The Urban and Regional Planning minor focuses on urban planning issues and offers opportunities to students to learn about the planning and development problems in our cities that we already face and those that we are likely to face in the next few decades. Students explore a number of ways to make our cities more equitable, inclusive, sustainable, and livable. Courses in the department provide important insights into the social, political, economic, historical, and cultural forces shaping urban areas. In addition, these courses offer students an excellent opportunity to prepare for graduate programs in related fields, including architecture, landscape architecture, urban and regional planning, public policy, law, business, public administration, public health, and social services.

Why should you consider minor in Urban Studies or in Urban and Regional Planning? You can learn more about the design and development of urban areas including the planning and design of sustainable neighborhoods, urban environmental problems, inequities in access to urban amenities, housing affordability crisis and transportation, climate change. Students could draw their own conclusions on how to address different types of urban problems from a variety of themes and perspectives including those that involve class, gender, and race.