Strategic Plan for City and Regional Planning 2011-2016 Adopted September 24, 2011 ARCHITECTURE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNINGKSA THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
MISSION The mission of the CRP program is to train students to become professional planners who can apply knowledge and theory in practical settings and to introduce students to the latest developments in planning knowledge and techniques. The CRP Program strives to do this by maintaining its excellence in teaching, research, and service in the context of a university whose mission includes both the attainment of international distinction in education and scholarship and the traditional role of a land grant university with a heritage of public service. We value: Excellence in all we do Our relationship with our constituents (e.g., students, alumni, government, corporate partners and communities) The societal and economic impact of our professional contribution Teaching of principles, fundamentals and practice The importance of life-long learning A diverse faculty, staff and student body Ethics and integrity A broad-based education Innovation, knowledge creation and scholarship Collegiality A culture that treats change as an opportunity Vision: We will achieve world-class stature as a city and regional planning program through our excellence and impact in education, research and outreach. We will be nationally recognized as a pre-eminent planning program in achieving our land grant mission ensuring future prosperity and competitiveness in Ohio s communities. 2
CONTEXT To achieve its goal of becoming one of the nation s top-tier, public planning programs for undergraduate and graduate study, the program must adapt to a number of changing dimensions that define the landscape in which we currently exist. Current external and internal environment as they relate to opportunities and threats: Discovery Themes: The University is emphasizing three discovery themes encouraging interdisciplinary research and teaching around the themes of food security and production, energy sustainability and transportation and health and wellness. This creates the opportunity for CRP faculty who have strengths across the areas to work across the university. The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grand Challenges: There are fourteen Grand Challenges covering four interdisciplinary themes Energy, Infrastructure, Environment, and Health that will dominate the engineering landscape for the foreseeable future. Solutions to many of these Grand Challenges lie at the interface of disciplines creating opportunities for planning to interact with the College. Global commoditization of the planning degree: While the CRP degree has traditionally prepared students for domestic practice, there is a significant increase in planners working in global practices. Planning education needs to respond by providing education that responds to global planning challenges. Economic turmoil: The US is still in the midst of the most difficult recession since the Great Depression. Since planning is directly dependent on government for employment of its graduates and research investments, this has a broad impact on planning education. National reputation: The City and Regional planning master s is ranked 21st overall, 16th among public institutions, in the 2012 Planetizen Graduate Planning Rankings. 3
Areas to be strengthened: Faculty investment: The city and regional program has grown rapidly over the last few years. The investment in permanent faculty has lagged and there is a need to ramp up hiring to support the build out of the undergraduate program. Significant internal competition for limited resources: The program must compete for internal resources to maintain its research and educational facilities and staffing. The need to maintain funding for students and faculty, engage in outstanding research, and to deliver outstanding studio-based learning remains a continual challenge. Recent successes and other strengths that the planning section will build upon: Undergraduate enrollment quantity and quality has increased substantially. The number of undergraduate planning students increased from 13 in Fall of 2009 to 164 in Fall of 2011. Quality has remained high with an average ACT score of at least 29 since the inception of the BS program. We have just increased the diversity of the undergraduate program 30% women and 16% underrepresented ethnic and racial minorities The total research grant expenditures have increased from $586,453 in 2006 to more than $611,814 in 2009. 1 Our recent investments in curricular redesign resulted in a number of multidisciplinary experiential learning opportunities that have positioned the program to deliver outstanding, cross-disciplinary learning and to engage students across the programs and campus in these activities. 1 Note these are expenditures for the Knowlton School of Architecture, CRP represents the majority of research expenditures. 4
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES In line with the CRP mission, the CRP Program aims to strengthen and support city and regional development that is efficient, equitable and sustainable in its design, form, and services. Thus, the program focuses on plans, policies and programs that promote sustainable development, protect the environment, improve the quality of life, and enhance opportunities for all. Through its research it focuses on innovation and expansion of knowledge; and through its teaching and service it contributes to excellence in practice both in Ohio and at the national and international levels. GOAL 1: Create an unsurpassed learning environment 1.1 Provide an experiential, interdisciplinary and global focus in our educational programs. 1.1.1 The CRP Program intends to continue to introduce students to the full range of planning, including computer techniques, physical planning, data analysis, land use, environment, housing, urban development, planning history, economics, law, planning theory, administration, and ethics and values, and to provide a curriculum that allows students to concentrate and to have an integrated and comprehensive studio experience. 1.1.2 Enhance the experiential learning environment for students by providing varied studios, workshops, and other real-world experiences both domestically and internationally. 1.1.3 Maintain and encourage student use of joint degree programs. 1.1.4 Create new interdisciplinary minors to support interdisciplinary education at the undergraduate and graduate level. 1.1.5 The CRP Program places an emphasis on improving the development and evaluation of teaching skills. 1.1.6 The CRP Program strives to maintain professional adjuct participation in professional practice courses. 5
1.2 Offer a comprehensive portfolio of student support services that prepare students for professional practice 1.2.1 Encourage active student participation in professional organizations and planning project competitions and research presentations 1.2.2 CRP Faculty strive to provide quality mentorship with students and to provide connections to professionals to enhance mentorship experiences. 1.2.3 The CRP program intends to maintain and raise the quality of an already outstanding internship program that provides employment for a significant number of students in various planning situations. 1.3 Enhance pro-active student recruiting efforts to sustain an optimal high-quality yield 1.3.1 Maintain a high first-year retention rate by addressing the needs of first year students 1.3.2 Initiate a city and regional planning honors program 1.3.3 Support and grow the accelerated BS/MCRP program. 1.3.4 Maintain the scholarship and tuition waiver funds available to support students of all backgrounds. 1.3.5 Encourage greater interaction between students in the Masters and Ph.D. programs for the purpose of developing and transferring knowledge and the production of the next generation of planning scholars. This enables Master s students to study in an environment where the recognition of the need for new ideas and solutions is important and PhD students to develop their ideas in the context of real world needs. 1.3.6 The CRP program encourages interaction between high performing undergraduate students in the BS program and Master s students for the purpose of developing skills and encouraging pursuit of graduate education to produce the next generation of planning practitioners. 1.4 Increase the cultural and economic diversity of the student body and provide a comprehensive portfolio of programs aimed at improving recruitment and retention of women and minorities. 1.4.1 Foster a student body that is representative of the diversity of the population. 1.4.2 Maintain access to part-time students by providing evening and on-line courses. GOAL 2: Support a well-defined discovery agenda that supports faculty and student research 2.1 Emphasize, in our faculty recruiting, strategic areas related to university discovery themes and global grand engineering challenges. 2.1.1 The CRP Program seeks excellence by requiring faculty to have an on-going program of research on the frontier of knowledge or to engage in distinguished professional activity. 2.1.2 The CRP Program encourages the faculty to make use of the latest technologies in teaching and research. 6
2.2 Provide a comprehensive repertoire of programs aimed at improving recruitment and retention of women and minority faculty. 2.2.1 Seek high quality faculty as positions become available. 2.2.2 The CRP Program seeks to increase the representation of diverse groups on its faculty. 2.3 Establish major interdisciplinary research Centers aligned with the KSA, College, and University s key research focus areas 2.3.1 The CRP Program attempts to encourage increased interdisciplinary work among academic units within the School of Architecture, the College of Engineering and the University. 2.3.2 The CRP Program seeks to maintain the number of faculty with joint and courtesy appointments. GOAL 3: Expand mutually beneficial engagement of the citizens and institutions of Ohio, the nation and the world. 3.1 Promote strategic public and private sector relationships to create new research and outreach opportunities 3.1.1 Maintain significant involvement in the continuing education of professional planners after their graduation from planning school. 3.1.2 Relate the program s work to the community through community involvement in courses and studios. 3.1.3 Encourage faculty to provide service inside and outside the University. 7
GOAL 4: Recognize the supporting role of financial soundness and operational simplicity 4.1 The CRP Program strives to take advantage of its position as an autonomous academic unit in a School focused on planning and design, a College known for its research, and a land grant university. The CRP Program has complete control over all curricular issues, student admissions, faculty appointments and budget within the overall expenditure limit given to it by the School. 4.1.1 The CRP program strives to encourage an active and vital student organization to interact with the faculty and engage in section governance. 4.1.2 The CRP Program strives for an efficient and transparent program administration in which faculty and students are fully informed and participate in all policy and program decision making. 4.1.3 The CRP program strives to secure a faculty of distinguished accomplishment and to encourage them to provide intellectual and practical leadership within the University. 4.2 Diversify our fiscal resources through an enhanced development effort 4.2.1 Continue to seek external research and engagement funding. 4.2.2 Partner with units across the university on interdisciplinary research efforts. 4.2.3 Seek opportunities to offer professional development course for community professionals to earn certification maintenance credits. 4.2.4 Maintain online education offerings. 4.2.5 Engage alumni in fundraising efforts. 8