Home » Academic Programs » Diversity and Social Justice Academic Programs

Diversity and Social Justice Academic Programs

DIVERSITY & SOCIAL JUSTICE

 

Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo

College of Architecture and Environmental Design

City and Regional Planning Department

 

About City & Regional Planning

City & Regional Planning at Cal Poly is an integral part of the nationally recognized five department College of Architecture and Environmental Design. The program began in 1968 and has nearly 1,000 graduates (Bachelors and Masters level). The program evolved in the College where the planning laboratory (studio) has been the core of the curriculum. We are proud of the program’s strengths in urban design, land use and environmental planning, and community sustainability.

Students often use the phrase “get an education, get a job, make a difference” when talking about being at Cal Poly. Students take at least one internship in a real planning public agency, private firm, or non-profit organization. This gives all students real world experience, and many times a head start on getting a job in the field after graduation. Students get to work with faculty that have an excellent balance of professional experience and academic preparation, and more importantly are exceptional instructors. Our faculty (regular and adjunct) are involved in environmental planning, urban design, plan implementation, computer mapping, planning information systems, sustainable development, low-cost housing, legal aspects of land use controls, citizen participation, and planning in developing countries.

 

CRP Department Mission

The City and Regional Planning Department (CRP) promotes sustainable and diverse communities within cultural and human systems. We provide an interdisciplinary professional planning education based on a learn-by-doing approach, community outreach, and applied research to help communities aspire for better, livable places. Click Here to view Department Goals. The award winning City and Regional Planning (CRP) Department is recognized locally and nationally for its educational excellence. In 2000, the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) chose the community planning studio course project “Atascadero Colony in the 21st Century” to be the recipient of the national AICP Student Project Award for “best applying the planning process.” Also in 2000, the American Planning Association chose a CRP student to receive an Outstanding Planning Award for Distinguished Leadership by a student planner. This award was based on work related to sustainable planning and advocacy and for local efforts to improve the environment.

California Polytechnic State University’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED) is committed to being the premier college of the design and building industry in the United States. The five disciplines–City and Regional Planning, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Architectural Engineering and Construction Management–are a unique combination of environmental design fields. The organization of the CAED reflects the logical affinity among these fields. The CAED offers excellent opportunities to integrate computer technology into coursework.

 

http://www.planning.calpoly.edu/content/prospective/about-crp

 

City University of New York

Hunter College – Urban Affairs and Planning

 

Hunter College Urban Affairs and Planning (UAP) is a department within the School of Arts and Sciences at Hunter College. The department offers two graduate degrees, an accredited Master in Urban Planning degree, and a Master of Science in Urban Affairs degree. Both programs combine theory and practice in order to provide students with an in-depth understanding and appreciation of urban planning and policy. UAP also offers an undergraduate urban studies major that prepares students for higher education and careers in public service.

Since its creation by advocacy planner Paul Davidoff, in 1965, the department has consistently upheld a vision of urban affairs and planning as a multi-disciplinary field. In keeping with this vision, the department’s faculty members represent a wide range of disciplines including architecture, economics, political science, public policy, social work, urban planning, and public health. They collectively bring a wealth of academic and professional expertise to their teaching. The program also benefits greatly from a distinguished part-time faculty who bring practical experience and knowledge in both public and non-profit sectors into the classroom. Graduates from our programs go on to careers in the public, non-profit, and private sectors. A small number go on to doctoral programs to continue their education.

Whether you are interested in the undergraduate urban studies major, an MS degree, an MUP or one of the concurrent degrees, UAP offers prospective students an unmatched combination of coursework, research, critical and analytical thinking, community engagement, and professional development opportunities.

We invite you to explore our website and learn more about us!

 

http://hunteruap.org/#

 

University of California, Berkeley

College of Environmental Design

Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning

 

BERKELEY’S DEPARTMENT OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE & ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING IS KNOWN FOR THE DESIGN OF COMPELLING SPACES THAT PROMOTE ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY AND SOCIAL EQUITY.

The Department has produced both leading practitioners and cutting-edge research in the field since its founding in 1913. Our program focuses on the design, management, renewal, and restoration of landscapes across a range of scales, from urban plazas to wilderness areas. We teach students to apply social and ecological sciences and harness their knowledge of plant and construction materials, to design, plan, and build landscapes that responsibly serve both society and the environment in the long term.

