WILL SEBERGER/Arizona Daily Wildcat Barbara Becker, director of the School of Planning, reviews some of the letters written to the UA in the last several months in support of the school. The school's future has been threatened for more than a year and may soon be eliminated.

School offers projects that benefit the community as students learn the trade

The binders on a shelf in Barbara Becker's office look ordinary, and at first glance, so do the papers inside. But Becker says their contents possess the potential to change cities, to alter their appearance and even improve the quality of life for their citizens.

Becker heads the School of Planning, and the binders contain proposals for, among other concepts, an economic development plan for Hopi Indians and methods for

keeping rural housing affordable in Southeastern Arizona.

Such projects would cost the communities many thousands of dollars if a professional planning firm conducted them. But they're part of the curriculum for planning students, who only charge to cover their own costs. So while the planning students learn their craft, they do work with benefits that Arizonans can feel.

"That's a nice feeling that we haven't just done this as an exercise," Becker said. "We take that opportunity to actually make a difference in communities around the state."

When Becker and others associated with the school speak publicly about its benefits, they often tout these projects as evidence of its value in the community.

And they question why top administrators are going ahead with plans for the school's closure. President Peter Likins and Provost George Davis proposed eliminating the school a little more than a year ago in an effort to narrow the university's mission. Despite vocal opposition both on and off campus, they say they aren't likely to change their minds.

Serving the state

About 45 minutes east of Tucson lies the town of Benson. It doesn't look like much ÷ it only takes about five minutes to drive from the old bowling alley at one end of town to the train station at the other.

About 5,000 people call Benson home today, but planners expect the area's population to explode within coming decades, a phenomenon that brings with it the need for careful city planning.

WILL SEBERGER/Arizona Daily Wildcat Max Benson, planning graduate student, is graduating in May, but worries for other planning students in the event that planning is cut entirely from the UA lineup.

Planning graduate student Max Benson, who worked with the Cochise County Housing Authority to develop an affordable housing plan for that area, said the town's population will likely skyrocket within 30 years.

Towns can't absorb such growth without a development plan, and William Kannenn, the county housing authority's executive director, said Benson and Becker both played critical roles in creating those plans.

Closing the school, he said, would cripple the university's ability to help the community in similar ways.

"Having an institution here locally is very important to the southern portion of this state," said Kannenn.

Tasks like the economic development proposal are typical jobs for planners, who deal with allocating resources within communities. Planners help cities create guidelines for using and developing land, preserving the environment, developing their economies, among other issues related to quality of life.

"Everything that makes a city work has been planned," Becker said. "You'll find planners at all levels of government."

Sometimes, though, those governments need help, and they can't always afford the fees a professional firm might charge. That's where UA students like Benson come in.

All planning students are required to take a projects class, where they conduct outreach to local communities in need of planners. Recently, that class created a long-term plan for Green Valley, which has a large retirement community south of Tucson. That project was nominated for the Arizona Planning Association's 2003 award.

Four other student projects since 1999 have also won awards on a university, state or national level.

When Becker pulls out the binder containing an economic development plan for a 200-acre plot of Hopi Indian land near Winslow in northeastern Arizona, she's quick to point out the Hopi are still following it, five years after its completion.

That plan won two awards, including best student project from the American Institute of Certified Planners.

"Plans aren't just something that sit on a shelf," she said.

Limited resources

For the past 14 months, the planning school has waited on the academic equivalent of death row, hoping for a reprieve few people expect to come.

Supporters of the school began to worry in January 2003, when Likins and Davis placed the school on a list of programs they wanted to eliminate under Focused Excellence, a plan to narrow the UA's mission and emphasize fewer academic disciplines.

Planning was vulnerable, they said, because it offers only a master's degree and receives little outside funding.

"There hasn't been the kind of stability in programming to develop the excellence that we expect," Davis said at a town hall last fall.

Likins and Davis don't disagree that the school provides valuable service to the community. But they emphasize that the UA, with its limited funds and resources, can't solve all of society's problems.

Arizona State University also offers a similar program, Likins said. That's a reason they've cited not just for their planning decision, but for the Medical Technology Program, which also faces closure this year.

Likins and Davis' announcement prompted a slew of letter-writing on behalf of the school, and an onslaught of students and supporters began attending public forums and Arizona Board of Regents meetings dressed in red shirts reading, "Save the School of Planning."

Having an institution here locally is very important to the southern portion of the state. ÷ William Kannenn, county housing authority's executive director

Now, planning supporters are fixtures at those meetings. When regents met at the UA the week before spring break, dozens of people donned their red shirts and sat in the audience to show support for the school.

"It's a program that's done a lot of outreach," said planning graduate student Mark Holden, who attended the meeting. Holden characterized his initial reaction to the announcement of the program's potential closure as "a little bit shocked."

The program did receive a temporary reprieve last year, when administrators considered relocating it to the College of Public Health from the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture. But that proposal was later dismantled, and planning was added back to the list of programs slated to be cut.

Faculty committees will weigh in on the program's future, and within a few months, Likins will decide whether to recommend the board of regents eliminate it.

Davis, who is Likins' top adviser, said it was "very unlikely" Likins would change his mind and spare the program.

Likins, in an interview earlier this semester, said the campaign to save the school hadn't swayed him.

"We're still persuaded that our decision with respect to planning was the right thing to do," he said.

Even the school's closure, though, wouldn't necessarily mark the end of planning at the UA. Administrators have said they would consider dispersing tenured planning faculty to different departments, creating a graduate interdisciplinary program in planning.

Non-tenured faculty would lose their jobs under that option, but students likely wouldn't see much difference in the curriculum from what they have now, Becker said.

"We'd lose some really good faculty," she said. "Beyond that, probably not a whole lot (would change)."

Fighting hard

Fourteen months ago, on the day Likins publicly announced his proposal to eliminate the School of Planning, the somberness was palpable in the School of Planning office. Becker only spoke with a reporter after commenting that she had been trying to hide from the media.

In the months since, school officials and students have adopted a much more public opposition to the proposed closure. They've marshaled support from professional planners, other outside groups and even some state legislators.

In September, Sen. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Tucson, asked the regents to reject any proposal to shut down the school.

"I am here today, not as a state senator, but as a person who is truly passionate about planning," said Giffords, who holds a master's degree in planning.

Earlier this month, Kannenn, the Cochise County housing director, joined three other community officials in speaking to regents on the school's behalf.

Ann M. Rasor, superintendent of Tumac‡cori National Historic Park near Tucson, enlisted the school's help to develop a strategic plan for preserving Kino missions on the Santa Cruz River. She estimated the plan would cost her $300,000 if she hired a professional.

"I'd probably get that in 20 years if I was lucky," she said. "I'm not a Yellowstone, and I'm not the big guy on the block."

Andy Gunning, planning director for the Pima Association of Governments, said the UA School of Planning provides a steady stream of new planners for local governments, and the region would suffer if the school were closed.

"There's a need now more than ever to develop a strong working relationship with the University of Arizona," Gunning said. "Having livable communities is really imperative if we're going to remain competitive with other states."