The Landscape Architecture faculty, then part of the College of Agriculture, began offering courses in city planning in 1921 and regional planning in 1934. The Master of Science in Town Planning was initiated in 1947 and the Bachelor of Science in Urban Planning twenty years later. The future will bring change. We as members of society can watch that change with interest. We can react to change as it occurs, or we can try to influence or control the nature and direction of change.
Planning is the profession that is dedicated to helping society manage change.
Planners help to evaluate and seize opportunities and to understand and solve problems. Most planners work at the local level, but they are concerned with issues that affect the world-the preservation and enhancement of the quality of life in a community, the protection of the environment, the promotion of equitable economic opportunity and the management of growth and change of all kinds. Planning has its roots in engineering, law, architecture, landscape architecture, economics, geography, and sociology. Most contemporary planners are trained in the social science sciences so they can understand the society and the economy in which planning functions and plans must be implemented. Though many planners today combine design and people skills, many planners emphasize the social and economic aspects of planning in their education and work.