Field study is an important supplement to the classroom, and thus as part of their experience students attend community meetings, stomp through streams, characterize urban vegetation, visit construction sites, and sketch Bay Area landscapes. With the aid of research and endowment funds, our field studies have included projects throughout California and the U.S., Mexico, Egypt, France, Portugal, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Ecuador, and China.

Our multidisciplinary faculty have backgrounds in design, science, and planning, grounded in an understanding of urban landscape evolution. Their research includes the design of innovative public spaces from small scale green spaces, streetscapes, and public plazas and parks, to planning for ecological infrastructure, resource-efficient community design, urban forestry and environmental restoration, and landscape ecology. Drawing upon the rich resources of the Berkeley campus as a whole, the department prepares students for leadership positions in private design firms, public agencies, and non-profit organizations. Our graduates also hold teaching positions at leading institutions around the world.

Please join us for an adventurous intellectual experience!

 

http://ced.berkeley.edu/academics/landscape-architecture-environmental-planning/

 

Florida State University

Department of Urban and Regional Planning

 

The Florida State University Department of Urban and Regional Planning (DURP) is Florida’s oldest and largest graduate planning program. Founded in 1965, DURP has been a leader in planning education for decades and shaped planning practice in a state internationally known for innovations in the areas of comprehensive planning, emergency management, land conservation, urban design, public health, and the transportation-land use nexus.

 

The Combined Bachelor’s/Master’s Degree Program in Urban and Regional Planning allows academically talented FSU undergraduates to complete a Bachelor’s degree in any major and a Master’s of Science in Planning (MSP) degree in less time than it would take to complete each degree separately. Students who are accepted into the combined degree program may take up to 12 credit hours of graduate courses in Urban and Regional Planning. These credits will count toward completion of both their Bachelor’s degree and MSP degree upon admission to the MSP program. The combined degree program thus allows students the opportunity to take a more challenging set of courses and begin their graduate studies early.

 

http://coss.fsu.edu/durp/

 

University of North Carolina

Department of City and Regional Planning

 

Founded in 1946, DCRP is one of the largest, oldest, and best-known programs of graduate planning education and research in North America.

We are located in the heart of the country’s oldest state university, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, founded in 1793. The state of North Carolina, the Research Triangle region, and the community of Chapel Hill are ideally suited to serve as the home of a nationally ranked program in city and regional planning.

 

We are among the first ten planning education programs in the United States.  The original bases of the Department and its program were ideas  about regionalism (hence the degree, Master of City and Regional Planning), broadly conceived development planning, and the application of social science methods to practical problems of government that were being  explored on the Chapel Hill campus in the 1940’s.

 

This was the first planning department to be established with its principal university base in the social sciences rather than in architecture or landscape design and to demonstrate the interdisciplinary union of social science, design and engineering.  We have retained and strengthened that social science legacy through the multidisciplinary research and teaching of our faculty.

 

http://planning.unc.edu/

 

University of Hawaii

Department of Urban and Regional Planning

 

Chair’s Message

Welcome to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning (DURP) where we celebrate over 36 years of planning education.

With a fully accredited Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) degree, a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning, a Certificate in Planning Studies, a Professional Certificate in Urban and Regional Planning and a Certificate in Disaster Management & Humanitarian Assistance, our students are enjoying a highly rated graduate and professional education.

Our faculty and students are engaged in both funded and non-funded research and community service locally and throughout the Pacific and Asia. We have been successful in preparing planners to work in the public, private and non-profit sectors with 100% of our students finding employment in a variety of fields. We hope you will visit our campus and see the exciting work that our DURP family is engaged in.

 

http://www.durp.hawaii.edu/

 

University of Cincinnati

School of Planning

 

What is Planning?

The tradition of the school is to train professionals for distinguished practice and spatially-based systems approaches with a focus on “livable places,” that is, on “communities that enrich people’s lives.” Each of the four SOP programs provides a particular perspective and offers specific course work about the planning and design of innovative futures. Collectively, courses in the School of Planning reflect a comprehensive approach to the social, physical, economic, environmental, political, health and legal aspects of the study and planning of communities from local, regional, and global perspectives.

The School of Planning at the University of Cincinnati offers outstanding academic and professional preparation for a career in planning. One of the largest academic planning units in the country, the 14 full-time faculty members and rich array of adjuncts supervise the only school or department in the United States offering an accredited undergraduate planning degree with required cooperative education, an accredited master’s degree offered with a number of options and a doctoral degree in planning. The faculty is well-balanced, with an excellent record of scholarship, significant professional practice and highly visible service and outreach.

