I'm a RISD alum and totally back the changes that Maeda is trying to make. You have a hotbed of amazing creative talent and a bunch of faculty who fear change and will not evolve to meet the needs of the market.

As an example, I am looking to hire 10 people, all of which could come from 1 department at RISD. Even though there post graduation placement rate is pretty low, it took several months of me chasing him down via email/phone to get a meeting and this is one of the more commercially oriented programs.

In a market where there is a lack of great UI designers RISD should be taking a lead positon, but it is stuck in decades past.