History of the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management

School of Planning, Public Policy and Management

On July 1, 2017, the then-named School of Architecture and Allied Arts (A&AA) became the College of Design, comprising three new schools and one independent department: the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management (PPPM); the School of Architecture & Environment (SAE); the School of Art + Design (SA+D); and the Department of the History of Art and Architecture (HAA). Professor Rich Margerum, who has taught at the UO since 2001 and served as the head of the Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management, was named the first Head of the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management.

Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management

The Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management was officially established in 1982. Referred to often as "3PM" or "PPPM," it was created from the merger of the Wallace School of Community Service and Public Affairs (CSPA) and the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. The new department was located in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts to form PPPM. The department was authorized to offer the University's accredited professional master's degrees in urban planning and public affairs as well as the BA/BS in planning, public policy and management.

The department continued to develop and evolve. In 1994 the Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) program was established. In 2001 the degree for the Public Policy and Management Program was changed from an MA or Master's in Public Affairs to a Master of Public Administration (MPA). Also in 2001, the department was granted approval from the Oregon University System to offer a one-year graduate certificate program in Not-for-Profit Management. In April 2011, the department officially launched its new Master of Nonprofit Management program and graduate certificate in Oregon Leadership in Sustainability (OLIS). In 2017, the UO Arts and Administration program was embedded within PPPM.

In addition to its graduate programs, the department developed a pre-professional major in Planning, Public Policy and Management. The major was designed for upper division students with a broad social science background and placed a strong emphasis on experiential learning, internships, and professional skills.

The Arts and Administration Program

The Arts and Administration (AAD) Program is rooted in a long history at the UO. It originally began as the Department of Arts Education (ARE). ARE was primarily a graduate program, home to 67 masters and 18 doctoral students. Although oriented toward education, the department had a strong focus on community arts and cultural services. This can be attributed to the direction of several well-known faculty members, including June King McFee and Vincent Lanier, who focused heavily on topics of cultural pluralism and the role of art in society.

Starting in 1991, AAD faculty began developing the Arts Administration program, which admitted its first students in 1993. At the same time the Institute for Community Arts Studies (ICAS) was reinvigorated to become engaged in community arts and cultural policy research. ICAS later became the Center for Community and Cultural Policy (CCACP). In 1997, the CCACP began publishing CultureWork: A Periodic Broadside for Arts and Culture Workers.

In 2016-17, the Arts and Administration Department was embedded into the Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management (PPPM). PPPM had already been working with AAD on shared curriculum, and the change allowed students to develop a specialization in the arts and administration area while pursuing degrees in Nonprofit Management, Community and Regional Planning, and Public Administration.

The Department of Urban and Regional Planning

Prior to the Department of PPPM, there was the Department of Urban and Regional Planning begun in 1966 at the initiative of Fred Cuthbert, then head of the Department of Landscape Architecture. Cuthbert hired William Dale to serve as the first head and sole faculty member of the program. In 1969, Richard Ragatz took over as head and two additional positions were filled, giving the department the necessary full-time equivalency required for AIP recognition. The Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) degree was recognized by the American Planning Association in 1970.

In 1973, David Povey took over as department head and was soon joined by Maradel Gale and John Baldwin. With their common interests in environmental planning and policy, this became a special focus of the department, which continues today. Povey had a deep interest in field-based or service learning. He developed an alternative to the conventional studio model of planning education by finding opportunities for students to work in controlled situations for real clients and real projects, which were supervised by faculty members. He called this experience Community Planning Workshop (CPW). The MURP received its first accreditation from the Planning Accreditation Board in 1987.

The Lila Acheson Wallace School of Community Service and Public Affairs (CSPA)

The School of Community Service and Public Affairs opened in 1967. It was organized into three divisions, each with several program and content areas. They were:

  • Community Service Division with programs in Community Service and Social Work. Concentrations were in applied methods, human growth and development, research, social problem analysis, and field experience. Focal areas developed later were Family and Children's Services, Community Mental Health Planning and Services, and Corrections.
     
  • Public Affairs and International Development with two majors: Public Affairs and Administration major and the International Development major; this division included options for community development, national development, or regional development.
     
  • Leisure and Cultural Services, with program areas in community recreation and cultural arts administration—program planning and administration in leisure facilities such as community art centers, cultural arts coordinators in a public recreation agency, community or state arts council assistants or museum coordinators, and senior citizen centers and youth organizations.