April 2012
The UC Irvine Master's Program in Urban and Regional Planning celebrated its 20th anniversary on Tuesday, April 3, at the University Club with a luncheon featuring keynote speaker Henry Cisneros, executive chairman of CityView and former secretary of housing and urban development under President Clinton. Cisneros (pictured with Valerie Jenness, Dean of the School of Social Ecology, and David Feldman, Chair of the Department of Planning, Policy and Design) discussed the economic and creative strength of American cities and noted the importance of training future urban planners, as a larger share of the world's population now lives in urban areas. The event benefited the Raymond Watson Fellowship Fund, named for one of the Irvine Company's original architects and urban planners. Watson played a key role in building the city of Irvine and the university in the 1960s.