Course Descriptions

Core Courses

(Eight Required – 3.0 Units each)

610 Seminar in Public Administration and Its Environment (3 units) In this seminar, students' personal experiences and insights create the base from which to explore the theoretical and practical aspects of public administration. This course examines the role of public administration in our society-and the role of society in public administration.

620 Research Methods for Public Administration (3 units) Sound research methods are an essential tool for helping public professionals gain an understanding of public needs and measure the success of programs. This course introduces students to the concepts, approaches and methods of research in public administration. Students explore different data collection methodologies (including experimental design, survey, observation, content analysis, case study, and evaluation) and use the computer lab (as needed) to compile statistical data for various projects and class assignments.

630 Organization Theory and Human Behavior (3 units) This course gives students a historical perspective on organization theory and examines contemporary approaches to the study of organization. The concepts discussed apply to public, private and nonprofit organizations. Students take an active role in bringing their own observations to the discussion of topics such as decision-making, power, conflict, communication, leadership, motivation, group effectiveness, organizational change, personal and organizational autonomy.

640 Public Policy Analysis (3 units) In this course, students work in groups to analyze various public and nonprofit case studies that illustrate methods and models of policy analysis. Students are encouraged to apply their professional experiences to the analyses. The course emphasizes developing a variety of perspectives to understand social problems, in the context of market failure as well as government failure. It also reviews the basics of the cost-benefit analysis method.

643 Public Human Resources Management (3 units) Public administrators confront human resource issues on a daily basis. This course provides the fundamental concepts, terminology and technical basics involved in public sector human resources management so that students can deal effectively with the human issues that arise in the workplace. Instructors and guest speakers use lectures, case studies, and discussions to provide real world perspectives, along with a focus on ethics in human resource management.

644 Public Budgeting and Financial Administration (3 units) The ability of public officials to manage budgets, distribute resources and predict costs is crucial to a community's well-being. This course gives students a solid grounding in the concepts, terminology and techniques in the art and science of public sector budgeting and financial administration. Students use real world examples to analyze various approaches to public budgeting and revenue planning, evaluate and problem solve fiscal activities in governmental units, and gain "hands-on" budget preparation and presentation experience.

650 Public Policy Process (3 units) Public policy often determines the core of our political and personal lives. This course examines the development of legislative and regulatory policies and the role of public administrators as active participants in the policymaking process by studying problem identification, agenda setting, policy proposal and adoption. Students develop the breadth, skill and knowledge, as well as the understanding of our diverse society, needed for comprehensive analyses of public programs.

660 Integrative Seminar (3 units) This capstone course, taken at or near the end of a student's program, helps the student refresh, deepen and integrate his or her knowledge of public administration and prepare for the comprehensive examination.. Students define their project or subfields, and then take an active role (through leading discussions, role plays, etc.) in shaping the course.

Elective Courses

(Three Required – 3.0 Units each)

612A Intergovernmental Relations (3 units) Relationships between governmental units are more important than ever in shaping and implementing policy in today's complex society. Students in this course participate in an in-depth examination and analysis of the dynamics of the legislative, political, and interorganizational processes while analyzing the relationships of different levels and branches of government. Students evaluate lobbying, change agents, decision-making procedures, and media impacts. They also develop skills to support change and influence decisions through the use of interorganizational techniques.

612B Comparative Public Policy and Management (3 units) Even in our increasingly interconnected world, nations address similar problems using very different policies and programs. This course examines why countries formulate and implement different public policies for problems that look so much alike. It applies a systematic, critical approach to understanding the effect of ideological orientations, political institutions, and governmental processes on the public policies of modern states. Comparative approaches to public and nonprofit management are also examined.

622A Policy Implementation & Program Evaluation (3 units) Once a policy has been developed, how is it implemented? Once implemented, how do we judge its success? This course focuses exclusively on strategies for successful implementation of policy solutions in a competitive policy environment and on mechanisms for evaluating program success

622B Management of Information Resources (3 units) Effective leaders must have an understanding of the technologies and trends in today's information-driven world. Effective managers must grasp the planning processes and the development of an individualized approach to managing Information Resources. Through instruction and discussion, students in this course explore trends in information technology, examine the emerging role of information resources as management tools, and consider information resource issues in the public and private sectors.

632A Organizational Leadership (3 units) How do leaders make sound, ethical decisions in today's ever-changing world? Students in the MPA program are the leaders of the future. This course is designed to make them familiar with the traits and habits of strong, ethical leaders-preparing them to rise to the top of today's dynamic organizations. Participants will evaluate the effectiveness of various leadership styles and explore their own leadership traits.

632B Strategic Management (3 units) Limited resources, competing priorities, rapidly changing needs and the call for innovative solutions all mean that strategic management is more important than ever. When done well, this process is open to all possible outcomes, as well as the input and influence of all stakeholders. Students in this course examine how managers guide the creation of goals, setting of priorities, coordinating of disparate activities, and adjustment to a changing environment. While exploring the concepts and models of strategic management currently used in the public and private sector, students will prepare and present a strategic plan to develop an understanding of the process involved in strategic management.

632C Communication in Public Organization (3 units) Sound communication is the lifeblood of any successful organization. This course analyzes the impact of organizational culture, communication networks, message distortion, communication climate, communication and conflict, new communication technologies and communication during crisis situations on public and nonprofit organizations.

632D Management of Nonprofit Organizations (3 units) The non-profit sector is growing in both size and importance in our nation. This course meets the needs of the professional administrator who works within the sector as well as the government employee who works in cooperation with the sector. Participants examine and analyze impacts on social policy, governance through boards of directors, legal and fiscal responsibilities, policy formulation, operational and strategic planning, budgets, finance, fundraising and fund development, public and private ventures, and partnerships with business, government and the community.

642A-Ethics and Professionalism (3 units) Ethical questions and challenges are a part of professional life-and are particularly present for those who work in the public trust. Students in this course prepare to analyze and confront ethical issues in their professional life studying professional relationships and responsibilities as well as questions of public power, violence, deception, and justice.

642B-Public Sector Labor Relations (3 units) Public administrators must deal with labor-relations matters on a regular basis. This course is an accelerated intensive study of labor-relations concepts through role-playing participation in labor/management negotiations and formal arbitration.

642C Public Entrepreneurial Management (3 units) The public increasingly demands that government agencies provide more and better public services with the use of fewer public resources. This course explores innovative responses by government agencies to these demands. New approaches to service delivery and financing are examined, such as rightsizing, empowerment strategies, leveraging community resources, impact measurement, and community-based performance assessment.

642D Community and Economic Development (3 units) The questions of community and economic development are interrelated and more important than ever. How can practitioners facilitate community growth and change? What approaches are fruitful in promoting economic development and what effect might this have on community development? Students in this course will cultivate community development skills such as intercultural communication, group facilitation and collaborative planning. They will explore economic development tools such as assessment, strategies to induce investment, and ways to assess the social costs and benefits of economic development.

652A Administrative Law Many public administrators find that they benefit from an understanding of basic legal concepts. An introduction to law and legal concepts, particularly as they pertain to the administrative process at the federal, state and local levels, is the subject of this course. Topics covered include delegation of power, rulemaking, administrative adjudication, due process requirements in administrative proceedings, alternative legal means for carrying out agency functions, checks against abuses of power, and legal mechanisms to protect the integrity of the administrative process.

Non-Profit Sector Management

MPA 632D Overview of Non-Profit Organizational Management (3 units) (existing course) The non-profit sector is growing both in size and importance throughout the United States. This course meets the needs of the professional administrator who works within the non-profit sector as well as the government employee who works collaboratively with the sector. Participants identify, prioritize and analyze the myriad impacts on social policy, governance through boards of directors, legal and fiscal responsibilities, policy formulation, operational and strategic planning, budgets, finance, fundraising and fund development, public and private ventures, and partnerships with business, government and the community.

MPA 632E Strategic Planning, Needs Assessment and Program Design (3 units) This course examines the critical interconnections among the organization's strategic goals and objectives, community needs assessments, program design to meet those needs, and meeting the organization's stated mission. Students will gain knowledge of the strategic planning process through an experiential approach that creates the mission, identifies long-range goals, and develops objectives and effective action plans. The course then gives students exposure to the full cycle of activities to examine organizational effectiveness by exploring approaches to community needs assessment and building programs and evaluation processes to meet the issues reflected in that assessment.

MPA 632F Issues and Problems in Human Resources, Board and Volunteer Management in Non-Profits (3 units) This course is an introduction to the aggregate of the human resource management process in complex organizations. The course will focus on current policy issues and problems that challenge not only human resource specialists but supervisory and managerial personnel as well. Further, beyond the internal focus, the course will also examine the external human resource issues brought to non-profit organizations by governing boards and volunteers. Students will study important HR policy issues for their political, legal, social, ethical, and organizational ramifications.

MPA 632G Non-Profit Finance and Financial Management (3 units) This course exposes the student to non-profit financial management concepts and practices, including the framework for budgeting, financial analysis, internal controls, and reporting. Students will engage in practical exercises and learn to use tools for ethical and competent financial management. The course will introduce and cement the partnership between non-profit programming and effective financial management, identifying the intersections among governance, programmatic vision, and financial practices.

MPA 632H Funding and Resource Development for Non-Profit Organizations (3 units) This course examines how fundraising functions and its critical role in non-profit management. In this course, students will learn what elements must be in place before a non-profit organization raises money; how to design and implement various approaches to raising funds, including grant writing, events and major gifts; and how to develop, manage and evaluate an annual fundraising plan.

MPA 632I Program Implementation and Management for Non-Profit Services (3 units) This course will examine the policies, strategies and the decision-making process to support successful program implementation from a manager's perspective. Non-profit policy formulation places emphasis on training managers to develop and analyze problems, both in terms of choosing goals and organizing resources to achieve them. Students will be given the opportunity to formulate strategic implementation considerations using environmental analysis, resource assessment, goal determination, program planning and evaluation, and performance overview. This course will concentrate on the process of implementing programs and the role of advocacy in achieving programmatic and overall mission attainment.

Performance Management and Productivity in Public Sector

MPA 623A Seminar in Effective Public Sector Management (3 units) This course is designed to introduce seminar participants to the effective functioning and management of organizations in the public sector. The course will focus on key man-agement issues in public sector organizations, and how to more effectively function in leadership roles in those organizations. Seminar participants are encouraged to relate work-life issues to theoretical perspectives and to bring in examples from their professional experiences to seminar discussions.

MPA 620 Research Methods for Public Administration (existing course) (3 units) Sound research methods are an essential tool for helping public professionals gain an understanding of public needs and measure the success of programs. This course intro-duces students to the concepts, approaches and methods of research in public administration. Students explore different data collection methodologies (including experimental design, survey, observation, content analysis, case study, and evaluation) and use the computer lab (as needed) to compile statistical data for various projects and class assignments.

MPA 623B Approaches and Methods in Program Evaluation (3 units) Public Administration is fundamentally a discipline interested in identifying public prob-lems and implementing successful solutions. Several courses focus on the identification of common problems and review potential policy solutions. This course focuses on assessing policy strategies and solutions at the programmatic level – Does a given pro-gram work? And, if so, how well? Program evaluation is concerned with evaluating the extent to which a given program is successfully meeting its stated objectives. Where Policy Analysis is a Pre-Implementation assessment, Program Evaluation is a Post-Implementation assessment.

MPA 623C Performance Reporting Measures in Government (3 units) A fundamental rethinking about the role of government is taking place. Over the past decade, national, state, and local government agencies have been challenged to reinvent, deregulate, privatize and most significantly, demonstrate their value through performance tests and measures. This trend has shifted management away from a focus on bureau-cratic rules to a focus on organizational results. By concentrating on performance rather than compliance elected officials and agency managers hope to improve public service delivery while demonstrating evidence based accountability. This course focuses on methods and strategies for designing performance measures and indicators and effective ways for measuring organizational outcomes.

MPA 623D Human Resources and the Basics of Competencies Measurement in Government (3 units). Public Sector managers and human resources directors need to identify human capital and align them with the organizational mission and goals. Design of basic competency meas-ures allows organizations to sustain competitive advantage and create better value through serving public purpose. This course will give you a practical look at how to measure each of the human resource functions effectively through the use of the balanced scorecard method in order to enhance the organization's achieving their intended goals and mission.

MPA 623E Performance Budgeting in the Public Sector (3 units) The demand by public officials to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of public service delivery, and the way in which the organization allocates it's resources, has led to a greater emphasis in the utilization of performance measurement techniques. This course provides students with a foundation in the concepts, terminology, and methods of public sector budgeting and financial administration. Various techniques of budgeting, including line item, performance, program and zero-base are covered in this course, with an emphasis on performance budgeting techniques and tools.

Comprehensive Examination

697S Comprehensive Examination Preparation (3 units) The comprehensive examination provides students with the opportunity to integrate their learning and demonstrate mastery of the material. Students selecting this option prepare for examination in General Public Administration and in two specialized subfields.