EMU Planning Program Main Page

Eastern Michigan University Urban and Regional Planning Undergraduate and Graduate Programs

...Thinkaboutit Quote...

"Growth for the sake of growth
is the ideology of the cancer cell."
Edward Abbey

Geography Awareness Week November 16 through 20 is Geography Awareness Week. The department has a series of events scheduled. Check them out at: http://www.emich.edu/public/geo/GAWSchedule.pdf

Student Planning Conference

The 2010 Student Conference of the Michigan Association for Planning will be held this coming February in Kalamazoo at Western Michigan University. The call for student presentations is now open and I encourage you to alert students to this opportunity to present their work, including individual research, group projects, and studio or workshop course projects. The call for presentations flyer is posted at: http://homepages.wmich.edu/~jyin/smapcall.pdf

WebPolis project Norm Tyler is interested in continuing development of software for his WebPolis project. If you are interested in an Independent Study credit and are familiar with php or other development software, Norm would be glad to talk with you. Contact Norm at ntyler@emich.edu or 734 761-5549 (cell).

Students and Alums at MAP Conference

Some of the EMU students and alums attending the conference...
Fifteen or so current Planning students and many program alums attended the annual conference of the Michigan Association of Planning (MAP). We are proud that each year EMU sends many more planning students to the conference than any other program in the state.

The conference took place at the Soaring Eagle Resort in Mt. Pleasant from September 30 through October 3. Students learned a lot by attending the sessions, but gained just as much by mixing with former students and having a chance to meet planners from across Michigan. On Thursday evening we "took over" the Water Lily Lounge at the resort for an informal time together before breaking into groups to have dinner or go explore downtown Mt. Pleasant.

The conference included presentations by EMU alums, including Amy Chestnut on Locally Unwanted Land Uses, James Schafer on Planning Ethics, Rodney Nanney on Zoning, Michelle Reardon on Lansing's Housing program, and Leslie Kettren on the Congress of New Urbanism. The Executive Director of MAP, Andrea Brown, is a program alum and led many of the general sessions.

Rick Sambrook, new department head

The Department of Geography and Geology had a new department head beginning July 1st. Richard (Rick) Sambrook comes from Eastern Kentucky University, where he served as interim chair of the department. With degrees in geography and anthropology, his areas of specialization included Latin America, economic development, travel and tourism, and cartography. He also has experience with planning and historic preservation, has served as director of an Ecuador program, and has been on many professional committees relating to geography.

Sambrook's arrival allows Bob Jones to return to the faculty from his role as last year's interim department head. It also is good timing, allowing Bob to facilitate the arrival of a site visit team, coming in October, which will review the undergraduate Planning program and hopefully recommend its continued accreditation.

German Students Visit

On Sunday, September 13, fourteen Planning students and faculty from the University of Kassel in Germany visited Ann Arbor. Norm Tyler led them on a tour of the city's revitalization projects. They also had a chance to speak with Andrea Brown, director of the Michigan Association of Planning, and Lis Knibbe and Ilene Tyler, restoration architects with Quinn Evans Architects.

The students were on a one-week tour of rust-belt cities, traveling from Chicago to Cleveland. After visiting Ann Arbor, they were to tour Detroit. They were especially interested in the evolution of American downtowns and suburbs.

What is planning?

Top Urban Thinkers

The Planetizen web site did a poll of planners to determine who were considered the top "urban thinkers." The leader by a large margin was Jane Jacobs, most famous for her classic book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Here is the top ten from that list of one hundred.

1 Jane Jacobs
2 Andrés Duany
3 Christopher Alexander
4 Frederick Law Olmsted
5 Kevin A. Lynch
6 Daniel Burnham
7 Lewis Mumford
8 Léon Krier
9 William H. Whyte
10 Jan Gehl

Best Careers

U.S. News and World Report issued a Career Guide listing the "Best Careers." The list included "Urban Planner." The careers were chosen based on job satisfaction, training difficulty, prestige, job market outlook, and pay. It lists the median national salary for someone in Planning as $68,800. This is an important recognition of the status of our profession, but, of course, we already knew this.

Alumni News Updates

If you're interested in keeping up-to-date on the activities of our programs' alumni, link on over to the Alumni News page. It's updated regularly.

Want a scholarship? EMU has a web site listing many scholarships now available. It is certainly worth a look. Find it at http://www.emich.edu/cas/stu-scholarships.html

URP T-shirts now available
Beautiful long-sleeve green t-shirts proudly displaying the EMU Planning Program are now available for sale. The design, created by grad student Lauren Carlson, includes the program name on the front and our famous web site URL on the back.

Would you like one? All sizes are still available, and are available from Norm for $15 onsite or $16 through the mail. (Any checks should be written to "Norman Tyler.") All proceeds benefit the PLACE club.

Shown modeling the new shirts are (front row) John Dybalski, Ron Akers, and Mark Ferrell; ((back row) Scott Kree, Will Grapentine, and Norm Tyler.

Promote the program.

We would like to increase the number of students in both the undergrad and graduate Planning programs. There are a number of ways that can be done effectively. This web site is a great promotional tool, and referring someone to it is usually the most effective way to give them information. Many students have also been attracted to the program by looking at one of the program flyers. Undoubtedly, the most effective way is to be told about the program by a friend or acquaintance. Just think of the power if all three means were used! Let's say you made a copy of the program's flyer, gave it to a potential student, and reviewed the info on the web site with them. This would work wonderfully!

To that end, included here is a link to a .pdf of the program's flyer. Are you willing to make a few copies of the flyer and share them with individuals who might be interested, either as potential students or friends or family of potential students? This would be the best promotional program we could imagine. Encourage anyone interested to contact me (734.761.5549 or ntyler@emich.edu) or Bob Jones (734.487.0218 or robert.jones@emich.edu) to discuss the program in detail. We love doing that.
...Norm

*EMU Map Library* Joanne Hansen, the map librarian for the Halle Library, offers a great resource for students. Joanne has always been very helpful to Planning students. Check out the map library at Map Library web site.

Important Note To All Undergrads

It is VERY important that every undergrad student who is majoring in Urban and Regional Planning declare it as your major. (Note: You can change majors at any point in your studies.)

Go to your my.emich account and declare. It's easy and painless.

Take a class at another university?

Are you a grad student who would like to take a class at UofM or MSU or Wayne State. The Michigan Intercollegiate Graduate Studies (MIGS) program allows you to do just that. If the Host University has room in the class, your advisor can set it up with the host instructor. You pay the tuition rate of the Host University, and your grade applies to you degree requirements at EMU.

For more information, check out MIGS online or see your advisor, Norm Tyler.

Guide to Planning Programs Are you an undergrad student considering going into a graduate Planning program. You can look for schools online at: http://www.acsp.org/org/links_to_planning_schools.htm

"Cyburbia" Cyburbia was founded in 1994, and is the Internet's oldest continuously operating planning-related Web site; it functions today as a portal and busy social networking site for planners and others interested in the built environment.

"Planetizen" There's an online service that will send you twenty interesting articles on planning twice a week. It also lists job openings for planners. It's called "Planetizen" and it's free. The Planning faculty use it regularly to stay updated on news.

Contacts For general information on the Urban and Regional Planning program, contact Planning Program director Bob Jones at robert.jones@emich.edu. For information on the graduate Urban and Regional Planning program, contact Graduate Adviser Norm Tyler at ntyler@emich.edu. For the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) program, contact Hugh Semple at hsemple@emich.edu.