The Department of Landscape Architecture is committed to provide students with a meaningful learning experience; to educate for the multi-faceted profession of landscape architecture through a balanced educational program that fosters professional and intellectual growth. 

 

Specific goals and objectives related to fulfilling this mission are the following:

 

1.  Provide up-to-date landscape architectural skills and knowledge for a wide variety of professional roles in private, public, and nonprofit practice, as well as prepare students for graduate study.  How we will achieve this goal.

 

2. Emphasize design as a core activity in landscape architecture - a synthetic, creative, and innovative process informed by ecology, culture, technology and materials.  How we will achieve this goal.

 

3. Provide general education that nurtures lifelong learning, sharpens students' thought processes, encourages initiative and self-awareness, and broadens perspectives.  How we will achieve this goal.

 

4.  Familiarize students with regional, national, and international experiences, cultures and environments, preparing them to respond to changing local and global conditions.  How we will achieve this goal.

 

5.  Emphasize interdisciplinary thinking and the relationships between landscape architecture and other disciplines.  How we will achieve this goal.

 

6.  Impart to students a sense of professional and environmental ethics and social responsibility.  How we will achieve this goal.

 

7.  Provide opportunities for hands-on learning through community outreach.  How we will achieve this goal.

 

8.  Maintain a diverse, academically active, and highly qualified group of faculty that recognizes teaching as a primary concern.  How we will achieve this goal.

 

9.  Maintain an active student body and close faculty-student relations.  How we will achieve this goal.

 

Further details of Iowa State University's strategy and priorities can be found at:  http://www.iastate.edu/~strategicplan/2010/plan2010.pdf