Building on its long history of community outreach, the Department of Landscape Architecture hosted a reception celebrating a new partnership between the University of Wisconsin-Madison”s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College. As faculty, students, and partners from several cooperating departments and organizations looked on, CALS associate dean Richard Barrows and LCO College president Betsy McDougal signed a letter of intent that will pave the way for a formal transfer agreement and increased cross-campus exchange.

Randal Waller, assistant director of the UW-Madison Morgridge Center for Public Service, presented the group with funding for a kickoff project at LCO College. This project will partner faculty and students from the UW-Madison Department of Landscape Architecture with faculty and students from LCO College on a 20-year Vision Plan for the LCO College campus and conservation design development for new housing on the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation. Long-term partnership plans include short courses for conservation development, a research program for energy-efficient “green housing” and alternative energy, and recruitment and retention of transfer students from LCO College to the UW-Madison.