The primary purpose of schools of art and design is to help individual students turn talent, inspiration, creativity, and dedication into significant potential for service to the development of art and design culture in its multiple dimensions. Checks and balances are consciously developed and rigorously enforced. Service is directed toward various complex relationships among students, institutions and programs, the public, and art and design both as arts and as professions. Autonomy balanced by mutual accountability is preferable to central control enforced by regulation. The autonomy of institutions is a critical factor in educational excellence.
Institutions volunteer to be mutually accountable under conditions that protect their autonomy.
Common searches for wisdom provide the most effective bases for decision- making. Results achieved and functions fulfilled indicate effectiveness more than the presence of means or the utilization of methods. It judges resources in terms of results and not the reverse. Statements regarding scope of authority, operations, and decision-making must exhibit integrity, set reasonable limits, guide work, and promote the professionalism that engenders confidence. Excellence requires expertise sufficient to each task.