News from School Year 2008-09


Student Planning Conference

The 3rd Annual Planning Student State Conference, sponsored by the Michigan Association of Planning and PLACE, took place at EMU's Student Center of February 6th.



Grad student Adam Cook, host school coordinator, giving a presentation on Detroit planner Charles Blessing.

Over fifty EMU Planning students attended this year's conference and took the opportunity to spend the day with students from other planning schools, to interact with planning professionals, and to hear presentations by both practitioners and other students. A networking lunch, afternoon reception, and mobile tour were all part of the day's activities.



A delicious conference lunch with EMU students David Lewis, Sarah Leaders, Scott Kree and Pedro Justavino, sitting with others.


PLACE visits Cohousing

It was a brutal 10 degrees below zero, but members of the PLACE Planning club toured the Sunward Cohousing community on the west side of Ann Arbor. While sitting warmly inside, Sunward founder Nick Meima gave an inclusive and interesting overview of the Cohousing concept, and students asked him many questions about living in such a community.



Students Jon Liabenow, Dave Waligora, Jen Eschelbach, and Scott Kree with Nick Meima

A quick tour of the Sunward community and a driving tour of two adjacent cohousing developments capped an informative morning.


First Annual Colloquium on
Geography, Society and Environment

Faculty member Bill Welsh has scheduled a series of interesting speakers for this first-ever Colloquium. Check it out.

February 18, 4pm, Room 300 Halle Library
"Health Care Facility Planning in Michigan: Geographic Intrusion into Politics"
Joseph P. Messina, Ph.D. (Geography) Department of Geography and Center for Global Change, MSU

March 4, 4pm, Room 300 Halle Library
"Spatial Analysis and Modeling of Human-Environment Interactions on Land"
Daniel Brown, Ph.D. (Geography), School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan


MAP Conference

Many EMU students and alums attended this year's Michigan Association of Planning (MAP) Conference in Kalamazoo, attending many good sessions. Bob and Norm tended a new EMU Planning Program table and spent most of their time talking with others about the program and renewing acquaintances. On Thursday evening, the EMU gang first went to a party hosted by Phil McKenna (alum), later getting together at Burdick's Bar and Grille. On Friday, Norm joined Dave Schneider (alum), Rocky Ward (professor emeritus), and Jim Schafer (Instructor) for an "old-timers lunch." (shown below)


PLACE visits Cohousing

It was a brutal 10 degrees below zero, but members of the PLACE Planning club toured the Sunward Cohousing community on the west side of Ann Arbor. While sitting warmly inside, Sunward founder Nick Meima gave an inclusive and interesting overview of the Cohousing concept, and students asked him many questions about living in such a community.



Students Jon Liabenow, Dave Waligora, Jen Eschelbach, and Scott Kree with Nick Meima

A quick tour of the Sunward community and a driving tour of two adjacent cohousing developments capped an informative morning.


President's inauguration

It was the day of President Martin's inauguration at EMU. Colin Cusick joined in the festivities at the post-inauguration banquet, and had a chance to meet Sue Martin. Nice work, Colin.

Dave Nicholson

EMU alum Dave Nicholson passed on recently after his battle with cancer. Dave was a great teacher and student of the planning profession.
He was on the Ypsilanti City Council during his undergraduate time at Eastern. He was an intern for Canton Township while he was a graduate student at UofM. He later became Planning and Economic Development Director for Canton before freelancing as a consultant and later joining McKenna and Associates and most recently working for Ypsilanti Township.
Dave will be missed by his many co-workers.

Building Place Notebook

Planning Program Alumnus Rodney Nanney AICP has created a web site including planning information and guidance. It is called the "Building Place Notebook" and includes a section called The Zoning Guru. Have a look when you have a chance.


IGRE Watershed Grant

Through a wide-ranging, innovative $19,000 software development project, the EMU Institute for Geospatial Research and Education (IGRE) and the Wayne County Regional Educational Services Agency (RESA) are enabling teachers and students to learn about Michigan’s many watersheds, a very important topic these days. Yichun Xie, IGRE Director, says, “The project brings middle school and high school teachers and students from urban and rural schools together on a virtual basis to work on the environmental issues revolving around water quality. The system provides the ability to view and map water-quality samples from specific sampling points and then to compare these results to other observations at other locations along the same stream, or for streams in different watersheds. (Shown is Xiaoliang Meng, primary developer of the project.)


TV Promotion

For those of you who haven't been to Strong Hall in quite a while, you might be interested in the TV we had placed in the main entrance. It continously shows a video of the Planning/GIS programs in action.

(Note: If anyone is better at making a video than I am, feel free to use my clips and put together something more professional.
...Norm)


PLACE field trip

PLACE, the Planning student club, went on their first field trip of the school year on November 7. They met with Canton Twp. planners Jeff Goulet and EMU Planning Program alum Angela Wolosiewicz AICP (MS 1989) at Cherry Hill Village and toured the town. Jeff and Angela explained the gnensis of the project, how it has grown, and how, over time, it is developing its own downtown area.

The group continued to downtown Northville for lunch and a tour/visit with McKenna Associates at their office in the Water Wheel building. McKenna provided lunch and described the activities of a large planning firm, with offices throughout the Midwest.
Shown in the photo (front row first, left to right each row): Dave Waligora, Daryl Graus, Steve Holowicki, Bob Jones, Scott Kree, Aaron Flohr, Hidden, Mark Ferrell, Adam Cook, Kevin Fenton (hidden), Greg Peruski, Ron Akers, Vitaly Peker, Sarah Leaders, Kate Rogers

Nina David joins Planning faculty

We are pleased to have Nina David as a new tenure-track member of the Planning faculty. She just completed her PhD at the University of Michigan. Her research topic and specialization is Regional Planning in Michigan. Nina has degrees in Urban and Regional Planning and also Environmental Science from Ohio State University and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Madras University in India. She has taught courses in Metro Growth, Fiscal Planning and Management, Decision Theory for Planning, and Statistics, as well as giving various guest lectures. Her publications and presentations have been largely in the field of regional planning, but in other topics as well.


Welcome Back Party!


Every once in a while, it's time for a party. That time arrived on August 29th! Norm and Ilene Tyler hosted an informal potluck dinner at their house. Over 50 Planning program students, alumni, faculty, spouses and friends joined in for a warm night in the back yard. Daniel Vergun, Courtney Veraldi, Lauren Carlson and Bill Welsh are shown lounging on the lawn chairs.

The party included all the program's faculty, many undergrad and grad students with spouses and friends, quite a few alumni, and eight GIS students freshly arrived from China. The food and drinks were great, including Andrea's penne pasta, Norm's potato salad, drinks from Bob, and a lethal Chinese liquor only someone from that country could love. It was a good start for the year just beginning.