At the time of our visit in 1975, the director of the urban design program was on leave. A well-organized and articulate group of urban design students told us that they had taken over the direction of their own studio, complaining that their teachers had less knowledge and experience than they did. In 1976, the curriculum appeared to be better organized, with most of the discussion with the Committee centering around the continued existence of the program as a separate entity.

The Committee believes that the rubric under which urban design is taught is not as important as the subject. It is theoretically possible to continue to teach urban design without a separate urban design department or program. Because of the nature of academic institutions, however, it is much more difficult to create a successful urban design curriculum without a separate source of funds specifically earmarked for that purpose.

We are concerned that the urban design program seems to have lost the position of innovative leadership that it once enjoyed. The reason, we believe, is that the curriculum has failed to keep pace with the growing body of accumulated interdisciplinary urban design experience. The work we observed in the studio seemed, on our admittedly brief examination, to have a rather tenuous connection to reality. What seemed to be missing was an authoritative contribution from experts in government, real-estate investment and the politics of community involvement. Again, Harvard would seem to be the ideal university to provide a solid, interdisciplinary basis for urban design studies. A major opportunity is apparently being neglected, no doubt because of the "separate bottom" problem mentioned earlier in this report.

We are also concerned that the urban design program accepts students from architectural, planning and landscape backgrounds, giving three urban design degrees, one in each of these fields. As an unusual policy that is an inducement to attend Harvard, it is probably worth continuing. However, it is important that students receiving a similar degree have reached similar levels of attainment. While it is not necessarily appropriate to define urban design as a separate profession, it certainly requires mastery of a defined body of knowledge and certain professional skills. We are not satisfied that all students are mastering these essential elements of urban design. The different backgrounds of the students could be an asset; we are not sure that they are being successfully integrated into the program at present.

Urban design is one of the key elements in mastering the array of urban and environmental problems that confront us. We believe that Harvard should be investing more resources into this area of study, and creating an interchange of information and skills between the urban design students and other professional students, particularly those in law and business.

CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING

The Committee is extremely concerned that the Department of City and Regional Planning is placing far too much emphasis on the social sciences and policy analysis and far too little on planning as an interventionist discipline. Its practitioners are supposed to make creative decisions which affect events. A medical school set up in an analogous way, with a curriculum consisting mainly of biology and bio-chemistry, and little emphasis on diagnosis and clinical practice, would not offer a very sound medical education. Dorn C. McGrath, Jr., Chairman of the Department of City and Regional Planning at George Washington University and a member of the Committee, made the following observations about the Department of City and Regional Planning:

"The conclusions that I have reached during the past year concerning the Department of City and Regional Planning are strongly reinforced by observations made at the school during the April 26th visit and by consultation with GSD students and faculty from all departments, including the program in urban design. My conclusions were further reinforced by conversations with several loyal GSD alumni who are among the leading practitioners in the professional planning field.

"First, the Department of City and Regional Planning appears to have abandoned the basic objective of preparing promising men and women for professional careers in city and regional planning. The evidence that leads to this conclusion is the following:

a) The recently appointed chairman of the department, although well-known as an economist and analyst of selected urban systems, is neither a city planner nor a regional planner.

b) The faculty member of the Department of C&RP charged with responsibility for developing the "professional curriculum" is without experience in city or regional planning and does not have professional qualifications in either field.

c) Of the eight new faculty appointments to the Department made in the past academic year or currently under active consideration, only one holds a degree in city or regional planning and he alone reflects any direct experience in the professional field; moreover, the same new appointee holds a more recent doctoral degree in political economy.

"Of the 16 post-graduate degrees held by the eight new appointees or prospective appointees to the Department of City and Regional Planning faculty, all but one are in fields other than city or regional planning. The Department affirms that the majority of the appointments are at such junior levels that only one of the eight can bring substantial professional experience in any field to the School.

"The foregoing evidence indicates to me, as it does to many other alumni who have watched the GSD for several years, that the School no longer seeks to be a leader among the institutions that have developed and sustained the professional field of city and regional planning. If this is a deliberate decision, then I consider it to be misguided. If it is an inadvertant drift away from a significant role in the professional planning field, then decisive steps should be taken to correct this regrettable course. If Harvard has actually chosen to embark upon an adventure in the more limited field of urban policy analysis, using the Department of City and Regional planning as a convenient vehicle, then the University should so state and stop misleading prospective students, alumni, and the general public with the current descriptions of its program and curricula."

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE