Courses
All courses carry 3 credits unless otherwise specified. A selection from the courses below will be offered this year.
540 Internet Governance
This class introduces students to actors, institutions and public interest battles fought nationally, regionally, and globally for the control of the Internet. It considers the interaction between law, technological design, and policy solutions in shaping infrastructure, code, and content of the global web.
585 Introduction to GIS
This class serves as an introduction to Geographic Information Science (GIS). GIS is the science of spatial relationships, linking data to locations to explore relations between objects. Based in geographic thought and emerging from initial applications in natural resource management, GIS has evolved to be a universally applicable way of thinking and set of knowledge, skills, and practices. The goals of this course are to teach you basic GIS concepts through practice and theory, to enable you to make useful and meaningful contributions to various disciplines through spatial analysis. Throughout this course, you will be challenged to not only think spatially, but apply spatial analysis techniques within GIS.
590P - Technology Policy and Innovation to Serve the Common Good
In this course, we will introduce Public Interest Technology, innovation, and relevant regulatory frameworks to provide a foundation to explore the thoughtful design of technology that can serve society while remaining safe for all users and stakeholders.
590STF Human Rights & Public Admin
All people are entitled to certain fundamental rights. This idea, sometimes known as the doctrine of human rights, became central to governance after World War II. Today, debate about the role of government around the world is heavily influenced by understandings about the scope of human rights.
597GC Governing the Commons
597NL Nonprofit Law and Management
598 Practicum
601 Politics and the Policy Process
Examination of the influence of political factors, including institutions and interests, on the initiation, formulation, and implementation of public policy. Examines the role of information and expertise in politics.
602 Public Management
Overview of organization theory including theories of administration, motivation, budgeting, decision making, inter-organizational relationships, and ethics. Uses case studies to provide a broad range of policy areas and organizations.
603 Public Policy Analysis
Integrates material from core courses and applies it to actual and hypothetical policy issues in many areas. Looks at social, economic, organizational, political, and other influences on policy decisions. Students complete a client-based project.
604 Policy and Program Evaluation
This course equips students with tools to evaluate the success of public and nonprofit policies and programs. Course topics will survey basic practices such as process and outcome evaluation, as well as techniques such as experimental and quasi-experimental designs for effective policy and program administration. In addition, the course explores the advantages of using evaluation as a mechanism for program improvement.
605 Economics and Public Policy
Introduction to microeconomics theory and policy analysis. Examines economic rationales for and against government policy and the economic consequences of public policy.
607 Policy Methods
Introduction to methodologies for analyzing, implementing, and evaluating public policy. Topics include research methods, participant observation survey research and questionnaire construction, research design, measurement theory and practice, and framing categories.
608 Introduction to Statistical Methods for Public Policy and Administration (4 credits)
Introduction to statistics including use and interpretation of statistics in policy research. Topics include statistical methods, descriptive statistics, probability theory, analysis of tabular data, correlation and regression, and multiple regression.
609 Workshop in Public Policy (4 credits)
Second-year project/seminar. Students interpret and analyze problems for public sector or non-profit clients. Also examines how problems affect public organizations, and the real constraints and opportunities that face such organizations. Small teams work on policy problems facing public organizations, then write and present a report to the seminar and the client.
610 Capstone in Public Policy and Administration (4 credits)
Students synthesize what they learned in the MPPA program in a research project that addresses an important gap in knowledge about a particular issue in public policy or management.
611 Comparative Public Policy
This course introduces the politics of policy-making in explicit cross-national focus. It satisfies a core requirement for CPPA MPP/MPPA students. Focus is on how values, institutions, and choices shape outcome.
613 Public Policy Seminar
Theories of policy-formation are applied to several timely issues of US and global policy. Issues are grouped around a broad theme, such as environmental policy or security. Relevant experts/policymakers will help students complete policy simulations on our issues.
