K-School and GSD Consider Public Policy Program Merger

President Bok yesterday recommended transferring the City and Regional Planning program (CRP) at the Graduate School of Design (GSD) to the Kennedy School of Government.

Bok also proposed the creation of a new urban and regional planning and design program at the GSD that would combine elements of several other GSD departments.

Gerrald M. McCue, professor of Architecture and Urban Design and new dean of the GSD as of June 1980, said yesterday Bok reached the preliminary decision after consulting him as well as John F. Kain, chairman of CRP, and Graham T. Allison Jr. '62, dean of the K-School.

The group decided to shift CRP to the K-School because it saw a growing divergence of the program, which has emphasized the public policy aspects of planning, from the Design School as a whole, whose primary concern has been physical aspects, McCue said. He added that CRP currently emphasizes the use of analytical methods derived from the social sciences and "often doesn't deal with making physical plans at all."

"CRP currently prepares analysts who become planning adjuncts of government." he added. "We want to prepare students who really want to design pieces of new neighborhoods and towns."

Several GSD faculty members have criticized CRP over the past few years for devoting too much attention to analytical and public policy issues at the expense of traditional planning curricula.

Last month the American Planners Association renewed its recognition of CRP after an extensive investigation of these criticisms.

McCue added, "I certainly didn't reach the decision out of any sense to be rid of an irritant. While the program did have an awkward incident, I've never felt it was an embarrassment."

McCue said the present CRP program and the K-School program overlap substantially. "A fair number" of GSD and second-year public policy students already cross-register, Laurence E. Lynn, professor of Public Policy and Chairman of the K-School public policy program, said last night.

Details on the timing of the transition and appointments and admissions to the program must still be worked out, Lynn said. He added that he has no figures yet on the cost of the transition, which will involve construction to enlarge one of the schools.

Neither Allison nor Bok was available for comment yesterday.

McCue said the CRP faculty, who are now part of the GSD faculty, will become members of the Kennedy School. He added that whether Kain remained dean of the program was "up to Dean Allison." Hain said yesterday, "I have some regrets about the plan but I think it is the right thing to do for the Design program and for the University.

The CRP students in the second year of the two-year masters program will receive GSD diplomas, McCue said. He added that the first-year students would be transferred into the Kennedy School unless they petition to remain in the GSD.

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"I assume that the vast majority would elect to become students in the Kennedy School," McCue said.

Bok may decide against the preliminary plan if the faculty raise objection, but it is unlikely, he added.

Helen F. Ladd, assistant professor of City and Regional Planning, said yesterday she considers herself a physical planner, as do most of the people in City and Regional Planning. "And while our substantive issues are different from the Kennedy School's what we're teaching is more similar to what's going on in the Kennedy School than in the Design School," she added.