--Hold quarterly town hall meetings for majors to identify problems and opportunities. --Survey majors to identify problems and opportunities. --Maintain Undergraduate Executive Committee, a standing committee of the faculty, including voting student representatives, to manage undergraduate curriculum, processes, and to build community. --Assign all majors to full time faculty for advising. --Support professional development activities of Student Services Coordinator to enhance advising, tracking student progress, and assisting students with staying on track. --Encourage and support a “Community Development Student Group” to enable majors to have a peer support network and for creating partnerships and engaging the field --Review and revise curriculum to accomodate enrollment growth

This initiative represents ongoing work of several TSUSP faculty. Faculty have taken undergraduate students to Nicaragua for a practical community development field excursion and are working toward providing similar opportunities for summer experiences in Uganda and other African countries. At the graduate level, the PSU-China Innovations in Urbanization Program, with Hewlett and Miller foundation support, brokered five summer internships in China with the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design and the Energy Foundation. Plans are underway to expand opportunities for student exchanges with Tongji University, the top planning school in China with English instruction in 30-plus graduate planning courses, and with CAUPD, who would like to send mid-career professionals to PSU for non-degree study. We expect to have continued support from the Hewlett Foundation for the China program for the next two years.

--Creation and maintenance of major research initiatives via partnerships with community stakeholders. --Creation of new Master of Real Estate Development proposal(jointly with the School of Business) in response to community interest and need. --Creation and ongoing maintenance of signature service efforts to provide community access to the resources of higher education (Community Environmental Services). --Development of ongoing US/China Sustainable Development Training Partnership (with Portland-based International Sustainable Development Foundation and China's Ministry of Land and Resources and Ministry of Housing and Urban/Rural Development). --Incorporation of Planning Workshop as capstone for MURP degree. --Required internships for MURP candidates. --3-term colloquium for CD majors.

--Support standing recruitment committee (comprised of faculty and student coordinator) to develop new initiatives designed to attract a more diverse student population to our undergraduate and graduate programs. --Increase and improve advising for all programs and for both existing and prospective students. --Support both peer and professional mentors (facilitated by the student alumni groups) to enable students to become more connected to each other, the School, and the field. --Support faculty and students engaged in the McNair Scholarship program. --Develop new scholarships and awards, particularly at the graduate level. --Seek external funding for research on social sustainability projects. --Explore opportunities for exchanges with Chinese students (at Tongji University) and professionals (CAUPD) --Establish a speaker series to bring accomplished planners and advocates for disadvantaged communities to augment instructional activities

Faculty in the School are currently engaged in a wide variety of research projects to monitor, assess and improve the performance of innovations in social and built-form urban technologies and to explore and document the relationships between these technologies and community and governance issues. Examples of research include projects examining the relationship between health and non-motorized transportation infrastructure and green storm water facilities and residents' perceptions and understanding of their environments. Currently pending grant applications in related areas will provide substantial support for graduate students.We will convene presentations and discussions on current research to uncover existing linkages and exploit potential synergies in our work, as well as reexamine our instructional programs relative to faculty research agendas.