Programme Updates PLANNING

by Walter Jamieson (Programme Director)

The Planning Programme started its life in the Faculty as the Urbanism Programme. The original designers of the Faculty reflected the view that the programme's concern was to deal with a wide range of human settlement issues and not only the more conventional land use concerns that had dominated much of planning practice in earlier times. The programme was most successful in placing students in a wide range of employment areas because of the interdisciplinary perspective that they brought to various situations in both the urban as well as the rural realm. Very quickly, graduates began to obtain responsible positions across the country as well as internationally. In recognition of changing times, the name of the programme was changed to the Urban and Regional Planning Programme and with the change came a more structured curriculum. That particular change served us very well until we entered another era where students began to work in a wide range of areas outside the conventional confines of urban and regional planning. Students began to get jobs with a number of NGO's and were working in social, economic and community development as well as in innovative areas of sustainable design and planning. The name of the Programme was changed to Planning which brings us to the present day. The Programme is presently involved in a process of planning for change and is assessing a range of options in order to ensure that the Programme continues to be an innovative one, able to respond to a wide range of societal forces. There is no doubt that the nature of learners will change, that we will have to become involved in lifelong learning, that we will be dealing with a different range of issues than we have in the past, but that the overall intent of equipping practitioners that are able to work in an integrated and interdisciplinary environment will remain as a central objective. We recently went through a major assessment by the Alberta Association Canadian Institute of Planners and were accredited for another period of time. The profession made a series of recommendations, but in an overall sense, the programme met the criteria established by the profession. Bill Perks will be retiring in September of 1996 with subsequent retirements by Phil Elder and Don Detomasi in July of 1997. The loss of these important and senior members of our Programme will be felt and much of our planning is now looking at how we can continue to provide quality education with fewer resources. The Programme views this as a challenge and an opportunity and with the growing opportunities provided by technology and new access to resources in other places, we are confident that we can meet the new societal forces. Anyone interested in being kept aware of the Process of Planning for Change in the Planning Programme are encouraged to contact me and we will periodically send you minutes or reports of our discussions.

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