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The Board of Regents approved a new graduate degree in bioregional planning and community design April 17 that allows students to build sustainable communities across the state.
The program will use classes and studios to educate graduate students while providing opportunities for independent research it aims to better communities in Idaho and improve awareness of sustainable practices, said program director Steven Hollenhorst.
Besides the unique feature of being a planning degree at University of Idaho, Hollenhorst said one of the greatest features of the program is its interdisciplinary approach at designing better communities. Participating departments are: architecture, agricultural economics and rural sociology, conservation social sciences, environmental science, geography, health, physical education, recreation and dance, landscape architecture and political science.
“We can really bring unique design to planning,” Hollenhorst said. “We think more effective plans can come out of it.”
Graduate students pursuing the new degree will be put into teams and coordinate with communities to develop a bioregional atlas, which will describe their cultural and ecological needs. Students will then have to choose an individual project, such as a thesis, as part of the Learning Practice Collaborative process.
“These real world problems become a context for learning for these students,” Hollenhorst said. “Some of these projects will be years long.”
The BRC selected five integrative initiatives to share $5.5 million over five years in the strategic investments program and were chosen because of their focus on themes covered in UI President Tim White’s Plan for Renewal, including the new degree.
As a land grant university, Paul McCawley, the associated director of Extension and one of the authors for the bioregional program, said the school has a “special responsibility to serve this state that no other university has.”
The Extension program acts as an outreach tool, he said, and will facilitate the graduate program in connecting with communities. The Extension program is currently working with 14 rural communities in North Idaho for the Idaho Horizons project, a community leadership program funded by the Northwest Area Foundation.
“Where the local needs and priorities are relevant to classes and students and faculty on campus, then our goal is to bring (them) out to the communities,” McCawley said. “Some communities want to build a community center... some want business development. As they come up with those needs and lists, we are a part of that conversation.”
The BPCD program attracted 10 graduate students last fall, said Hollenhorst.
These will be the students to address the needs of the first communities, working with the city of Plummer and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. In Plummer, the community wants to grow, he said, and the students are currently working on commercializing a street to create an “anchor or center for the community.”
“Part of this whole process is listening and learning what these communities want. Hopefully the designs our students come up with will be in sync with what that community wants,” Hollenhorst said.
After the program has been in operation for five years and graduated 25 students, the program will be able to apply for accreditation. Students who graduate from the program will receive accreditation when the application is approved.
“People will know that we’re trying to do that,” he said. “Students could let their prospective employers know what we’re doing.”
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