| June 19, 2007
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
PERSONAL ANNOUNCEMENT - MOVING ON
It is with very mixed feelings that I send this letter to all faculty, staff and students in CUPPA to let you know that I will be resigning as Dean of the College on 31 August 2007.
In September I will take up a new position as Professor of City Leadership in the Faculty of Environment and Technology at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK.
I joined UIC as Dean of CUPPA on 1 July 2002 and I have enjoyed the last five years enormously.
The College has responded very well to unprecedented challenges and we can be proud of our many achievements during this period. In particular I would highlight:
• Outstanding progress on the implementation of our CUPPA 2010 Strategic Plan. As the Profile of Progress prepared last year demonstrated, we have made significant progress on all three Initiatives and we have hit or made progress on 31 of the 34 Actions. This isn’t too bad given we are only half way through the six year plan period (2004-2010).
• A rise in the status and reputation of CUPPA within the broad fields of urban planning and public administration. The Urban Planning and Policy program is the largest graduate planning program in the US and is rightly seen as one of the very top programs in the country. A recent comparative assessment of US Public Administration programs, which examined scholarly outputs and research performance, ranked our Public Administration program as the top public university program in the country (and number three overall). Our College is, then, home to many leading scholars and it has been a pleasure to see their influence in both scholarly and policy circles grow in recent years. CUPPA’s seven research centers and institutes continue to be leading contributors to university research growth. The college also experienced fast-paced growth and success in its online presence through professional development and life-long learning opportunities and through social networking among alumni.
• The creation and introduction of an innovative Undergraduate Degree in Urban and Public Affairs (UPA). This is a radically new kind of degree breaking new ground in interdisciplinary studies and, in line with the UIC Strategic Plan as well as our own CUPPA 2010 Strategic Plan, the new degree will offer ‘access to excellence’. Our fairly demanding student intake target for the first year of the new degree (starting Fall 2007) was 20 students and I can announce that, as of today, we have enrolled 20 students for this new degree.
• The marked strengthening of the national and international profile and presence of the College. The International City Futures Conference held in July 2004 was the first step in a process that has seen the College re-position itself not just as a national leader, but also as a respected global player in the field of urban and public affairs. In 2002 we had no international partnerships with universities in other countries – we now have five such partnerships covering three continents. And these partnerships are with urban universities who, like CUPPA, work closely with their city authorities – in Belfast, Bogota, Bristol, Milan and Shanghai. Other international partnerships are at the planning stage. In July next year the College hosts what is likely to be the largest international academic planning conference ever held in the US – the Joint Conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) and the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP). And in April 2009, as part of our contribution to the Centenary Celebrations of the Daniel Burnham 1909 Plan for Chicago, we host the Annual Conference of the Urban Affairs Association (UAA).
In the period ahead I am keen to retain my connections with CUPPA. I will do all I can to help the College become an even stronger exemplar of engaged urban scholarship, high quality student learning and strong partnership working with alumni.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Provost Michael Tanner for his support to CUPPA in recent years. For example, without his personal backing it would not have been possible to launch the new Undergraduate Degree or to recruit the four outstanding professors who will help to teach the degree in the period ahead.
The College is stronger now than it was five years ago and it is certainly much better known. Credit then to all of you for weathering the state budget cutbacks, and delivering high quality outputs and services to so many different communities of interest and place.
I take this opportunity to thank you for your support to me over the years and for the energy and enthusiasm you bring to your activities in CUPPA. The College is a very special place for all of us.
All good wishes
Robin Hambleton
Dean
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