School of Landscape Architecture Mission and Values

Mission: The mission of the School of Landscape Architecture at the University of Tennessee is to advance the discipline of landscape architecture as a robust field of inquiry and application.

We accomplish this mission by:

  • Preparing a diverse population of students to critically and creatively engage the complex, multiscalar, socio-ecological challenges and potentials of the 21st century, thereby positioning them for leadership across a range of career trajectories.
  • Developing and disseminating scholarly research and creative activity that makes meaningful contributions to advancing the discourse of the discipline and elevating living conditions in the communities it serves.
  • Engaging local, state, and regional communities as a means to educate and excite the public imagination, develop, demonstrate and deploy innovative planning and design practices, and advocate for the advancement of the field.

 

Values: The School of Landscape Architecture is guided by the following values:

  1. We are committed to the engagement of the medium of landscape as a critical, cultural practice, mindful of the incredible diversity of precedents, practices, and populations that are inherent in it.
  2. We are committed to a progressive, evolving, integrated curriculum, which prepares students for speculative and practical realms of planning and design and that is situated in the context of grand socio-ecological challenges facing contemporary society.
  3. We are committed to a discursive educational environment that engenders respect for diversity in all of its forms and meanings, and which privileges the production of diverse ideas and new modes of thought and action.
  4. We are committed to the unique landscapes and cultures of our local and regional context, as well as to the reality that the local is inextricable from larger global flows, processes, and policies.
  5. We are committed to the development of relevant, contemporary, technical skills, which are critically informed by the evolving theories, influences, and technologies shaping the field.