Word: crp
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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With the re-recognition of the department secured last October. the fireworks in Gund Hall seemed to subside a bit. But in the end of November, President Bok recommended the transfer of CRP to the Kennedy School of Government after consulting with Kain, McCue, and Graham T. Allison '62, dean of the K-School, Harry Lirtzman, a first-year student at the GSD, expressed a reaction shared by most, saying "With the appointment of McCue as the new dean, we thought there might be substantial changes in City and Regional Planning but we never thought it would have come...
Most of the CRP faculty think the move, which will wed the department to the public policy program at the Kennedy School, makes sense. Michael Shapiro, assistant professor of City and Regional Planning, says, "As a department, we've been heading in the same direction as the Kennedy School for many years," noting that with growing interest in state and local government issues at the K-School, "it was clear that the two groups were moving closer together." Laurence E. Lynn, professor of Public Policy and chairman of the Kennedy School public policy program, says the two programs already overlap...
However, some faculty members have expressed anxiety about the merger. Kain, who will remain as chairman of CRP under the Kennedy School, says, "It's not the easiest thing to work with a group of people for so many years in the Design School and develop close working relationships and then have to leave them." Many junior faculty members fear the Kennedy School will swallow up the department. Shapiro says, "Over the long term, I think it's a reasonable expectation that CRP will lose its identity and become part of the mass of Kennedy School programs...
Also, some CRP students fear their shift to the Kennedy School will close them off from training in physical design. Philip Wall, a first-year student in CRP, says the transfer "takes too much of the physical planning element out of the curriculum for those who don't have a previous design degree." However, Wall, who received a bachelors degree in design from the University of California at Berkeley, says he views the move positively because the Kennedy School has "more resources and a better name." Another CRP student says. "We have the feeling that we're getting kicked...
Even though CRP is moving over to the Kennedy School, this year's first-year students in the department will have the option of receiving their diplomas from the GSD or the Kennedy School. But students admitted to CRP starting next fall will receive Kennedy School degrees. McCue says it's too soon to know whether the absence of an urban planning program at the Design School for the next couple of years will reduce the number of applicants the the GSD. He adds, "My sense is that there will be no problem...