July 1st marks our 3rd anniversary as the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture, created on July 1, 2017, from two former departments with rich histories at UW-Madison. Thanks to all of you for being part of this community and for helping to move this department forward guided by our vision, mission, expectations and commitments around sustainability, equity, inclusion, and place [read more here].
I’ll also take this opportunity to announce emerging plans for an online department town-hall meeting later this month focused on preparation for fall. That will probably occur sometime the week of July 20th.
Fall 2020 classes begin 2 months from tomorrow, and campus is expected to release a revised course catalog on July 20. Across the department we are already examining how and where instruction will occur and what opportunities we can create to interact with each other as a teaching/learning/research/service community. Many of you have already provided input on fall options. Students, the survey in my email last Friday is still open if you’d like to respond. The online town hall will provide us the opportunity to talk about these issues together and share our needs, concerns, ideas, and new questions. We’ll build in some common time together and break out spaces for small-group conversations.
Look for additional information after the holiday.
Also, if you haven’t found the time to read the regular department newsletters this summer, I encourage you to review them when you get the chance. They include useful links to topics of interest, including the resources compiled here: https://dpla.wisc.edu/resources-for-confronting-systemic-bias-and-racism/.
Happy Anniversary DPLA!
Thanks again,
Ken Genskow
Professor and Chair