"One of the major reasons for our achieving accreditation at this point is that the program has only recently grown to sufficient size in terms of faculty, program areas and graduate student enrollment."
Ray Bromley, Chair |
By Vinny Reda The University at Albany's master's in urban and regional planning (MRP) program has long been successful in preparing highly trained graduate students for professional careers. Now, the 48-credit program has achieved an important academic distinction: full accreditation from the Planning Accreditation Board, the sole national accrediting body for planning. It becomes one of only 60 programs so designated nationally by PAB, whose accreditation program is a cooperative undertaking sponsored jointly by the American Institute of Certified Planners, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, and the American Planning Association. Only planning programs at Cornell and Columbia universities, and Hunter College of CUNY, represent the northeast region, in addition now to UAlbany. �One of the major reasons for our achieving accreditation at this point is that the program has only recently grown to sufficient size in terms of faculty, program areas and graduate student enrollment,� said Ray Bromley, chair of the Department of Geography and Planning. Bromley noted that the core planning faculty members consist of himself, MRP program director Tom Daniels, and Cliff Ellis, plus a junior faculty position currently being filled. �We also have a large and distinguished pool of associated faculty from within the University teaching the program,� said Bromley, �as well as adjunct faculty from professional practice in the region.� Many of the program�s 50 current students will themselves wind up in professional practice, if history is any guide. Since its founding in 1982, MRP has graduated 177 students, with more than 90 percent of them now working in planning or planning-related jobs. Student participation at Albany in in-depth regional planning studies — called �planning studios� — has been a key in preparing the master�s students for professional success. �The students regard these projects with the utmost seriousness because they are meant to become part of their professional portfolios,� said Professor Cliff Ellis, who has served as the students� chief instructor on the majority of the planning studios. The yearly published studies have produced five straight �Outstanding Student Project� Awards from the New York State division of the American Planning Association (APA). �We've been told by the APA's judges that these are professional-quality assessments,� said Ellis. �There is no doubt that outreach is critical to what we do and how we prepare our students for professional careers.� An assessment of Main Street in the Town and Village of Schoharie and one of the Albany Street commercial corridor in Schenectady were the last two MRP projects — and APA-award winners. In 1997, the program made a preliminary study of enhancement and coordination for a Champlain Canal Trail scenic byway, to run from Waterford north to Whitehall. The year before was devoted to dealing with preservation of the Battenkill Watershed. In 1995, the team concentrated on planning alternatives for north central Troy. Said Pete Lopez, chairman of the Schoharie Revitalization Committee: �Through participation in the Rural New York Grant Program, and with the support of the state Planning Federation, we were fortunate to tap UAlbany's planning studio to advance our Main Street revitalization effort.� �Our intent going into the project was to develop a working document to guide local efforts. Professor Ellis and his students took this charge seriously. The blueprint for action they produced will serve the community for years to come.� Cindy Allen, chair of the steering committee on the Saratoga and Washington counties effort to enhance the Champlain Corridor, said, �the UAlbany planning team jump-started us by a couple of years. They gave us a tremendous amount of technical assistance and preliminary study. They prepared us for the presentation to the municipalities and they identified the resources we had available to us.� �They really brought us to the point of getting in to the Department of Transportation management process long before we otherwise would have. I am now very hopeful that the Champlain Canal Trail Scenic Byway will receive official designation in March.� |
