The Graduate Program in City Planning, School of Public Administration and Urban Studies is a partner in a 4-year grant that will encourage graduate student and faculty mobility to consortium partners in Mexico and Canada. The six universities of this trilateral consortium are the following: Universite Laval in Quebec City, Canada and the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada; Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon in Monterrey, Mexico and Universidad de Guanajuato in Guanajuato, Mexico; San Diego State University and the University of New Orleans. The College of Urban and Public Affairs (CUPA) at the University of New Orleans is the recipient of a FIPSE (Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education grant, perhaps the most competitive grant-making process in the Federal government.

The URBANA consortium will develop a comparative program of study in the area of urban development. The program will allow students from the United States, Canada, and Mexico to become knowledgeable in the areas of cross-border urban studies with regard to urban sprawl and related issues while working towards completing their degree in Mexico or Canada. The three federal governments of the United States, Canada, and Mexico con-jointly fund URBANA.

Why URBANA?

The broader purpose of this multilateral project is to promote a student-centered North American dimension to education and training in Urban Studies. It aims to improve the quality of human resource development in the three countries and to better prepare students to work throughout North America by acquiring an international academic profile. Some of the outcomes of this program should include language proficiency in Spanish or French, broaden cultural awareness and understanding as well as being more conversant in urban cross-border studies.

When does URBANA start?

Beginning in the Fall of 2002, selected SDSU students will have an opportunity to spend one or two semesters abroad, enrolled full-time in one of the URBANA consortium universities in Mexico or Canada. One course (3 credits) will be devoted, under the direction and supervision of a local professor, to the study of sprawl in the city where the student resides. Credits earned abroad will be recognized by SDSU, and financial assistance is available to the candidates selected.

URBANA will also organize annual seminars devoted to aspects of urban sprawl. The three to four week seminars will involve selected professors and students from the six participating universities. Professors will teach during the first week and students will carry out field assignments for the remaining weeks. Students will receive academic credit for their work. The first seminar will take place in Mexico (Monterrey and Guanajuato) in May 2001. A seminar will be held in the US in 2002 and one will be held in Canada in 2003.

Who can participate?

In order to participate in this new and exciting program, you must have successfully completed at least two semesters of your graduate study at SDSU, preferably in the Graduate Program in City Planning, be motivated to learn French or Spanish and, above all, be committed to pursue your education in a different intellectual, social and cultural environment.

The selection process is on-going.

For more information

For more details about the program, please contact:

Dr. Roger W. Caves
Coordinator, Graduate Program in City Planning
SDSU, URBANA Coordinator