News from School Year 2007-08

Planning Student of the Year-
Jennifer Bruen

Jenny Bruen has been one of those special students who has contributed in so many ways to the success of the Planning Program and its students during the past year. In addition to a busy family life and her studies as a graduate student obtaining her Planning degree and a Certificate in Historic Preservation, she has led a very active role as president of the Planning Awareness Club of Eastern (PLACE). Her activities as president have been too many to describe in detail, but a simple listing of them gives recognition to her contribution during the past year.

- Led student weekend trip to Chicago, with tour of green buildings, new projects and the loop.
- Organized group of students to attend annual conference of Michigan Association of Planning in Traverse City.
- Planned student field trip to see Detroit riverfront projects and meet with a planner.
- Student visit in Ann Arbor to see a "green" project and also visit a local planning firm.
- Encouraged students to attend Planning Student state conference in East Lansing.
- Worked with Erik Dotzauer on continuing the Planning Program's Mentoring Program.
- Established Monday evenings at the Corner Brewery social time.
- Worked with other club officers to establish a constitution for PLACE and its recognition as an official campus student organization.
- Planned a club ski trip to Boyne Mountain.
- Set up a Dodgeball competition with other student clubs.
- Worked with Adam Cook to reestablish publication of the PLACE Journal, a student-run planning journal.

As is evident, Jenny's leadership has led to a very successful year for PLACE, and many Planning/GIS students have benefited. Hopefully she has stimulated other students to follow in her footsteps.

Bob Jones appointed Interim Department Head

Planning faculty member Bob Jones will serve as department head for Geography and Geology throughout the remainder of this academic year and 2008-2009. Yichun Xie removed himself from this position because of the great number of grants he now needs to administer through the Institute for Geospatial Research and Education (IGRE). Beginning in the Fall semester, a national search will begin for a new permanent department head.

IGRE grant

A National Science Foundation award of $889,753 is supporting a three-year project to develop the Detroit Mayor’s Youth Technology Corps (MYTC). Collaborating with our own Institute for Geospatial Research and Education in this broad-based, wide-ranging effort are the Detroit Public Schools, the City of Detroit Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and the Environmental System Research Institute, Inc.
“MYTC-Detroit will provide two cohorts of 100 high school students from Detroit with training and hands-on practice in a variety of Information Technology management tools,” says Project Director Yichun Xie of Geography and Geology.

Brownfields research project

Professor Bill Welsh has received a two-year Michigan Sea Grant to conduct an integrated assessment of brownfield redevelopment efforts within the coastal areas of Michigan to determine what makes some projects more successful than others. The work will include evaluation of economic, social, environmental, public policy, and other variables associated with coastal brownfield redevelopment. The information collected will be entered into a GIS database that will permit ready access to locational and other data on the projects, as well as information on their level of success.


PLanning Awareness Club of Eastern

PLACE has set up a number of great activities for the Winter semester. We encourage you to make all of them you can, since such activities will introduce you to planners and projects throughout the region.

Thursday through Saturday, March 20-22: The club took a trip to Chicago to tour the downtown on Friday and meet with planners and alums.

Club members and anyone else are welcome to meet at the Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti on the 3rd Monday of the month. Join the group at about 8:00 pm. It is located at the corner of River and Norris Streets, just north of Depot Town.

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The club sponsored a number of interesting activities during the Fall semester. A student field trip to Detroit toured Detroit's river area and included a visit with a professional planner on Grosse Isle.

A second field trip included a tour of a "green" building, the Mallets Creek Library in Ann Arbor, lunch at a local coffee shop, and an office visit at Carlisle-Wortman Associates.

Also, many students and faculty came to a holiday party at the home of Bob Jones.

About a dozen students attended the Michigan Planning Student State Conference, which took place this year at Michigan State University. Sessions included presentations by professional planners, presentations by students, and one-on-one mentoring with students. A field trip to three current development projects in Lansing, led by the city's mayor, wrapped up the afternoon and led to the evening's party at a downtown restaurant and bar. Next year's conference will be hosted by EMU's Planning Program. The Michigan Association of Planning is looking for volunteers to help in its planning. Let us know if you're interested.

PLACE is the student club for Urban and Regional Planning and GIS undergrad and grad students. This year the president is Jenny Bruen. Other club officers are Erik Dotzauer, Kristin Hatfield and Jessica Corsi. Any student can become a member simply by attending club meetings; there is no membership fee. For information, contact Jenny Bruen at jbruenplanning@hotmail.com.

