Greetings Toulan School friends,
Summer is upon us! I hope this newsletter finds you well and enjoying some restorative time in this hot, sunny weather - idling on a beach, hiking on a trail or tending to your garden. The 2024/25 academic year wrapped up just a couple of weeks ago, so let me take a moment and talk about some ways we celebrated the end of this long and challenging year.
We celebrated our 2025 graduates at the CUPA Commencement held on campus at Viking Pavilion on June 13. For the first time in the College’s history, we held an “all-CUPA” event that honored both undergraduates and graduates, across all five of CUPA’s academic units. Over 80 Toulan School graduates from our Community Development and Community, Urban Studies and Planning undergraduate majors, Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP), and Urban Studies masters and doctoral programs took part. A big congratulations to all those who graduated this year - it is a tremendous achievement for which we are quite proud. (You can see photos of the event here.)
Spring is also a busy and exciting time when students are wrapping up and defending their dissertations, theses and Planning Workshop projects. This academic year we had a total of five Urban Studies doctoral dissertations and two master’s theses defended - the culmination of many years of work for both students and their advisors. And on June 2nd a full house of over 100 people watched the 2025 MURP Planning Workshop final presentations. Five workshop teams presented on five months of work with community-based and public-sector clients in the Portland metro region. Great work, everyone!
Yet another Spring term tradition: awards. This year two Toulan School faculty were recognized for outstanding contributions in the classroom. Teaching Assistant Professor Dr. Moriah McSharry McGrath received the Excellence Award for Non-Tenure Track Instructional Faculty, a campus-wide award. And Senior Instructor Norene Hough was honored as the Toulan School’s Outstanding Teacher of the Year for 2024/25. Congratulations Moriah and Norene!
Finally, I want to say farewell and good luck to Jackie Krantz, who has served as our Communications Assistant for the past two years. She has played an instrumental role in helping to produce our social media posts and content for our quarterly newsletter, including these two recent feature pieces. Thanks for all your contributions to the Toulan School!
I hope you have a relaxing summer and I look forward to seeing you in September for the start of the new school year!
Sincerely,
Greg Schrock, PhD
Associate Professor and School Director