A. Special Problems is a class in which a student chooses a willing faculty instructor and negotiates with them for a single-semester individual project or independent study. This allows student to pursue a special project (maybe a research project on the history of urban planning in Western cities or an applied GIS project identifying vernal pools threatened by development or volunteering for the summer at a non-profit that does a lot of planning-relevant work) or study an advanced specialized topic that we ordinarily do not offer as a class (like Conservation GIS or Advanced Readings in Transportation Planning). For the student, it is both a great opportunity and a big responsibility because it requires them to pick the topic and work fairly independently, although depending on the situation you will often find the faculty member providing weekly guidance and oversight.
You can choose any faculty in the EP&D program and ask them to work with you for a “special problems” course. What most require is a written proposal of the work to be done, complete with an indication of the hours per week involved, any final products that will be completed and turned in, basic criteria for grading the work, and perhaps a proposed reading list or maybe a proposed schedule of meetings between the student and faculty. It is somewhat different when it is a topical study than a special work experience, but both should be prefaced by a short (~ 1 page) proposal. There has been a little abuse of this in recent times so some may be a little tougher about what they are willing to fully count as 3 credit hours of work.
I am more than willing to discuss these matters further, but would encourage you to contact me with specific questions or concerns at dtulloch@crssa.rutgers.edu.
This and other FAQs are online at: http://crssa.rutgers.edu/people/dtulloch/faq/FAQs.htm
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