Spring Term

Today will mark the last academic day of Week 1 of the Spring Term. My classes this term are much different than the two previous terms at Portland State. Rather than only 3 or 4 credit classes, I have a 1 credit class and 2 credit class this time around. That means that my five classes only add up to 13 credits. It doesn't appear that this term will be quite as much work as last term was (I may regret writing this), however it does mean that it will test my ability to balance out that many competing interests in addition to doing good work for my Graduate Research Assistantship.

Classes this term:

• Legal Processes In Planning
• GIS for Planners
• Economics of Urban Transportation
• Urban Transportation: Problems & Policies
• Design Analysis in Planning

One of the key differences from the last two terms is that three of my five instructors are adjuncts. Hopefully their additional viewpoints will round out those I have experienced from the School of Urban Studies & Planning's faculty. Another difference is that three of these classes aren't part of the MURP core curriculum and there are a lot of non-planning students and even in one instance, undergraduates. This grad/undergrad split became very apparent when Jennifer, the instructor and my advisor, had to field a question from a student regarding what exactly peer-reviewed meant; she had thought it meant to get a class peer to review our memos prior to turning them in.

Usually there is a class each term that surprises me because it is more interesting than I had expected it to be. This term I think it very well might be my Legal Processes in Planning class. Last term I got frustrated in a few courses because they got a little too focused on hypotheticals and were not grounded in the real world pragmatic dealings that we need to be prepared for. This instructor is a lawyer with a local firm, but has been city and county attorney, so he knows both sides of land use disputes. The class was three hours long, yet considering the material, it actually went by reasonably fast.

This class got me to thinking about how I had considered applying to law school to focus in land use law. Really, I had been thinking about it in conjunction with a Master's degree in planning. This program is short enough that it's in my best interest to finish it up, work for a few years in the field, and then determine if I still have an interest in land use law. The problem with getting an additional higher education degree is that by the time I would be doing it, I would need to support a family and a house, and moving to law school might be problematic. I would also have to do a cost-benefit analysis and see if the extra income above what I would make as a practicing planner would be worth taking myself out of the workforce for 3 years and for incurring more debt.

I have also had my eye towards summer internships. To that end I have been in the process of revamping my resume, which is challenging, but highly necessary given that I have gained a lot of relevant experiences in the last year and a half. Once I think that I have one that is good to go, then I will start contacting some of the people that my mentor, Jason Gately at the Port of Portland, recommended I contact to see if they could host an intern. At the very least I have the one lined up with the City of Bend however it can't suffice due to how far away it is. Plus, I would benefit from getting experience from a different type of agency, or at least different type of public jurisdiction.