The Master in Community and Regional Planning (MCRP) is a two-year degree program for professional education in the field of planning. The program emphasizes local and regional planning issues and reflects the culture and resources of the Southwest. The course of study provides training opportunities in rural as well as urban settings. Formally structured dual degree opportunities are available with the Latin American Studies Program and the School of Public Administration. (MCRP graduates also have developed individual dual degrees with Architecture, Economics, Public Health and Water Resources.) Students are encouraged to engage in fieldwork and professional internship experiences.
The Community and Regional Planning Program is nationally accredited by The Planning Accreditation Board (PAB). The program received renewal of its accreditation in 2007. The program provides grounding in planning skills, methods and theory and an appreciation of the nature of practice in the Southwest as a region.
The mission of the Community and Regional Planning (CRP) program is to plan with communities for their sustainable futures in the Southwest region through education, service and research. The Program’s purpose is to provide future planners and professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary to support planning that is responsive to people and place. Students of the CRP program work with communities, including their own, to create community-based plans, programs and policies that sustain and enhance their culture, resource base, built environment and economic vitality.
The rich substantive content of community and regional planning draws from many disciplines. It focuses on the concepts and disciplines of planning as applied to a field of practice. Students in the MCRP Program may select a concentration in Community Development, Natural Resources + Environmental Planning, or Physical Planning and Design within their course of study.
The educational model for this degree is based on the concept of problem solving as a skill and as a context for broader understanding. Because much of planning practice involves solving complex social, physical, and resource allocation or conservation problems, the ability to analyze problems is central to the educational process. The assets and skills of a professional planner include:
- a capacity for reasoned thought
- visionary (futuristic or alternative) thinking
- communication of ideas and concepts of others
- resolution of conflict situations
- building and understanding community in the natural, social, and built environment.
CRP students are assigned a personal academic advisor from among the core faculty at the time of admission.