Master of Community and Regional Planning - Indigenous Planning

The Master of Community and Regional Planning (MCRP) degree prepares graduates to shape community and regional change, and work towards environmental sustainability and social justice for their communities and regions as well as the larger world. The MCRP degree program is the only nationally-accredited planning degree offered in New Mexico. Graduates work in research and professional careers with community-based organizations, nonprofit and international non-governmental organizations, private sector firms, and public agencies at the tribal, local, regional, state and federal government levels.

Indigenous Planning:

This concentration is built on Indigenous planning as an emerging paradigm that uses a culturally responsive and value-based approach to community development. Community development requires that leadership balance the immediacy of action (short term) with a comprehensive vision (long term). Over millennia, Indigenous societies have evolved unique philosophies, languages and patterns of subsistence that can be described as worldviews. The concentration is built around the assumption that the knowledge of the past informs the present and, together, this builds a vision towards the future. This is known as the seven generations model and is the basis for action and community engagement. The coursework emphasizes an interdisciplinary design and planning approach that is inherent in placemaking.