614 Professional Development (1 credit)
Through skill development and contact with professionals, this course prepares students for successful careers in public policy and administration. Students gain an understanding of their strengths and develop career goals. Credit, 1.
616 Federal Budgeting Process
The course integrates the subject matter interests of each student and the federal budget process by utilizing various federal agencies current budgets as case studies. Students will become fluent in general budget terminology and the fiscal year budget schedule by exploring budget preparation, tracking, and execution. Emphasis will be put on developing the skills necessary to write clear succinct memos and presenting effective briefings.
618 Negotiations
Although we negotiate all the time, both in our professional and personal lives, most of us have not systematically learned and practiced effective negotiation strategies. Negotiating is a skill that can be learned and improved.
622 Ethics and Public Policy
Examination of the moral and ethical dimensions of decision making in public policy and administration, including individual responsibility for collective decisions, democratic theory, multiculturalism, and theories of injustice.
623 Professional Development Workshop (1 credit)
This course (ProSem II) is designed to support you as you search for a job or internship. This class will provide structure, deadlines, and support from your instructor, peers, and alumni during your job/internship search.
627 Fixing Social Media
This course examines sociotechnical problems with existing modes of social media and works towards building new, affirmative visions for social media through technical and policy means. Students will examine interventions to address problems with contemporary social media and design and develop possible interventions.
628 Navigating Washington
The course is designed to give students a preliminary understanding of how history, politics, economics, and the legislative and administrative processes in Washington shape US public policy on international trade, and the impact this has on US international relations.
630 Nonprofit Management
For students interested in pursuing careers in the nonprofit sector. Covers management topics related to human resources, financial management, and managing for mission.
632 Public Budgeting & Finance
This is an advanced seminar focusing on public budgeting. The central purpose is to develop an understanding of the institutions, issues, and processes involved in budgeting as well as related analytical skills that will give you the ability to function in careers in financial analysis and budgeting.
SPP 633 Performance Management
This course will focus on the fundamentals for designing and using a performance management framework in the public sector, specifically in the U.S. at the federal, state, local, and nonprofit levels. It will provide a working understanding of how to develop and apply "useful measures that are used" - a simple statement that is devilishly difficult to actually do, but is fundamental for every public manager to be successful.
650 U.S. Education Policy
An introduction to primary and secondary education policy in the United States, and to research on education policy. Emphasizes history and qualitative political science, but also includes other methodological and disciplinary approaches.
651 Social Inequalities, Technology and Public Policy
This seminar examines how communication policy has addressed social equity issues in light of domestic and global structural and technological transformations of the last two decades. The course examines how notions of access, diversity, expression, control and development have evolved within the structure of the U.S. and global communication policy regimes, discussing their implications for social exclusion.
690G Technology Law and Policy Governance Trends
This course provides a high-level overview of Internet and technology policy and regulation through a PIT lens. It addresses the increasingly critical and complex legal and policy questions raised by advances in information technology, digital transformation, and "platformization" in most sectors of the economy, with a particular focus on digital platforms and new technologies.
690STB State and Local Leadership in the Millennial Era
690STK Local to Global Sustainability Transitions
The Anthropocene is a new geological epoch with humans as the dominant force driving change across our Earth systems. Our social, ecological and technological systems are changing rapidly and characterized by increasing complexity and uncertainty. This presents a fundamental challenge to our ability to develop policy solutions to critical social and environmental problems from the local to the global scale. This course will explore these policy challenges and how our communities and institutions can develop new policy approaches to complex, wicked sustainability problems.
690STC An American Police State? Policy, Policy and Politics
690STP The Future of Government
This course invites students to discover, discuss, debate and reflect on the benefits and negative consequences of increasingly digitized governance. We will focus on strategy, management and operations, which entail empathy and understanding of stakeholders, collaboration across boundaries, learning and adaptability, among other human and social dimensions of organizational life.
697 RP Public Policy, Racism, and Patriarchy
696 Independent Study
690 Special Topics
697 Special Topics
797 Special Topics