Current Courses

Spring 2025

  • CMP 4260-001
    Land, Law & Culture
    Location: GC 2560 (GC 2560)
  • CMP 6260-001
    Land Use Law
    Location: CRCC 215 (CRCC 215)
  • REDEV 6260-001
    Land Use Law
    Location: CRCC 215 (CRCC 215)

Professional Organizations

  • Women's Transportation Seminar. 01/2012 - present. Position : Member.
  • American Planning Association. 01/2003 - present. Position : Member.
  • Oregon State Bar. 10/01/1987 - present. Position : Member.

Teaching Philosophy

Over more than two decades at the University of Utah I have observed through my experiences as a teacher four attributes that I now try to foster in the ways that I approach my teaching and mentoring activities. 

The first of these attributes is a sense of discovery. It comes from my observation that many students find what resonates with them by surprise, as they are pursuing some other objective. Not infrequently, the epiphanal moment comes in places where they least expected it. “I thought I would hate this topic, but I find that I love it,” is a comment that I have heard a number of times from students. Finding delight where it is not anticipated leads to discovery not only in the topic but within oneself, as well. The point of discovery often then becomes a guide that can lead the student to pursue paths of new inquiry and realization. The nature of the discovery process is illusive, making it difficult to fabricate, and what works for one will not always work for another. I have learned, however, that I can help foster it by displaying for my students the pleasure I find in the topics that I am teaching. This includes infusing my teaching with a generally high level of energy and enthusiasm, but also with occasional explanations on why I find the topic so engaging. The personal, unguarded reflection can get students’ attention in a way that other techniques cannot. 

A sense of relevance, the second attribute, is tied to a desire for students to comprehend how their education relates to things that are important to themselves and their world, not abstractly but in direct and concrete ways. In speaking with alumni, I frequently hear from them how they use concepts they learned in one of my classes in some way in their current careers. One of the ways that I try to nurture this sense of relevance is to connect course concepts to things happening currently in the world around the class. This includes using contemporary and emerging materials from news media and other popular sources. The home page for my Canvas course websites, for example, always features articles pulled from news sources or recent academic literature. Over the course of a semester, I will replace those articles with new materials as many as 40 times. I want students to comprehend that what we are focusing on in the class is important in the world far beyond the classroom. 

The third attribute—the practice of application—is related to relevance and is facilitated from learning how to implement and activate concepts learned in the class in new and unfamiliar settings. To do this, I look for ways to have students first derive intellectual constructs from course materials (often primary sources) and then weave them together with facts and circumstances outside of the course. In Land, Law & Culture, my undergraduate (CW) writing course, I do this by requiring them to write longer-form papers that integrate themes from the course with subjects of their choosing from outside of the course. In Land Use Law, my graduate law course, students create their own outlines of legal principles that they extract from a series of judicial opinions and then use those outlines to analyze unfamiliar fact patterns that I write for the course exams. 

All of these attributes are pointed toward the same end: that students develop a sense of personal ownership of knowledge. By discovering unexpected delight in a topic, understanding how ideas are relevant in the broader world, and experiencing how to apply constructs in unfamiliar contexts, students internalize knowledge as something that is uniquely theirs.    

The traditional study of pedagogy is centered on the techniques and skills of teaching practice and the structure of curriculum content.  I have learned, however, that becoming a master teacher also involves taking risks, investing oneself emotionally, and providing generosity and hospitality—all of which entail authenticity and vulnerability.  Crossing over from being a competent deliverer of content to a facilitator of discovery necessitates tapping into one’s sources of inspiration and energy, and gaining insight into, and acceptance of, oneself as human.  This, I believe, provides a foundation for being an agent of change and a facilitator of discernment and formation in the lives of students. 

 

