UC to Become Planning Powerhouse
Doctoral Program to Focus on Real-Life Needs

The past months in California might go down in history as the "California energy rush" as that state scrambles for reliable electricity as feverishly as prospectors mined its rivers for gold in 1849.

Though it's too soon to tell how California's hunt for new sources of energy will pan out and whether its dimming economic prospects will stretch into the long term, UC is planning now to make Ohio's future more secure when it comes to meeting the varied needs of industry and residents.

Through a proposed doctoral program in planning, likely to begin the fall of 2002, UC aims to help Ohio reach its full potential. According to David Edelman, director of the School of Planning, the new program will focus on research and education to understand and resolve economic decline or restructuring, unemployment, sprawl, declining infrastructure, air and water quality as well as energy needs. In promoting business retention, the establishment of new businesses, sensible housing and transportation and a better quality of life, the new doctoral program would work closely with regional, county, metropolitan and municipal groups and organizations

"Economic development is rightly a high priority for the government in Ohio. That's a big part of what planners do -- research, prepare for and help implement economic development, meet transportation needs, and develop health and environmental safeguards. Our priority would be to focus on problems of the rust belt," Edelman said, adding that UC's grads form the majority of professional planners in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana while other grads find employment across the nation and around the world.

The new doctoral program will combine with UC's undergraduate and master's programs in planning to propel the university toward the very top of planning programs. Already, UC's undergraduate planning program is the largest in Ohio and the only one nationally that requires students to co-op. It is well regarded nationally, and UC's planning faculty and students are routinely called upon for their expertise by a wide array of overseas clients.

According to planning alumnus Carl Patton, president of Georgia State University. "The DAAP (College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning) planning programs are well respected and are known to produce strong practitioners. The international component of the program is also recognized widely."

UC's efforts to increase its planning offering comes at a time when the profession is growing in importance as more and more people live in cities. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of planning jobs in the U.S. rose by 5.3 percent from the second quarter of 1999 to the second quarter of 2000. "Planning as a profession is in hot demand," said Edelman. "In the last few years, any one of our planning graduates who has looked for a job found one. This is true for both our undergraduates and graduate students. Planning is one of the fastest growing fields in the U.S."

In addition to adding the Ph.D. option to UC's planning program, Edelman is adding to recruitment efforts to draw the region's most talented students into the profession. Roger Barry, professor of planning, helped to implement articulation agreements with regional community colleges including Columbus State, Cincinnati State and Sinclair Community College as well as with the Kentucky community colleges. Soon, the School of Planning will have similar agreements with an Indiana and West Virginia community college. The next step, says Edelman, is identifying a community college with a large percentage of Hispanic students to draw from as part of the school's commitment to encourage diversity in the profession.

Explained Edelman, "On average, about half of each entering graduate class each year is comprised of women. Currently at UC, about 20 percent of our graduate planning students are African American. The profession needs a broad spectrum of America within its ranks, and that's why we want to extend this representation to our undergraduate program and begin recruiting more Hispanic students too."