Certificates are also available in: Historic Preservation, GIS, Horticulture, Urban Design and Urban Planning. In addition, many planning graduate students take the graduate certificate in Real Estate.

Career Preparation Second to None

The faculty and staff are also dedicated to providing their students with the best possible learning environment, both intellectually and professionally, and the school is proud to be student centered.

 

http://daap.uc.edu/academics/planning.html

 

University of Toronto Scarborough

Department of Geography and Planning

Welcome to the Department of Human Geography at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

 

Human Geography is one of the most exciting and innovative fields in the social sciences today. It is crucial to understanding the massive changes happening in the world today, including urbanization, human-induced environmental changes, growing inequality, and intensifying migration and displacement. It is an integrative discipline which examines the spatial differentiation and unevenness produced by political, economic, socio-cultural, and environmental factors and processes, at the full range of spatial scales from the body to the family, neighbourhood, community, city region, country, and globe.

Our department is an award-winning group of faculty who combine active and productive research programs with teaching innovation and excellence.

All our programs focus on teaching the core skills of critical thinking, qualitative and quantitative research methods and analysis, and excellence in writing.

Degrees in Human Geography and City Studies prepare students to be thoughtful and knowledgeable local and global citizens at the same time as developing important career skills in research, writing, and evidence-based examination of many of the pressing issues facing communities and the world today. Human Geography and City Studies graduates are well prepared for a wide range of careers, and our alumni have found successful careers in government, business, publishing, urban planning and development, community development, teaching, and policy analysis, among many others.

Our programs include the Major and Minor Programs in Human Geography, Major Program in Human and Physical Geography, Major and Co-op Major Programs in City Studies. Our new Minor Program in GIS can be combined with these and other programs, and provides a thorough introduction to the use and analysis of digital spatial data, spatial analysis, and mapping.

We welcome students with a diverse range of backgrounds and interests. Please don’t hesitate to contact me, any of our faculty, or Ben Pottruff our Undergraduate Program Advisor, if you have any questions.

 

André Sorensen

Professor and Chair

Department of Human Geography

University of Toronto Scarborough

 

http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/geography/

 

The University of British Colombia

School of Community and Regional Planning

SCARP’s Mission:

To advance the transition to sustainability through excellence in integrated policy and planning research, professional education and community service.

 

SCARP’s Vision:

Sustainability through the Democratization of Planning.

——————————————————————

The School’s program is shaped by five critical challenges confronting both students and practitioners of our profession:

  1. Give practical meaning to the concept of ecologically sustainable social and economic development.

The integration of our teaching, research, capacity building and practice is oriented to providing the knowledge and skills required to ensure the viability of our communities and regions in a rapidly evolving world. Adapting to global ecological change and economic rationalization requires a new generation of planners who are dedicated both to understanding the issues and acting to resolve them in a wide variety of public and private settings.

 

  1. Bring new understanding to the interdependencies of the variables that affect the design and planning of the built environment.

Explore the development and use of “natural capital,” and the creation of wealth generally. Professional planning must better reflect both the biophysical stage upon which we mount our socioeconomic play and the lead roles performed by cultural values and aesthetics in meeting the needs of the human spirit. To meet this challenge, planners must acquire a sense of confident familiarity with diverse forms and sources of knowledge and develop the facility to use that knowledge in integrated development planning.

  1. Advance society’s capacity for strategic thought and action.

What institutional arrangements can best assimilate our new knowledge and implement responsive policies and plans? In an era of deregulation and privatization, what new tools for governance are needed to protect the public interest and enhance the “common-pool” assets upon which we all depend? Answering such questions requires planners skilled at identifying feasible options, structuring decision processes, and identifying the inevitable trade-offs and long-term consequences inherent in all significant public policy choices.

  1. Increase planners’ effectiveness in working with diverse interests in the communities and regions where people live and work.

It is at this scale that planning most directly affects the conditions of everyday life, whether through urban design, community economic development, or natural resource enhancement. The most effective planners are a rare breed of inspired visionaries whose vision is tempered by sensitive flexibility and respect for practical reality.

  1. Maintain professional standards in all circumstances.

Professionalism requires many kinds of technical competence and personal skills: technical knowledge; analytical skills; communication skills; participatory leadership; sensitivity to others in complex organizational settings; sound judgement; ethical commitment, and a sense of responsibility.

