialae Ave., Honolulu, HI 96816, with 11 satellite locations around Oahu military bases and Catholic parishes and schools. For more information, visit the Chaminade University website at www.chaminade.edu or call (808) 735-4711.

CHAMINADE AT A GLANCE

Students and faculty at Chaminade have a very wide range of backgrounds and beliefs. The values-centered education at Chaminade is universal and ecumenical.
Students and faculty at Chaminade have a very wide range of backgrounds and beliefs. The values-centered education at Chaminade is universal and ecumenical. Chaminade is ranked nationally among the top colleges in its category for diversity by U.S. News & World Report.
Chaminade offers significant financial aid to assist underrepresented minority students.
Chaminade University of Honolulu (CUH) is the only Catholic University in Hawaii. Founded by the Society of Mary under the leadership of Father Robert Mackey in 1955, Chaminade has been educating students in the Catholic Marianist tradition for nearly 50 years.
Chaminade is fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
Intimate in size with an excellent student teacher-ratio (11:01), CUH students and faculty enjoy a spirit of ohana supporting each other ensuring their future success.
Chaminade has been producing teachers who serve in the state for nearly 50 years; the state's first online Masters in Education was offered in 2004. The University also offers degrees in early childhood development and elementary education. It is also the only Montessori teacher preparatory program in Hawaii.
The award-winning Interior Design program is the only one in Hawaii offering a four-year degree in interior design.
Business is one of the most popular areas of study, and the Hogan Entrepreneurial Program, led by a group of successful business advisors, prepares undergraduate students for entrepreneurial work in a wide range of organizations.
Chaminade's basketball team earned worldwide acclaim in 1982 with its 77-72 victory over the number-one ranked University of Virginia, still known as one of the biggest upsets in sports history.

CHAMINADE UNIVERSITY - A BRIEF HISTORY
The University is named after the founder of the Society of Mary, Father William Joseph Chaminade, a French Catholic priest who survived the political turmoil and religious persecution of the French Revolution. Father Chaminade believed that the rebuilding of the Church in France in the aftermath of the French Revolution would best be accomplished by the engagement of the laity in small communities of faith, dedicated to prayer, education and acts of service to the larger community. After two decades of work with those communities, and the founding of the Daughters of Mary in 1816, the third part of his vision of the Marianist Family materialized when he founded the Society of Mary, a religious community of priests and lay brothers in 1817.

The Marianists realized that education provided the means for passing on their distinctive vision of the Christian life to future generations, and, central to their educational efforts, was an emphasis on liberal education. In this sense, they understood that education was not merely a means for imparting a religious vision, but also an intellectual formation valuable in itself. This educational tradition and spirituality of the Society of Mary also embodies the ideal of service and an abiding respect for the complementary nature of a liberal education, on the one hand, and professional and technical education on the other. As the only Catholic university in Hawaii, Chaminade affirms a commitment to the integration of intellectual skills, Marianist values, social responsibility and cultural awareness.

In 1849, members of the Society of Mary came to the United States to minister to immigrant populations. As an outgrowth of their ministry, they founded first what grew to the University of Dayton and, shortly thereafter, what became St. Mary's University of San Antonio. In September of 1883, eight Marianists arrived in Honolulu and assumed the leadership of what is now St. Louis School. After many years of encouragement by the alumni of St. Louis, the decision was made by the Marianists to establish a Catholic college in Honolulu and, as a consequence, St. Louis Junior College opened in 1955. In 1957, the college became a four-year coeducational institution and the name was changed to Chaminade College. Chaminade expanded its services to the community in l967 with the establishment of an evening session to serve adults with business, family and military responsibilities who desired to pursue a college degree. In l977 Chaminade added graduate programs, and the name was changed to Chaminade University of Honolulu.

Leadership
In 1996, Dr. Sue Wesselkamper became Chaminade's eighth president and the first woman to serve in such a post in Hawaii's history. The University is guided by a 40-member Board of Regents and 25-member Board of Governors representing a wide spectrum of business, government and education leaders from throughout Hawaii. Chaminade employs 291 full time faculty and staff and has approximately 300 adjunct professors on its active list.

Questions? Ready for an appointment?

Like Our Facebook

Kaimuki, Hawaii News Item

Chaminade's Environmental + Interior Design BFA Program Receives Accreditation

Chaminade's Environmental + Interior Design BFA Program Receives Accreditation

Kaimuki, Hawaii
News Item