Letter from the Director

We are now living in what some urbanists have declared to be the urban century. In the year 2000, an estimated 50% of the world's population lived in cities. By 2020, the estimate is that 60% or more of the world's population will live in cities. The challenges associated with making these urban places locations of choice rather than merely locations of economic necessity are many, and they pose complex and in many cases never-before solved problems.

Others have identified cities as being the signature achievement of human beings. Cities, after all, exist to facilitate person-to-person interaction, and from that interaction comes uniquely human forms of creativity and creative accomplishment.

Paying attention to urban phenomena, to cities and their metropolitan regions, means paying attention to the most basic aspects of human and societal evolution. Placed before us is a set of crucial questions: are we becoming more mature as a community? A region? A society? A species? What does the state of our urban environment say about who we are and what we're becoming?

These themes represent the kinds of concerns that the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning expects its programs, graduates, and faculty to engage. We envision ourselves as part of a global effort to better understand urban places and the state of urbanity, and to prepare planners, researchers, activists, and citizens to be fully engaged in understanding, making, and remaking urban places in sustainable, socially just, politically responsible, and rewarding ways.

If you share these interests, we hope you'll choose to join us. The Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University is the nation's oldest continuously operating instructional program in urban studies. Our Masters in Urban and Regional Planning program is fully accredited by the Planning Accreditation Board of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), American Planning Association (APA), and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP).

Our Ph.D. and Masters in Urban Studies students pursue education and research directed at achieving a fundamental understanding of urban areas and their communities. Our undergraduate Community Development degree prepares students to work with communities to promote the social, economic, political and physical well being of the community.

All of our programs are strengthened by the ability to draw on the resources of other units in the College: the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government, the School of Community Health, as well as the research and service centers located within the School, College, and university.

To learn more about our School's programs and activities, please take the time to browse our web site. If you have questions about our programs, aims, or plans, please contact me at (503) 725-4045 or seltzere@pdx.edu.

Thanks!

Ethan Seltzer