Academic Network

The leading-edge schools of higher education in Revitalization Institute's Academic Network (listed below) provide faculty for our workshops on an as-needed basis, and research facilities that aid our development of tools for integrated revitalization.  This makes them better able to prepare their students for a wide variety of careers in the fast-growing global restoration economy.

There is very little research--pure or applied--underlying the $2 trillion dollars spent globally on restorative development every year.  Most colleges and universities still offer degrees (engineering, architecture, planning, public policy, environmental, etc.) that are primarily focused on developing new structures and raw land, or on growing community economies via sprawl.  Instead, students should be preparing for careers where the growth is: learning how to renew the buildings, infrastructure, and communities that have already been developed, and learning how to restore the natural resources that were damaged or depleted along the way.

There, of course, universities, colleges, departments, and individual faculty members who have seen the restorative future of economic development, and who are leading the way.  Many of them are listed below.  [Click here to learn how you can represent your institution in our Academic Network, and how your institution can benefit from doing so.]

Members of Our Academic Network:

Restoration Institute

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

College of Design, Construction & Planning Center for Building Better Communities

School of Environment and Natural Resources	Calgary, Alberta, Canada	Center for Sustainable Urban Revitalization
	Center for the Built Environment Toronto, Ontario, Canada	School of Forest Resources
	British Columbia, Canada	School of Natural Resources
Div. of Forestry & Natural Resources	Urban Studies/Metropolitan Development	School of Architecture
Reclamation Research Unit, Dept. Land Resources/Envir. Sciences	Nova Scotia Community College
	Department of Landscape Architecture

More Information on Our Member Institutions' restorative development activities:

• Clemson University (Clemson, SC, USA)

  • Clemson University was voted #1 public university in the U.S. by TIME magazine in 2002.

  • The Clemson University Restoration Institute (CURI) was launched in late 2005 with $10 million in state funding. Its mission is to advance knowledge in integrative approaches to the restoration of historic, ecological, and urban infrastructure resources. A mission like that puts Clemson University on the leading edge of the global restoration economy.  CURI is a formal network of experts who tackle the demands of a growing economy based on restoration, starting in the South Carolina Lowcountry, and fanning throughout the state, nation and beyond. The institute will provide hands-on research and educational opportunities for students and graduate students, and will serve as an economic driver by creating and encouraging innovation and investment in restoration technologies. 

• Seneca College (Toronto, ON, Canada)

  • The largest college in Canada, and the first academic Affiliate to our Integrated Revitalization Initiative, Seneca College has over 100,000 students on ten campuses. 
  • Primarily represented by William Humber, Chair of the Centre for the Built Environment, this Toronto, Canada institution is also on the leading edge of the integrated revitalization trend, as witnessed by the fact that Seneca offers a 4-year degree in Integrated Environmental Site Remediation.  What's more, The Restoration Economy is required reading for their Civil Engineering Technology program, and Seneca is a founding member of a new nationwide network in Canada focused on restorative development.

• Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, USA)

  • The Landscape Architecture Department is Harvard University's primary link to our Academic Research Network. 

• Peninsula College (Port Angeles, WA, USA)

  • Primarily represented their Applied Environmental Technologies Center of Excellence, Peninsula College has over 10,000 full-and part-time students.

• West Virginia University (Morgantown, WV. USA)

  • The West Virginia University Center for Environmental Research
    The WVU Division of Forestry and Natural Resources is RI's primary link to restoration and revitalization-related activities at WVU. 

• Rutgers The State University of New Jersey (Camden, NJ, USA)

  • The Program in Urban Studies and Metropolitan Development at Rutgers' Camden campus is Rutgers primary link with Revitalization Institute's Academic Network. 
• University of Florida (Gainesville, FL, USA)
  • The College of Design, Construction, & Planning is the University of Florida's primary link to Revitalization Institute's Academic Network.
• University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ, USA)
  • The School of Natural Resources (formerly the School of Renewable Natural Resources) is the primary link to Revitalization Institute's Academic Network.
• Penn State University (University Park, PA, USA)
  • The School of Forest Resources. is Penn State University's primary link to Revitalization Institute's Academic Network.  It seeks to improve natural resource management and policy by fostering dialogue on important issues among agencies, industries, and the general public.
• Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA, USA)
  • Georgia Tech’s Center for Sustainable Urban Revitalization (CSUR) focuses on the sustainable revitalization of the urban community through the systematic integration of land use planning, civil and economic infrastructure, and the built and natural environments. The Center for Sustainable Urban Revitalization is a multi-discipline effort utilizing the strengths found within Georgia Tech in collaboration with public and private partnerships.

