Beginning July 1st, the Urban and Community Studies will become part of a new Department of Geography, Sustainability, Community and Urban Studies.
You may have seen last week’s article in the Daily Campus about our UCS Program: https://dailycampus.com/2024/03/08/college-of-liberal-arts-and-sciences-adds-two-new-departments/
Over the last three years, our program, the Department of Geography, and the Environmental Studies Program have had very productive talks about bringing our programs together under one roof. The time seemed right to bring these programs together in ways that will strengthen all three.
As we wrote in our proposal to the UConn Board of Trustees that was approved last week, the new department will conduct “community-engaged research and teaching on the urgent environmental, social, and geographical challenges and opportunities faced by communities around the globe in the twenty-first century. Our world class faculty address questions related to sustainability, resilience, health, and social inequities from local to global scales under the converging impacts of rapid climate change and increasing global urbanization,” and that the new department will be “deeply committed to cultivating an inclusive environment for our diverse community of faculty, staff, and students. As part of this commitment, our vision and initiatives are centered around values of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion…to identify pressing environmental and social justice issues facing societies today.”
The creation of this new department will not alter the degree plan you are currently following in our program. Your degree requirements are governed by the catalog year in which you declared the major or minor.
The name of the program will change on July 1st, but the majors and minors we support will continue to be offered as you move toward graduation.
Over the next 2-3 years the faculty and staff of the new department will work to create new course offerings, perhaps also new or revised majors, minors, and graduate programs, but these changes won’t happen immediately. For now, I just wanted to share this good news and what it shows about UConn’s commitment to our program.
Please let me know if you have questions about these changes. I can be reached by email at ken.foote@uconn.edu
Ken Foote, Director
Urban and Community Studies Program