Committees

The highest body of D-ARCH is the Department Conference. It holds the responsibility for final decisions regarding all aspects of strategy and planning. The Department Conference is composed of all professors and a delegation of scientific staff and assistants (both elected by the AAA), junior faculty, and students. It is presided over by the Dean, who is responsible for the strategic development of D-ARCH and carrying out the decisions of the departmental bodies.

To promote equal opportunities, parity and diversity, the department sets up a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) as an advisory body. It expresses its opinion on all matters that have relevant parity and diversity aspects. In particular, it is responsible for drawing up the department’s parity and diversity objectives and the appropriate measures to achieve these objectives for the attention of the departmental conference. Additionally, it
continuously monitors the parity and diversity situation in the department and monitors the implementation of the parity and diversity goals set. The departmental management ensures the necessary resources and access to data for monitoring and implementation control, reporting to the Department Conference.

The DEI Commission is made up of an equal number of representatives from the professorial staff, mid-level faculty and students.

The AAA workgroup Mental Health and Wellbeing aims to discuss the working conditions in terms of mental health and well-being of the Department’s teaching and research staff, raising awareness, voicing concerns, and lobbying for structural measures concerning these topics. The high demands that the research and teaching environments at D-ARCH place on studio tutors, PhD candidates, and Postdoc researchers are a major factor in their well-being. The workgroup aims to chart and monitor these challenges, and to serve as a discussion partner to the Department on these issues.

The workgroup’s members are part of the broader, department-wide bottom-up workgroup OMG (‘On Mental Goodness’), which addresses issues of mental health and wellbeing within the Department, across various staff categories and the student body. OMG convenes on an ad hoc basis, for instance, to discuss how to respond to the results of various employee and student surveys, or to organise events to raise awareness of mental health.

Some of the workgroup’s members are part of the Department’s First Responders Network, a network of peer-to-peer support, serving as low-threshold and confidential contact points to exchange thoughts, inform, advise and refer in response to situations of distress and conflict.

The Teaching Commission (Unterrichtskommission, UK) of the Department of Architecture at ETH Zürich is the central body responsible for teaching and study organisation. It brings together representatives of professors, assistants, and students to ensure a broad perspective on the development and quality of the department’s study programs.

The UK plays an active role in elaborating and revising program regulations and other teaching-related matters, such as the curriculum, course structures, examination procedures, and the introduction or discontinuation of courses. It reviews and discusses proposals and submits recommendations to the Department Conference (DK). In addition, the UK advises on teaching quality, supports innovation in study formats, and provides a forum for student concerns.

The commission meets regularly twice per semester; additional meetings or working groups may be scheduled when required.