Note from LAUP Department Head

The 2008-09 academic year was very busy as we continued to strengthen the quality of our academic, research and engagement programs, while creating new ones as opportunities arose.

At the university level, Dr. Elsa Murano, president of Texas A&M, implemented a number of initiatives that continue to position the university to become a consensus top ten public university in the United States by 2020. One major initiative is the development and near completion of the university’s academic plan under the leadership of our new provost, Dr. Jeffrey Vitter. The plan defined three major areas of focus, "roadmaps" for research, teaching and engagement, and was developed with extensive participation of faculty, staff, and students. Each college also developed a research plan that served as input into the academic planning process.

The department articulated five priority research areas that were integrated into the College of Architecture's Ten Year Research plan, which was completed in December 2008. These research areas are:

• Community management of natural and human-induced hazards;

• Sustainability of human and natural ecosystems;

• Social and economic viability of neighborhoods and communities;

• Healthy neighborhoods and cities; and

• Transportation mobility, safety, access, and physical forms.

All five are areas in which our faculty have collectively demonstrated distinguishing excellence. Department faculty have almost $7 million in ongoing research grants and contracts within these areas of specialization. In short, our funded research program is very solid through the continuation of current and new research.

The department has witnessed impressive increases in both the quality and number of students entering its academic programs. Approximately 360 students enrolled in the 2008-09 academic year and about 400 students are expected in September 2009. The number of graduate program applications submitted for fall 2009 is considerably higher than any of the past five years, which enables the department to be much more selective in its admissions.

Our Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA) and Master of Landscape Architecture programs ranked fifth and fourth respectively, in DesignIntelligence' annual publication "America’s Best Architecture and Design Schools 2009." In the skills and knowledge categories, Texas A&M landscape architecture programs ranked first in planning and analysis, second in computer applications, third in research, fourth in design, and fifth in sustainability. Additionally, the publication named Dr. Michael Murphy and myself among the 25 most admired educators in the nation. This was the second year in a row that Dr. Murphy was so honored.

In March 2009, a three-person accreditation team conducted a site visit for the BLA program. The team's preliminary report indicated that all 10 accreditation standards were met. The final report from the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board is expected in late summer or early fall. Additionally, I am pleased to announce our first cohort of three students in the Bachelor of Science in Urban and Regional Sciences program graduated in May 2009. You may recall that this program was initiated in September 2007. We expect the next cohort to graduate in December. There are 51 students enrolled in the program; enrollment is expected to expand to 100 by September 2009. I am very excited about the quality of the students who are pursuing this degree.

Our new interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Transportation Planning is advancing as planned. President Murano approved the program in August 2008 as a university-wide certificate. Currently, 19 students are enrolled in the program and nine graduated in May 2009. The certificate program is a partnership between the department, Texas Transportation Institute, the Texas A&M Department of Civil Engineering, and the George Bush School of Government and Public Service.

Two of our graduate programs, the Master of Science in Land Development (MSLD) and the Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Science will be reviewed in the fall as a part of ongoing external reviews of all academic programs in the university. A national team of external reviewers will conduct a site visit during the first week of December. We are currently preparing self-study reports in advance of the visit. The department also submitted a major report to the Planning Accreditation Board in February 2009 on behalf of the Master of Urban Planning program and it received the most favorable review possible.

Two new faculty members joined the department in the 2008-09 academic year as tenure-track assistant professors, Dr. Yu Xiao and Dr. Zhifang Wang. We also appointed Michael Teal as an assistant professor of practice in our landscape architecture program. Additionally, Dr. Kent Anderson joined the faculty in September 2008 as an executive associate professor in the MSLD program and we recently hired Geoff Booth as the coordinator of the MSLD program and the Youngblood Endowed Professor of Land Development. He replaces Dr. Atef Sharkawy who retired in January 2009 after distinguished service as the coordinator of the program. Booth will join us in September 2009.

We continue to engage in numerous service learning initiatives coordinated through the department's Partnership for Community Outreach. We strive to engage our students with communities in need of assistance in creative ways. In some instances, these service/learning partnerships provide opportunities for our faculty and students to engage in community-based scholarship and result in the creation of new academic knowledge. This is particularly evident in the long-term relationships we have established with the Beaumont Housing Authority, the Timber Lane Utility District in Spring, Texas, and the Gulf Coast hurricane recovery efforts.

As we approach the next academic year, I express my gratitude for your collective support. I also remind former students and friends of the department that our continued and steady progress in strengthening the quality of our academic, research and engagement programs requires the collective support of students, faculty and staff, as well as our internal and external constituents, especially our professional program advisory boards.

- Dr. Forster Ndubisi