From ACSP President Michael Hibbard

Dear Colleagues,

As you know, at our meeting in Milwaukee in October, the ACSP Governing Board directed me to appoint a committee to work with Planetizen to address various issues of concern in connection with Planetizen's project of rating planning schools.  The Governing Board further directed me to urge planning programs not to participate in Planetizen's program survey until the issues were addressed.

The committee - consisting of Mickey Lauria, chair, Enid Arvidson, Elise Bright, John Landis, and Bruce Stiftel -  has concluded its discussions with Planetizen staff.  I am happy to report that the concerns raised about Planetizen's program survey and rating guide have been satisfactorily addressed.  Planetizen has been receptive to the comments and suggestions of the ACSP committee.

Anyone who is interested can find the statement of consultation between Planetizen and the committee on Planetizen's website at:

http://www.planetizen.com/guide/acsp-statement

To be clear, ACSP does not endorse Planetizen's ratings but neither does it discourage programs from participating in Planetizen's program survey, nor does it discourage individual faculty and students from responding to opinion surveys from Planetizen.

I am pleased that we have been able to establish a good working relationship between ACSP and Planetizen through this process.  I thank the committee on behalf of all of ACSP's member programs, for their handling of this important task.

Best regards,

Michael Hibbard, President
Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning