News from School Year 04-05

New faculty member coming in Fall

William Welsh has been accepted for a new faculty position for Fall 2005. Dr. Welsh is a specialist in Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis, and will also teach GIS and Environmental courses in the department. He has been teaching at the University of North Carolina, and is conducting remote sensing field work in Ecuador this summer.

We look forward to his joining our faculty in the department.

International Planning Awareness Day

PLACE’s annual event, International Planning Awareness Day, was held on Tuesday, the 22nd of March. The club assembled a panel of three people to present their international experiences. Their presentations shed light on the multitude of fundamental differences in the urban geographies of different parts of the world. Carlo Camilloni talked about Rome, Andrew Armbruster looked at Chinese cities, and Norm Tyler illustrated some of the experiences students could have traveling in Africa. There was free food with dishes from around the world to compliment the evening.

PLACE Field Trip

The Planning Awareness Club of Eastern hosted a field trip on Friday, 18 February, to the City of Flint, MI. Many more details can be found on the PLACE website at www.emich.edu/studentorgs/place.


Yichun Xie becomes
Interim Department Head

For almost a year, the Department of Geography and Geology has been without a department head, and has been administered by the Department of Physics and Astronomy. On January 3rd, the department head position was restored on an interim basis, and Yichun Xie was selected from the available faculty to assume this position for at least 18 months. Yichun has a good knowledge of the EMU administration, and his leadership abilities should serve the department well during a period of rebuilding.

World Town Planning Day

On Thursday evening, November 11, there was special event recognizing World Town Planning Day. The Urban Planning Student Association (UPSA) of the University of Michigan and the Planning Awareness Club of Eastern (PLACE) of EMU co-hosted an evening of "Planners talking about planning." Seventy students, alumni and faculty of EMU attended the event at the North Campus location on the University of Michigan campus.

Three planners, two from EMU and one from UofM, shared the podium and talked about their transition from being a student to becoming a professional. Keith Edwards, now a planner for Grand Blanc Township and formerly city planner for Birmingham, Michigan, discussed the activities of a typical planner on a typical day. Michael Scholl, a planner with Juergensen and Associates of Detroit, gave a humorous, personalized account of his transition into the career. Rodney Nanney, of McKenna Associates, discussed the top five things your planning professor never told you.

A social hour preceded the presentations, with food provided compliments of Lauren Horton and Ashleys Restaurant in Ann Arbor. A tour of the UofM facilities also was included.

EMU students Seth Rivard, Brandy Bakita, Ben Miller, Ingrid Ault and Justin Snyder enjoy the Gallery at the U of M planning department.

For information, email PLACE president Andrew Armbruster at an_an@sbcglobal.net.

H.P. Blog

Speaking of online, EMU Historic Preservation student Devon Akmon has put up a wonderful blog on topics he's interested in. It's full of good stuff. Give it a look at http://formandfunction.blogspot.com/

Alumni Update Bulletin Board

Jennifer Black (BS 2003) is now in the Urban Planning grad program at Wayne State University. She also has obtained her "dream job" as Main Street Manager in the City of Monroe. On top of that, she will soon be getting married to a grad student at Wayne. Congratulations all around, Jennie!

Kristine (Inman) Goddard (BS 2001) writes us from Pelham, Alabama, where she is now involved with Shelby County as a Long Range Planner. Contact here at kgoddard@shelbycountyalabama.net.

Kristine writes she is pleased that one of her classmates, Genevieve Smith (BS 2001) has found a great job as a Transportation Planner with the Federal Highway Administration, based out the the Louisiana Division in Baton Rouge. She is in a two-year training/travel program to learn best practices. Last time we talked, it was 10 degrees in Michigan and 80 degrees in Baton Rouge. You can contact her at genevieve.smith@fhwa.dot.gov.

Chris Norman (BS 2000), who always loved construction and rebuilt a historic house in downtown Ypsi, now works for a timber framing company in Port Townsend, Washington. He intends to go to grad school soon to study historic preservation. (normanpres@yahoo.com)

After working as a city planner for the City of Fort Myers, Florida, Amy (Bavin) Pintus (BS 1999) is now in the private sector working as a planner with Johnson Engineering in the same area. (apintus@johnsoneng.com)

Chad Jacobs (BS 2000) has taken a position as Senior Planner with Spalding County, Georgia. (cjacobs@spaldingcounty.com)

Tracy Mullins (MS 2003), maybe best known as the program's golf outing coordinator in 2002, is now a Community Analyst with Powell Fragala and Associates in Lakeland, Florida. (tracy@pfaplanners.com)

The couple of Jim Reardon (MS 2004) and Michelle (Cousineau) Reardon (BS 2003) (also a successful golf outing coordinator) have taken up residence in Lansing. Jim works as a Local Emergency Planner with the Michigan State Police and Michelle as Assistant Planner in Clinton County. (jdreardon@sbcglobal.net; ml_reardon@sbcglobal.net)

 Have more info on alums of the programs. Email Norm at ntyler@emich.edu and I'll share it on this bulletin board.

Alumni Update Bulletin Board

Here is a spot that will give regular updates on program alumni, where they are now and what they're doing

Michael Kanaby (BS

Andrew Armbruster (BS 2005) has taken up residence in China, and loves it there. He sent a picture of himself on his new electricycle. You can check on his activities at his entensive personal web site.

Xinyue Ye (MS in GIS 2004) is now working on a PhD at San Diego State University.

Fritz Porter (MS 1994), architect/planner, is now taking horticulture classes at College of DuPage, an interesting shift from his long professional career.

Preservation Planning alum Renee Tavares wrote to tell us she has a position as Planning Director/Historic Preservationist in Jerome, Arizona

Jill Murray (BS 2002) is completing her Masters degree in Chicago, working in Winnetka and planning to get married in May '06. Congrats and good luck.

Dave Schneider has bought a "fix-up" house along the Detroit? river and is, not surprisingly, now in the process of fixing it up. He's experiencing the thrill of discovery as he takes out walls.

Andre Stone (BS 2005) has gained a permanent position as a planner for Okenogan County in Northcentral Washington State. He is living in a rural town with a population of 2,000 and is surrounded by beautiful country.

Justin Snyder (MS Planning, 2004) has moved from Iowa to a planning position in Columbia County, Augusta, Georgia. We expect to hear more from him as he settles in.

The student Planning club is proud to announce the 4th edition of the PLACE Journal, an online publication showcasing articles and work of EMU Planning Program students, alumni and faculty. It is available at: http://www.emich.edu/public/geo/PLACE.Journal4.pdf
(Note: It may take a while for the download.)

You also can download Editions 2 and 3 as .pdf files at http://www.emich.edu/public/geo/PLACE.Journal2.pdf and http://www.emich.edu/public/geo/PLACE.Journal3.pdf

.