• University of Texas (Austin, TX, USA)

  • The University of Texas' (Austin) School of Architecture is increasingly focused on issues related to restorative development.  In his December, 2004 Commencement Address to the graduating class, Dean Fritz Steiner referred to the restoration economy no fewer than four times. 
• British Columbia Institute of Technology (Vancouver, BC, Canada)
  • BCIT is a founding member of a new nationwide network in Canada focused on restorative development. It offers programs that lead to certificates, diplomas and degrees in technologies, business, health sciences and trades. Its programs are available in part-time and online formats as well as through full-time study. As a polytechnic institute, they conduct applied research, technology transfer activities (taking ideas to the marketplace), and corporate and industry training and upgrading. 
• Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)
  • SAIT is a founding member of a new nationwide network in Canada focused on restorative development. Founded in 1916, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) is one of Canada’s foremost post-secondary institutions. Its reputation for quality technical education extends beyond Canada, however. Every year SAIT attracts a large number of international students and offers skills training programs in countries around the world.
• Douglas College (British Columbia, Canada)
  • Douglas College is a founding member of a new nationwide network in Canada focused on restorative development. Douglas is a major community college with two campuses in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It serves 12,000 credit students each year and offers Degrees, Associate Degrees, two-year career and University Transfer programs to local, national and international students. As well, the College provides specialized short-duration courses to over 8,000 learners annually - mature students needing to upgrade literacy or study skills, or students interested in short-term continuing education courses.  Douglas College operates campuses in New Westminster and Coquitlam.
• McMaster University (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
  • McMaster is a full-service university, and is highly involved in research related to restoration of the Great Lakes. With well-established strengths in health care, engineering, business, social sciences, science, and humanities research and education, the University offers both students and professors exciting and unique opportunities for research, education, and collaboration.  With a long-standing reputation as Canada's "most innovative" university, McMaster has pioneered a number of programs that have changed how professors teach and students learn. Problem-based-learning (PBL), pioneered at McMaster, has now spread across North America as a preferred method of instructing undergraduate students.  Through its continued dedication to innovative education and ground-breaking research, the University has earned its reputation as one of the leading post-secondary institutions in Canada. McMaster continues in its commitment to be Canada's most student-centered research university.
• Nova Scotia Community College (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)
  • NSCC is a founding member of a new nationwide network in Canada focused on restorative development.  NSCC is Nova Scotia’s College – a vibrant, post-secondary institution committed to building Nova Scotia's economy and quality of life through education and innovation. NSCC offers more than 100 programs in five academic schools of Access, Applied Arts and New Media, Business, Health and Human Services, and Trades and Technology. Through a network of 13 campuses, NSCC serves almost 9,000 full time students a year, and more than 15,000 learners through customized programs, part time studies, apprenticeship, and continuing education offerings. After becoming Board-governed in 1996, NSCC is one of the youngest community colleges in Canada. A progressive governance model and strategic plan has enabled NSCC to contribute to the growth of the provincial economy through the development of people. The results for Nova Scotians are strong - 90 per cent of NSCC graduates are employed; 81 per cent of those employed grads are working directly in their field of study, and 94 per cent are living and working in Nova Scotia.
• Montana State University (Bozeman, MT, USA) 
  • Founded in 1893, MSU has an enrollment of over 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students.  The Reclamation Research Unit (in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences) is a multidisciplinary staff of research and teaching professionals committed to the reclamation and restoration of drastically disturbed or altered lands. Natural resources and ecosystems are often impaired by human development. In the western U.S. mining for coal and metals is a frequent cause of ecological impairment. Superfund cleanups with polluted soil, water, and air are the legacy of past mining activity in Montana and around the world. The staff of the Reclamation Research Unit is dedicated to the development of techniques, methods, and procedures to address the repair of newly created minesoils and older damaged landscapes.
• University of New Orleans (New Orleans, LA, USA)
  • Originally called Louisiana State University in New Orleans, the University of New Orleans (UNO) was legally established in 1956 by the Louisiana Legislature, in the wake of a citizens’ movement to bring tax-supported higher education to the metropolitan area. Greater New Orleans, with more than a fourth of the state’s population, was without a public college or university until that time.
  • UNO's restorative development roots started when the campus site was located on an abandoned United States Navy air station on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain in late 1957.  A quick renovation of barracks, service clubs, and other existing facilities made it possible to begin classes in September 1958, a year ahead of the original schedule. The inaugural convocation was held in a vacant aircraft hangar. This event marked the opening of the first racially integrated, public university in the South.
  • UNO is now the urban research university of the State of Louisiana, providing essential support for the educational, economic, cultural, and social well being of the culturally rich and diverse New Orleans metropolitan area.
• University of Guadalajara (Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico)
  • Founded in 1792, the University of Guadalajara (UDG) is Mexico's second oldest university, and its second largest, with an enrollment of about 185,000 students. It has six campuses in the Guadalajara area, each specializing in a different area of study, and five outside the metropolitan zone.
  • Revitalization Institute and UDG are currently working to create a 120-hour diploma course in integrated revitalization, primarily to serve government leaders, planners, economic development professionals, and private developers.
• Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio, USA) 
  • Ohio State University was founded in 1870, and is now the third largest university in the U.S., with an enrollment of over 50,000 students. 
  • OSU is represented in Revitalization Institute's Academic Network by their School of Environment and Natural Resources. The School of Environment and Natural Resources--of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at the Ohio State University--offers a Bachelor of Science degree in three majors and has administrative responsibility for two graduate programs that offer Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Natural Resources and Soil Science. Many faculty members also participate in the interdisciplinary Environmental Science Graduate Program.