Courses I Teach

  • CMP 4260 - Land, Law & Culture
    During the semester, students in this course will: 1. Obtain a comprehensive understanding of: • The history and development of modern concepts of land ownership and control; • The physical, historical, economic, and cultural influences that shape modern land planning laws for both private and public lands; • The basic mechanics of how land planning laws are expressed in statutes, regulations, and ordinances; and • How the various types of land planning laws manifest themselves in the decisions that communities make regarding the use of land. 2. Gain knowledge in how land planning laws are expressed and implemented in the following contexts: • Zoning and subdivision control; • Smart growth and growth management; • Utah zoning and planning statutes; • Federal statutes and agency regulations. 3. Use their knowledge and understanding about the above subjects to assess critically an immerging issue in landscape law or policy. 4. Further develop and refine their written communication skills, particularly those associated with policy assessment and analysis.
  • CMP 6280 - Wasatch Transportation Academy
    The Wasatch Transportation Academy (WTA, CMP 6280-004) is a type of “community planning academy” through which community residents come together over the course of a semester to learn about transportation planning and decisionmaking processes. The course instructors are professionals from government agencies (municipal, regional, state, and federal) who provide instruction on how decisions are made in their agencies and how community members can affect those decisions. In addition to participating in subject matter presentations, students develop project proposals for needed changes they observe in their communities—a new bike lane here, an intersection redesign there—which can improve transportation conditions in the places they live and work. Community-based students are mentored on their projects by university planning graduate students and the course’s instructor-professionals. At the end of the semester, students present their projects to real decisionmakers (e.g., city council members, members of the state transportation commission). The course is managed by a member of the faculty of the U’s Department of City & Metropolitan Planning (Keith Bartholomew).
  • CMP/REDEV 6260 - Land Use Law
    Throughout this course, students: 1. Obtain a comprehensive understanding of: • The common law and constitutional bases of modern planning law; • The basic mechanics of how planning law is expressed in judicial opinions, statutes, administrative regulations, and zoning and subdivision ordinances; and • How the various types of planning law manifest themselves in local entitlement (permitting) processes and decisions; 2. Master skills of inquiry and learning necessary to: • Read and understand judicial opinions, administrative regulations, and local government ordinances; • Extract important concepts from large volumes of information; • Assemble those concepts into larger constructs and systems; • Apply those systems in a variety of experience-based contexts and situations; and • Express understanding of the systems and their constituent concepts verbally and in writing. 3. Gain knowledge in how the law is expressed and implemented in the following subject areas: • Zoning and subdivision control; • Rights and duties of property ownership; • Permitting and development entitlement procedures; • Discrimination, especially in housing; and • Utah zoning and planning statutes.

Student Projects

  • The Future of Fleet Block: Examining Urban Health in a Justice-Oriented Development Process. Makaylah Noelani Respicio-Evans. 08/16/2021 - 05/15/2022
  • Gateway Transit Solutions. Hannah Pack. 08/15/2021 - 05/15/2022
  • Transportation Demand Management for the Gallivan Center. Laura Stevens. 08/15/2021 - 05/15/2022
  • Weber County Housing Affordability & Access Study. Anders Hart, Madison Merrill. 08/15/2021 - 05/15/2022
  • 2021 Historic Preservation Easement Summary Report . Ronnie Sloane. 08/15/2021 - 05/15/2022
  • Crime Prevention and Adaptive Reuse of Motels. Minerva Jimenez-Garcia. 08/15/2021 - 05/15/2022
  • Urban Nomads: Laws, Lived Experiences and Response Strategies. Luke DuBois. 08/15/2021 - 05/15/2022
  • Summit County Rail Trail Corridor Plan. Sophie Frankenburg, Marly Kapacinskas. 08/15/2021 - 05/15/2022
  • Rural Transportation Planning Guide. Sophie Bellina. 08/15/2021 - 05/15/2022
  • Honors Thesis: Center Lines, Turn Lanes and Bicycle Infrastructure: Bikeways in the United States and Salt Lake City’s 1700 South Corridor. Thomas Millar. 07/2012 - 05/2013
  • Honors Thesis. Michael Baker. 08/25/2008 - 05/01/2009
  • Honors Thesis . Robert Costa. 08/25/2007 - 05/01/2008
  • Honors Thesis. Christina Bartholomew. 08/25/2007 - 05/01/2008

Pedagogical Publications

  • McNeil, N., Bartholomew, K., & Ryan, M. (2023). Transportation Academies as Catalysts for Civic Engagement in Transportation Decision-making. Transportation Research Record, 2677 (10): 849-862. Paper published, 06/01/2023.
    https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981231172508
  • Bartholomew, K. & Locher, M. (2011). People & Place: Communication and Community Development. In T. Angotti, C. Doble, P. Horrigan (eds.), Service-Learning in Design and Planning. Oakland, CA: New Village Press. Paper published, 01/2012.
    http://www.newvillagepress.net/book/?GCOI=97660100...
  • People & Place: Eliciting Community Values. Utah Campus Compact Annual Conference, February 27 – 28, 2010. Salt Lake City, Utah. Presentation other, 2010.
  • People & Place: Eliciting Community Values. Utah Campus Compact Annual Conference, February 26 – 28, 2009. Dixie State College, St. George, Utah. Presentation other, 2009.

Teaching Projects

  • Wasatch Transportation Academy. Project Lead: Keith Bartholomew. Collaborators: Nathan McNeil. National Institute for Transportation and Communities 08/15/2021 - 05/15/2022. Total Budget: $29,263.00.