We believe that facing these challenges requires life-long learning rooted in personal commitment and nourished by superior graduate education. Providing this nourishment is the role and responsibility of our School.

 

http://www.scarp.ubc.ca/

 

University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning

Department of Urban and Regional Planning

Engage in our city and region

Study in Buffalo is distinctive, because we engage you in our city and region. In your studies with us, you become involved with city governments and neighborhood groups, urban and rural environments, citizens and leaders, and the challenges they face: both troubling problems and fascinating opportunities. We do this through class exercises, internships or independent study, and final thesis or project, and especially through our client-based workshops, which we call “studios.”

In studio, our students have planned a wind energy project on former industrial property by Lake Erie—and it has now been built. For a neighborhood group, they prepared a proposal for an African-American Heritage Corridor, linking the avenue’s fine architecture, historic churches, jazz heritage, and sites from the underground railway. For a fast-growing suburban townships, they have prepared proposals for integrating pathways, parks, stream corridors, wetlands, and land-development regulations into a rich open space network.   For an old industrial neighborhood marked with monumental waterfront grain elevators, they have proposed an award-winning plan for revitalization that builds on the industrial heritage.  For a rural county, they have proposed policies that take advantage of wilderness, small town character, and skiing for tourism opportunities.  And for a nonprofit organization owning a plethora of railway cars and memorabilia, and they are planning a national-scale railway heritage attraction.

Take your scholarship global with faculty who are international leaders in their fields

If these activities entice you, Buffalo is a great place to experience them!  In view of the extensive relationships we have with local agencies, municipalities, and groups, you as our students have unparalleled access to learning by engagement.  And in this learning, you will be taught by faculty nationally recognized for research and scholarship in their fields. While learning with the Buffalo area as your living laboratory, you will be taught by faculty that also has extensive international experience.  Our faculty members have backgrounds of involvement in places as widespread as the Baltic states and the Caribbean states, China and India, and Europe and Southeast Asia. We infuse our study of locality with international awareness.

Become a part of our diverse and lively community

Adding to international character are our students: about 30% regularly coming from abroad.  And our domestic students will find that our faculty and students reflect America’s complexity and diversity. Our school is deeply committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive learning environment.

Collaborate across the disciplines, from architecture to public health to law

We are also distinguished by close collaborative relationships with our neighboring Department of Architecture. Though most of our students progress very well with undergraduate studies in sciences, humanities or social sciences, others come with a background or interest in design and can, therefore, benefit from involvement with our architecture-neighbors. Our faculty also work closely with leading researchers at UB and other universities in fields as diverse as public health, medicine, law and geography.

Study at a top-ranked program under internationally distinguished faculty – all at a reasonable price

In comparative rankings, we are among the major urban and regional planning programs in the Northeast, including ones in the Ivy Leagues. With PhD degrees from the finest institutions, our faculty is selected for national and international achievement in planning. You learn knowing that our Master of Urban Planning has the Planning Accreditation Board’s full accreditation—the standard that all professional planners recognize. Yet for New York State residents we can offer this education at reasonable state tuition. And for the majority of our students (55% as of last count) we can offer scholarships, teaching assistantships, research assistantships, and stipends.

 

http://ap.buffalo.edu/academics/urban-regional-planning.html

 

Iowa State University

Department of Community and Regional Planning

 

What is Planning?

 

The profession of planning exists to help communities manage changes to their economy, environment and quality of life through recommendations such as the use of public transit systems, development of walkable communities, development of affordable housing, sustainable practices, or historic preservation. Planners work to make communities more livable by regulating land use, creating design guidelines, or developing finance packages while working to ensure that all members of the community are involved and represented.

The Department of Community and Regional Planning at Iowa State University is one of the nation’s largest and longest-established planning programs, and one of only 16 accredited undergraduate planning programs in the United States. The department has an outstanding international faculty committed to excellence in the teaching of planning at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

We are dedicated to working with students to develop the skills and experience to become practicing planning professionals in a variety of contexts. Students learn about land-use planning and zoning, environmental planning, transportation planning, site planning and urban design. Students regularly work with real communities to understand the challenges and achievements of planning.

We also undertake high-quality research on behalf of federal and state government, business, the nonprofit sector and other funding agencies, all of which feeds into the courses we teach. This is combined with strong linkages to planning practice and other professions, which ensures our graduates are fully prepared for exciting careers in planning, urban and regional governance, and a wide range of related activities.

 

http://www.design.iastate.edu/communityplanning/


Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *