Note from LAUP Dept. Head

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the 2006-07 academic year. In the past issues of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning’s (LAUP) newsletter, Perspectives, I addressed our teaching, service, and outreach programs as well as our strategic planning initiatives. I will update you on these initiatives and elaborate on our research and creative scholarship programs as well. Texas A & M University’s tripartite mission focuses on teaching, research, and service.

This fall, we have approximately 310 full-time students in the department, representing a 10 percent slight increase from last year’s enrollment. We just reached our enrollment cap for the Bachelors of Landscape Architecture program for the first time, with an undergraduate enrollment of 150, comprised of increasingly talented students. Many students graduated in the Spring and Summer semesters including nine (9) students in our Ph.D. program in Urban and Regional Science program. A significant majority of the graduates in students our professional programs of landscape architecture, urban planning, and land development were recruited by reputable private firms and public sector agencies in Texas and across the United States.

As you know, we embarked on strategic planning in 2004 for all the five programs in the department: Bachelor in Landscape Architecture (BLA), Master in Landscape Architecture (MLA), Master of Urban Planning (MUP), Master of Science in Land Development (MSLD), and Ph.D in Urban and Regional Science (URSC). Our goal is to position each program to respond effectively to the social, demographic, economic, political, and technological changes that shape design and planning education, research, and outreach. I am pleased to note that we have made significant strides.

We now have strategic and curriculum plans for almost all the departmental programs. The strategic plans establish each program’s priorities and will drive resource allocation. The curricula plans articulate a clearly defined mission and a strengthened curriculum for each program that positions us to effectively educate leaders who can make a difference in shaping the evolution of neighborhoods, cities, and regions. In many instances, our efforts represent major curriculum changes, such as in the URSC program that has not had a major curriculum revision since the 1980s. I thank students, faculty, and our Professional Advisory Board members who participated in our strategic and curriculum initiatives.

Our plan is to ensure that the new curriculum for each program will be published in the university catalogue next year. In fact, we have initiated implementation of the curriculum changes this semester in the MSLD and URSC programs. We are also developing marketing and recruitment materials to effectively communicate these curricula changes such as developing new brochures for our graduate programs. I invite you to visit our new departmental website. Additionally, an accreditation team reviewed the MUP program in March, 2006. Preliminary results indicate that the program will receive full 6-year accreditation.

Last year, we successfully recruited three top-notch faculty members. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Eric Dumbaugh, Dr. Jesse Saginor, and Dr. Taner R. Ozdil. These individuals hold degrees in urban planning, civil engineering, public administration, urban affairs, landscape architecture, and urban and regional sciences. Their expertise fill important voids we had in transportation planning, land development, and landscape architecture. We are also pleased that Debbie Bernal joined our staff in September 2006. Our dedicated staff facilitates the effective and timely implementation of our departmental initiatives.

Establishing endowed scholarships and professorships to attract and retain the best students and faculty is one of LAUP’s major priorities. Last year, the Texas Society of Landscape Architects (TASLA) established an endowed student scholarship in landscape architecture. The first scholarship was awarded during the 2005/06 academic year. Similarly, the Texas American Planning Association (TAPA) established two scholarships each year for students in our urban planning program. The Land Development Industry Council (LDII) established last year has provided a number of scholarships for our MSLD students. This list is not exhaustive.

I am particularly pleased to announce that for the first time, the department has received two endowed professorships---the Harold Adams ’61 Endowed Interdisciplinary Professorship in Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and the Mitchell Endowed Professorship in Land Development. A third professorship, the Mitchell Endowed Professorship in Residential Design will be awarded to a design faculty in Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning or in Architecture with an interest in residential design. Another professorship, the Mitchell Master Builder Endowed Chair, endowed at $1.00 million, will be filled by a faculty member in architecture, construction science, or landscape and urban planning. Please join me in thanking the College of Architecture Dean, Tom Regan and the Development Office for the College of Architecture, Larry Zuber, for working with the department to accomplish these initiatives.

I continue to be proud of LAUP faculty who make us very competitive in advancing the research and scholarly mission of Texas A & M University. Between 2004 and 2006, LAUP faculty members had on-going funded research totaling $1,192,400. In addition, a faculty member received a $4.5 million grant in 2004 from the National Institute of Health funded over a five-year period. In 2005, the faculty received a total of $2,879,500 in funded grants and contracts. In 2006, the department has received so far approximately $1,900,000 in funded research and grants including a $750,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, an $850,000 five-year National Oceanographic and Atmospheric and Agency (NOAA) grant, and most recently, an $112,000 grant from the National Park Service (NPS). We are still awaiting the outcomes of many grants and contracts submitted to funding agencies for approval. I am aware that the department is extremely competitive nationally and internationally in attracting competitive funded research.

These grants enable our faculty to create and disseminate new knowledge directed at creating a coastal community planning atlas for Coastal areas in Texas; evaluating community risk management of hurricane and tsunami surge hazards; assessing vulnerability of coastal areas in Texas to human and natural disasters; developing an early warning system for detecting human-induced disturbances to national parks; exploring physical environments that support human health; and developing innovative erosion and sediment control measures. They also provide significant financial support to attract and retain the best students as well.

Moreover, LAUP faculty have engaged in numerous funded and non-funded scholarly activities that make a significant difference in the quality of people’s lives in the built and natural environments, especially through our service-learning initiatives. Recent efforts include the master plan developed on behalf of the Beaumont Housing Authority, Texas; economic development plans for the cities of Lewisville and Castle Hills, Texas; disaster response plans and designs for Key West, Florida; and numerous international initiatives in Asia. The department’s Partnership for Community Outreach, featured in the last issue of Perspectives, facilitates coordination of these service learning initiatives.

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Lindell was elected by an international committee to be the Editor-In-Chief of the key journal in disaster research, the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Hazards. This brings it to the fifth journal that LAUP faculty members serve as the editor, co-editor or associate editor. The others are Landscape and Urban Planning (Dr. Jon Rodiek), Journal of Architectural Planning and Research (Dr. Andrew Siedel), Journal of the Southeastern Chapter of the Society of Architectural historians (Co-editor, Professor Volkman); and Natural Hazards Review (Associate editor, Dr. Walt Peacock). These numbers are very impressive.

As I noted in the last newsletter, I re-emphasize that great universities take immense pride in the quality of their academic programs, curricula, faculty, students as well as building effective partnerships with internal and external constituents. So long as we keep focused in implementing our strategic and curriculum initiatives and priorities, I am confident that we positioned to move toward a path of sustained excellence for all our programs.