News from School Year 2007-08

Faculty party

Yes, once in a while even the faculty have fun. Shown above participating in the wine tasting at the department's annual holiday party are (clockwise from left) Mike Bradley, Laura Buhl's husband Pablo, Yichun Xie, Sandra Rutherford's husband Tom, Sandra, Ilene Tyler and Tom Wagner.

Norm...

Bob Jones talk on Sustainability

Faculty member Bob Jones gave a talk entitled "Urban Sprawl, Brownfield Redevelopment and Sustainable Communities" on Monday, Feb. 11th at 6:00 in Room 352 at the Student Center. It was part of EMU's "Green Week."


Norm Tyler & Ted Ligibel awardees

Faculty members Norm Tyler and Ted Ligibel represented the Michigan Historic Preservation Network as Board members at this year's annual conference of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Network received national distinction as Preservation Organization of the Year.


Bob Jones presentation on brownfields

Faculty member Bob Jones recently presented at the annual national conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. His topic was, "State Initiatives and Local Land Use Controls: Brownfield Redevelopment 'Success' in a Home Rule State."

Form an Alumni Chapter?

Andrew Armbruster (BS 2004) asked the following question. Maybe someone would like to follow up?

I was signing up for the EMU Alumni Association and found out that our program does not have an Alumni Chapter. It would be great if we could get one started, especially since we have such a strong unofficial alumni network. I’m wondering if you would be able to pass such an idea on to our alumni network to see if there’s sufficient interest.


Laura Buhl joins staff

Faculty and students of the Urban and Regional Planning Programs welcome Laura Buhl as a full-time lecturer in the Planning program, beginning with the Fall semester. Laura comes from Oregon, where she was an Associate Planner with the Wasco County Planning Department in the beautiful Columbia Gorge area of Oregon State. She also has experience as editor of a research services journal, a housing program assistant, and a school teacher for three years in Punta Arenas, Chile. She has degrees in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon and in American Studies from Mills College in Oakland, California. We welcome Laura to the great Midwest and to campus.

Scholarships and Awards

GPA Awards:

This year five senior students in the undergraduate Planning Program received department academic awards for an overall GPA of 3.5 or better.

Jessica Tenbusch, Emily Smith, Josh Eikenberry and Jacqueline Rais (shown above celebrating at the Awards Picnic) and Mark Hartmann.

Scholarships:

Four students received scholarships from the Robert M. Ward Scholarship Fund, sponsored by PLACE. The four recipients were Christopher Fellows, Kristin Hatfield, Aaron Stryker and Kathryn Youra.


Graduate School Awards:

Two of the graduate students from the Urban and Regional Planning Program have recently received university awards. Ken Bouchard received the Brenner Scholarship, giving recognition for his service as a graduate assistant. At the same awards ceremony, Jennifer Bruen received a University Fellowship. Congratulations to both; they deserve it.

Planning jobs are growing...

This article came from the July 26th edition of Newsweek magazine.

With environmental issues increasingly center stage in the public consciousness, the demand for 'green' jobs -- such as urban planners -- is growing quickly. "Graduates of the class of 2007 are finding the job market is receptive to those who want to do good by the environment. As public awareness of global warming grows, companies are scrambling to put in place greener practices, to present themselves as more eco-friendly and to develop products and services to fill a new demand for all things green. The phenomenon is creating jobs in fields like urban planning, carbon trading, green building and environmental consulting. "The environmental job market is the strongest that it's been in many years," says Kevin Doyle, president of the Boston-based consulting company Green Economy Inc. and coauthor of "The ECO Guide to Careers That Make a Difference." The labor market for recent grads is strong overall. "The biggest factor is that the baby boomers are retiring," says John Esson, director of the Baltimore-based Environmental Careers Center. But green jobs are growing especially quickly-at double-digit rates in some specialties, like consulting. The fastest-growing professions, according to Doyle's analysis of recent U.S. Department of Labor figures, include environmental engineers, hydrologists, environmental-health scientists and urban and regional planners."

URISA Salaries Study

The Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) published a report recently on salaries for GIS practitioners. What they found...

On average, survey respondents earned $60,050 in 2006. Consultants experienced the greatest average increase (from an average of $71,280 in 2003 to a current average annual salary of $96,786). Certified GIS Professionals (GISPs) earn, on average, nearly $9,000 more per year compared to those who are not certified $66,308 vs. $57,669). Most respondents (63.7%) were employed within some level of government and held GIS-related job titles (84.6%), such as GIS Manager, GIS Analyst, GIS Coordinator, etc. On average, respondents have an average of 14 years of professional experience and 10 years of GIS professional experience. The average age of those responding was 39 years. Jobs require them to be at least somewhat proficient with a variety of GIS software. ESRI products were most popular. The leaders included ArcGIS (91.2%), SDE/GeoDatabase (47.9%), ESRI Extensions ­ Network Analyst, 3D Analyst, Spatial Analyst (46.2%), ArcIMS (37.9%), ArcView (34.3%), and ArcPad (26.7%).