Current Situation

Opening - Clemson University, a land-grant school, opened its doors as Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina in July 1893 with an enrollment of 446 as an all-male military school. Its purpose was to focus on the art and science of agriculture. In 1955 it made the change to "civilian" status and became co-educational and in 1964 gained the designation Clemson University. Clemson's vision today is to become, "one of the nation's top-20 public universities." To reach this vision Clemson has set five goals in academic, research and service for the year 2011.
1. Increase research and sponsored programs to exceed $100 million a year in research support. 2. Foster Clemson's academic reputation through strong academic programs, mission-oriented research and academic centers of excellence, relevant public service and highly regarded faculty and staff.
3. Seek and cultivate areas where teaching, research and service overlap. President Barker has pointed out, "Top-tier universities are more successful at generating external funding, are more likely to generate spin-off companies, and attract more high-technology industries."

To reach these goals, President Barker has challenged each College to show where it falls in the University’s eight designated research emphasis areas and given them a goal to help Clemson reach top-20 status by the year 2011.

Body – To become a top 20 public university Clemson’s President, Jim Barker, and the Clemson University Board of Trustees has called on its five Colleges to help it increase Clemson’s research status. To do this it has given each College research goals. The College of Art, Architecture, and Humanities (AAH) is making great strides in the areas of publications and external funding but the need to increase continues. “External funding is a means to the end of published, peer-reviewed work. Our college has a significant record of publication which continues to grow. Parallel to this increase is a significant expansion in the level of externally funded research. In fiscal year 2007, AAH had over one million dollars in external funding, compared to $800,000 in FY 2006.”

Planning and Landscape Architecture is one of the ten departments that make up the College of Arts, Architecture, and Humanities. This department, like its College and the University, sees its future in increasing funded research and peer reviewed journal articles as well as graduating research prepared graduate students. This change for Clemson University to become a Top-20 comes at a time when obtaining external research funds are particularly difficult. 9/11 made many changes in American life; in the research world it dramatically reduced the available research dollars. After September 2001 federal monies are shifted to the war against terror. As the price of oil rises, the dollar drops, and the stock market plunges grant dollars disappear. As these dollars disappear it follows that competition soars. At the same time, on-line submissions of grant proposals create another layer of complexity. Skills required for securing research dollars and therefore data to publish change and become more complex. This complexity changes the skills required to secure research dollars. Now the researcher must communicate well his “good idea” while following complicated grant preparation instructions. He must understand the differences between research grants, intervention grants, clinical trials, federal grants, foundation grants and how to apply and where to find them.

Closing - The Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture sees the need to continue forward on this front by developing a research skills class specific to its discipline for both its faculty and graduate students.