Kristin (Hatfield) Delaney has set up a terrific blog for PLACE, with much more news about activities. You can find it at http://emu-place.blogspot.com/

Planning Studio Presentations

Both the undergraduate and graduate Planning Studio classes gave presentations on Wednesday, April 23rd. Students in the undergraduate studio presented a variety of schemes for the Water Street Redevelopment Area in Ypsilanti, including this one by Sandon Lettieri.

The graduate studio presented a single concept for a block in the Lowertown district of Ann Arbor. Attending were representatives from city council, the planning department, the Downtown Development Authority, the Department of Geography and Geology, and local residents.

David meets Andrew in Shanghai

This note came from David Schleg, who recently visited alumnus Andrew Armbruster.

I was able to meet Andrew Armbruster and his girlfriend Xiu Xiu for a very nice Saturday night meal. I was at my limits regarding native Chinese food (as was my stomach), so Andrew, Xiu Xiu and my friends Dr. and Mrs. Aquino let me treat them to Italian at a nice restaurant which overlooked the Bund.

Andrew is doing very well from all we discussed and I was very impressed by his insight and drive concerning living and working in Shanghai. Although I only e-mailed him a few times before my trip and only met him for our dinner, I think it was a reflection of our EMU program (staff, students and alumni) that we got along very well from the beginning of the evening until we departed later that night. There is a great fellowship and common bond when you meet a fellow EMU Planning person that I think is truly special.

Hugh Semple now GIS adviser

The adviser for all GIS students no longer will be Norm Tyler, but will be Hugh Semple, beginning immediately. Norm will be transferring all files to Hugh and he will sign off on applications for both admission and graduation, your Program of Study, course substitutions, and all other program administrative activities. Norm will remain the adviser to undergrad and grad Planning students.

Donovan Rypkema in special presentation

Donovan Rypkema, the nationally recognized expert on economic development and historic preservation, is making a special community-wide presentation in Ann Arbor on June 11th. We have heard this dynamic speaker described variously as the "rock star of preservation," "the guru of preservation economics," and even "the big kahuna."

Find out more at the Rypkema presentation web site.

Chicago Trip

Students have returned from a PLACE sponsored trip to Chicago from March 20th to 22nd. Most of them rode in the MegaBus which travels non-stop from Ann Arbor to Union Station in downtown Chicago. They especially enjoyed being able to use the Metro transit system to travel around the area.

The first morning they toured the Morse Theater and had a special tour of its "green" design features as explained by the project architect. Although the day was cold and snowy, they went on a long walking tour of the loop with alumnus Jeff Schroeder, who lives and works in the city. Dinner that day was Chicago Style pizza, in quantities that made some of them sick. But not so sick they couldn't stay up until 3am.


Front left: David Lewis, Shamus Bruen, Sarah Leaders, Chris Fellows, Jeff Schroeder, Jerrue Purnell, Will Grapentine, Daniel Vergun
Behind: Jenny Bruen, Courtney Veraldi, Nathan Isydorek, David Waligora

The 13 students and alums making the trip enjoyed the two days in the Windy City. The officers of PLACE want to thank the individuals who generously gave financial support directly to students for the club's trip, contributing over $400. Contributors included...

Michelle Aniol, McKenna Associates
David Schleg, City of Dallas
Sherrie Pryor, City of Plymouth
Joe Lawson, Ypsilanti Township
Leslie Kettren, City of Adrian
Brian Gross, City of Cleveland
Norm Tyler, EMU

Faculty party

Yes, once in a while even the faculty have fun. Shown above participating in the wine tasting at the department's annual holiday party are (clockwise from left) Mike Bradley, Laura Buhl's husband Pablo, Yichun Xie, Sandra Rutherford's husband Tom, Sandra, Ilene Tyler and Tom Wagner.

Norm...

Bob Jones talk on Sustainability

Faculty member Bob Jones gave a talk entitled "Urban Sprawl, Brownfield Redevelopment and Sustainable Communities" on Monday, Feb. 11th at 6:00 in Room 352 at the Student Center. It was part of EMU's "Green Week."


