About USP Click here for recent news and events

The Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning is the nation's oldest continuously operating instructional program in urban studies. Beginning with an undergraduate certificate in 1959, the School now offers a bachelor degree in community development, undergraduate minors in community development and real estate development, master degrees in urban and regional planning and urban studies, and doctoral degrees in urban studies and urban studies: regional science. Understanding metropolitan regions and their problems, and analyzing policies to shape their evolution and overcome obstacles are major concerns of the Schools degree programs.

The School's degree programs embody the University's mission to enhance the intellectual, social, cultural and economic qualities of urban life. The University's motto, "Let Knowledge Serve the City," expresses the School's approach to scholarship. The goal is to assist in the development of strong and equitable communities through an interrelated program of teaching, research and public service. Faculty interpret "the city" as including urban phenomena in all their global, national, regional, and local diversity.

The service idea builds on a tradition of faculty engagement with the city that involves both research and practice. Political and technical aspects of transport policy and planning, the globalization of American cities, the dynamics of combining work and family, and social support networks among the elderly are some of the issues faculty are addressing. Portland poet and jurist Charles Wood said in 1888, "Good citizens are the riches of a city." Faculty and staff share the conviction that these words are as true today as they were a century ago. The programs in urban studies and planning are strengthened by the ability to draw on the resources of other units in the College of Urban and Public Affairs, including the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government and the School of Community Health; the Institute on Aging, the Center for Urban Studies, the Center for Population Research and Census; and the Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies. A number of public and professional leaders also serve as adjunct faculty.

The School's programs are structured to allow students living and working in the Portland metropolitan area to take advantage of the broad range of resources available at Portland State University and in the community. Graduate students in the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning may take courses in any of the Universitys graduate programs.

The Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning is a member of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (www.acsp.org) .

For more information about the ACSP please see the online version of the their latest guide to college programs:
http://www.acsp.org/Guide/ACSP_13th_Edition_Guide.pdf