| 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: |
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| 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.
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- Offer a curriculum comprised of a diverse and balanced set of courses and experiences.
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- Impart a variety of analytical and synthetic skills and knowledge in the areas relevant to landscape architecture: visual, sensorial, and manual acuities; landscape technology; theory, history, and criticism; human dynamics; landscape ecology; and communication.
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| Visual, sensorial, and manual acuities. |
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- Teach visual and manual skills for seeing, drawing, and making things.
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- Nurture the development of spatial, tactile, and temporal sensibilities to site and place.
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| Landscape technology. |
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- Teach technical skills for understanding materials, structural and environmental systems, construction documentation, relevant codes, and safety requirements.
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| History/Theory/Criticism. |
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- Teach the history of landscape traditions inscribed in form and the theory of cultural and scientific perspectives and constructs.
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- Teach approaches for developing critical capacities to interpret past and present landscapes and imagine future landscapes.
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| Human Dynamics. |
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- Teach social, political, legal, and economic principles pertaining to environmental design.
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| Landscape Ecology. |
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- Teach physical, biological, hydrological principles of landscapes.
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- Teach plant communities and planting design.
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- Emphasize biodiversity, landscape change, and ecological relationships at various scales.
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| Communication. |
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- Combine digital and manual graphic communication throughout the curriculum.
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- Emphasize written and verbal communication throughout the curriculum.
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| Other. |
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- Introduce varied scales of practice (residential, urban parks/design, regional planning) and types of landscapes (urban, suburban, rural, wilderness).
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- Integrate on-going faculty research and outreach into the classroom.
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- Integrate up-to-date technology in the classroom.
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| 2. |
Emphasize design as a core activity in landscape architecture�a synthetic, creative, and innovative process informed by ecology, culture, technology and materials. |
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- Place heavy weight on design studios (credit hours).
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- Sharpen the capacity to articulate and transform ideas and narratives into material form and space.
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- Establish a studio sequence that builds in complexity and scale and that is aligned with concurrent support courses.
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- Integrate aspects of theory, ecology, culture, and technology into each design studio syllabus and project; emphasize these aspects as the genesis of landscape architectural form.
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- Teach objective and subjective methods of observation, interpretation, and problem solving.
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- Provide a creative and open environment where the spirit of inquiry and risk-taking is encouraged.
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| 3. |
Provide general education that nurtures lifelong learning, sharpens students� thought processes, encourages initiative and self-awareness, and broadens perspectives. |
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- Emphasize critical thinking throughout the curriculum.
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- Allow for a flexible and individualized program in the senior years.
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- Provide choices and a variety of electives in department, college, and university courses.
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- Offer ample independent study opportunities.
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- Offer and coordinate off-campus semester programs�internship, study abroad, and national student exchange.
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- Nurture group cohesiveness and expose students to social dynamics during second year travelling studio.
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| 4. |
Familiarize students with regional, national, and international experiences, cultures and environments, preparing them to respond to changing local and global conditions. |
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- Integrate local and regional field trips into studios and courses.
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- Offer a semester-long, regional traveling studio in the second year.
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- Offer the Boston summer studio option.
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- Offer options for study abroad programs in Rome and the Pacific Rim
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- Offer options for national and international student exchange programs in the fourth year.
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- Offer courses that provide international perspective and cultural diversity.
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| 5. |
Emphasize interdisciplinary thinking and the relationships between landscape architecture and other disciplines. |
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- Integrate interdisciplinary Design Studies and other courses into the curriculum.
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- Integrated lectures and workshops by visiting lecturers into courses and studios.
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- Encourage attendance at college and university lectures.
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- Encourage qualified students to join the Honors program and participate in the interdisciplinary Honors seminar offerings.
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- Provide opportunities for interaction with students from other college departments through joint studios and projects and elective offerings.
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- Plan for future college-wide Foundation (first year) curriculum.
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| 6. |
Impart to students a sense of professional and environmental ethics and social responsibility. |
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- Articulate personal and professional values throughout the curriculum.
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- Teach techniques to promote understanding of public health, safety, and welfare.
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- Teach responsibility and critical practice of land conservation and development.
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- Teach critical issues concerning environmental justice and social equality.
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- Teach ethical concerns in professional practice.
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| 7. |
Provide opportunities for hands-on learning through community outreach. |
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- Maintain close connections with landscape architectural extension.
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- Integrate community-initiated, client-based projects in studios.
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- Offer an upper-level community design studio devoted to teaching the theory and methods of participatory design and its application to landscape form.
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- Integrate current local, regional, and national issues and concerns in upper-level design studios.
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- Offer work opportunities with landscape architecture extension.
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| 8. |
Maintain a diverse, academically active, and highly qualified group of faculty that recognizes teaching as a primary concern. |
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- Maintain an overall student faculty ratio of 1:15 or less.
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- Maintain a student faculty ratio of 1:17 or less in studio.
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- Maintain several active ad-hoc departmental committees that regularly discuss and monitor flow and relationships between classes and review class policies.
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| 9. |
Maintain an active student body and close faculty-student relations. |
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- Support the SSLA student organization.
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- Provide financial support for a student-organized annual Career Days.
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- Maintain an open-door policy for student-faculty interaction and communication.
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- Hold informal events for faculty and students each semester.
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