Norm Tyler & Ted Ligibel awardees

Faculty members Norm Tyler and Ted Ligibel represented the Michigan Historic Preservation Network as Board members at this year's annual conference of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Network received national distinction as Preservation Organization of the Year.


Bob Jones presentation on brownfields

Faculty member Bob Jones recently presented at the annual national conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. His topic was, "State Initiatives and Local Land Use Controls: Brownfield Redevelopment 'Success' in a Home Rule State."

Form an Alumni Chapter?

Andrew Armbruster (BS 2004) asked the following question. Maybe someone would like to follow up?

I was signing up for the EMU Alumni Association and found out that our program does not have an Alumni Chapter. It would be great if we could get one started, especially since we have such a strong unofficial alumni network. I’m wondering if you would be able to pass such an idea on to our alumni network to see if there’s sufficient interest.


Laura Buhl joins staff

Faculty and students of the Urban and Regional Planning Programs welcome Laura Buhl as a full-time lecturer in the Planning program, beginning with the Fall semester. Laura comes from Oregon, where she was an Associate Planner with the Wasco County Planning Department in the beautiful Columbia Gorge area of Oregon State. She also has experience as editor of a research services journal, a housing program assistant, and a school teacher for three years in Punta Arenas, Chile. She has degrees in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon and in American Studies from Mills College in Oakland, California. We welcome Laura to the great Midwest and to campus.

Scholarships and Awards

GPA Awards:

This year five senior students in the undergraduate Planning Program received department academic awards for an overall GPA of 3.5 or better.

Jessica Tenbusch, Emily Smith, Josh Eikenberry and Jacqueline Rais (shown above celebrating at the Awards Picnic) and Mark Hartmann.

Scholarships:

Four students received scholarships from the Robert M. Ward Scholarship Fund, sponsored by PLACE. The four recipients were Christopher Fellows, Kristin Hatfield, Aaron Stryker and Kathryn Youra.


Graduate School Awards:

Two of the graduate students from the Urban and Regional Planning Program have recently received university awards. Ken Bouchard received the Brenner Scholarship, giving recognition for his service as a graduate assistant. At the same awards ceremony, Jennifer Bruen received a University Fellowship. Congratulations to both; they deserve it.

Planning jobs are growing...

This article came from the July 26th edition of Newsweek magazine.

With environmental issues increasingly center stage in the public consciousness, the demand for 'green' jobs -- such as urban planners -- is growing quickly. "Graduates of the class of 2007 are finding the job market is receptive to those who want to do good by the environment. As public awareness of global warming grows, companies are scrambling to put in place greener practices, to present themselves as more eco-friendly and to develop products and services to fill a new demand for all things green. The phenomenon is creating jobs in fields like urban planning, carbon trading, green building and environmental consulting. "The environmental job market is the strongest that it's been in many years," says Kevin Doyle, president of the Boston-based consulting company Green Economy Inc. and coauthor of "The ECO Guide to Careers That Make a Difference." The labor market for recent grads is strong overall. "The biggest factor is that the baby boomers are retiring," says John Esson, director of the Baltimore-based Environmental Careers Center. But green jobs are growing especially quickly-at double-digit rates in some specialties, like consulting. The fastest-growing professions, according to Doyle's analysis of recent U.S. Department of Labor figures, include environmental engineers, hydrologists, environmental-health scientists and urban and regional planners."

URISA Salaries Study

The Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) published a report recently on salaries for GIS practitioners. What they found...

On average, survey respondents earned $60,050 in 2006. Consultants experienced the greatest average increase (from an average of $71,280 in 2003 to a current average annual salary of $96,786). Certified GIS Professionals (GISPs) earn, on average, nearly $9,000 more per year compared to those who are not certified $66,308 vs. $57,669). Most respondents (63.7%) were employed within some level of government and held GIS-related job titles (84.6%), such as GIS Manager, GIS Analyst, GIS Coordinator, etc. On average, respondents have an average of 14 years of professional experience and 10 years of GIS professional experience. The average age of those responding was 39 years. Jobs require them to be at least somewhat proficient with a variety of GIS software. ESRI products were most popular. The leaders included ArcGIS (91.2%), SDE/GeoDatabase (47.9%), ESRI Extensions ­ Network Analyst, 3D Analyst, Spatial Analyst (46.2%), ArcIMS (37.9%), ArcView (34.3%), and ArcPad (26.7%).