Tell your SCARP '75 story

As we reflect on the impact and evolution of the school, we want to hear from you. We are conducting a study, to:

• Discover more about how SCARP has evolved
• Reflect on the impact of our instruction
• Learn how we can still grow
• Gather your stories about the impact you have had in putting your knowledge into action in and beyond the Lower Mainland

By examining SCARP’s history, there’s no end to what we can learn together about the evolution of Planning education. 

Interested?

1. Fill out this survey to answer some quick questions
2. Let us know if you’re also willing to be interviewed

Tell your SCARP '75 story now!

In 2026, we will gather to celebrate our history, people, and impacts on the field and the world.  

Watch out for details about this event, and other potential celebrations we’re planning for this year. 

Reflecting on SCARP's legacy

One of our chief values is “Curiosity, excellence, and courage – in what we do”. To this end, we resolve our history and our future is an aspirational story of learning and partnership in the way we generate and share knowledge, to cultivate an openness to different perspectives, dialogue about those differences, and a willingness to learn.

As SCARP Director Heather Campbell says,  

 

“It is the way of Planners that we believe a better future can always be created. 

We are concerned with action and change, and the partnerships that make change work for all populations.”

 

This year, we’re excited to:

• Highlight the ways in which planning and how it is taught has evolved
• Reflect on how planning education might be refined to best equip graduates to meet emergent demands today
• Showcase the impact SCARP’s graduates have had on the development of local communities 

UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning has a rich history as one of the first dedicated planning schools in Canada, now one of Canada’s longest standing planning schools. As Tommy Jellinek, one of SCARP’s first students, explains, founding Director Peter Oberlander held its students to a high standard to prepare them for the world’s busy era of hyper-urbanisation.  

Clive L. Justice, class of 1953

• One of BC's First registered landscape architects, Past President of BC Society of Landscape Architects
• Principle and Co-Founder, Justice, Webb and Vincent Landscape Architects

 

Earl A. Levin, class of 1953

• Worked as part of the core team that established Vancouver’s first Planning department;
• Planning Director of Winnipeg, 1960s/70s;
• President of Town Planning Institute of Canada;
• Chair of Planning Department, U. of Manitoba;
• Taught at SCARP

 

Tommy Jellinek

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Read our story on Tommy

More stories of our history to come! 

Today, SCARP has graduated about 3,000 practicing planners into the field and counting.

Since our beginnings 75 years ago, major cultural, technological, economic, and social changes have taken place locally and globally. In response, SCARP alumni have contributed to the practice of linking knowledge and action (Friedman 1987) in a changing world, and across a broad array of practice arenas, including sustainability, social equity, and decolonization.  

A community of grads, planners, and partners are now networked worldwide addressing some of today’s greatest challenges.  

SCARP's vision today:

Knowledge in Action – Planning in Partnership

SCARP’s mission statement commits us, through education and research, to generating and transforming knowledge into action by planning in partnership to improve lives and communities and the quality of built and natural environments.  

The culture and work of the School are shaped and guided by our values: 

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Read SCARP’s full Strategic Plan 

Pursuant to our Vision, our events and our stories invite global planners, the broader global public, and industry partners alike to share knowledge and perspectives, and make of that knowledge sharing a community.

Faculty new and old, and their good works

This decade has seen an extraordinary influx of new faculty positions, each of them enriching the School with new ideas and new initiatives.  

Together, SCARP's faculty not only teach a new generation of Planners,but engage the larger community and the Planning profession with new research insights.