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Master of Public Administration - Working Professionals (Alternating Weekends and Online)

If you are a public sector professional who recognizes the need to improve your knowledge and skills in order to advance in your career, you will find our innovative Master of Public Administration Program has been designed to meet your needs. Faculty will challenge you to both identify challenges unique to the public sector and to provide effective solutions to those challenges.

Program Features:

For an outline of this program, please see the Curriculum Guide.

Terrell G. Manyak, Ph.D. - Professor of Public Administration; Ph.D., UCLA. Public policy and economic development.

Curriculum Guide  top

Curriculum - Master of Public Administration (Working Professionals) Offered on alternating weekends and online.

Each of the following is required (40 total credits):

Capstone:

For a description of these courses, including prerequisite requirements, see the Course Descriptions - Master of Public Administration page.

Course Descriptions  top

Master of Public Administration

Full-Time professionals are available to discuss course content in greater detail with you. Simply contact your Admissions Manager at 800.672.7223 Ext. 5168 or use the Contact Us link.

PUB 5450     Public Administration in Theory and Application  (3 cr.)

This course examines the role of public administration and not-for-profit organizations in a democratic society. Students examine the cultural and intellectual evolution of the field, the theories, forces, and people that drive the public sector and the specific management techniques used to implement public policy. Finally, attention is given to how public policies are developed and the institutions that governments use to implement those policies.

PUB 5451     Managing Information and Technology in the Public Sector  (3 cr.)

Students will gain an overview of the key issues and challenges involved with managing projects involving hardware, software, and telecommunications; data warehousing and data mining systems; systems development and implementation; and end-user computing. The emphasis is to assist students with the tools and techniques to be able to manage information as a resource and to use it to help transform public sector organizations and promote innovative best practices.

PUB 5461     Administrative Law and Ethics in the Public Sector  (3 cr.)

This course introduces students to fundamental legal concepts regarding administrative law and the administrative process. The course also introduces students to the field of ethics and shows how ethical principles are applied to administrative agencies to ensure not only legal but also moral government decision-making. Administrative law is the body of law concerned with the actions of administrative agencies, frequently called the "4th branch of government" in the United States. The course thus examines how administrative agencies are created, how they exercise their powers, how they make laws and policy, formally as well as informally, the laws that govern agency rulemaking and adjudications, especially the Administrative Procedure Act, Constitutional and other legal protections afforded against agency actions, and how agency actions are reviewed and remedied by the courts and legislative branch of government. The course also examines the intergovernmental relations and the political and practical constraints that influence administrative policy. Prerequisites: POLS 1010 or equivalent.

PUB 5462     Leadership in the Public Sector  (3 cr.)

This course will explore the dimensions of leadership and decision making within the public sector. Students will explore the major theoretical frameworks of leadership as well as the relationship of leadership to organizational change and effective management strategies. Emphasis is given to assisting practitioners and students with in-depth reflection for self-development in such areas as decision-making, ethics, and emotional intelligence.

PUB 5463     Emergency Management in the Public Sector  (3 cr.)

This course will explore several major issues, theories, and strategies in contemporary disaster and emergency management. The main objectives of this course are to expose the students to: 1) The historical, administrative, institutional, and organizational framework of disaster and emergency management in the United States. 2) The role of the federal, state, and local governments in disasters; 3) The role of nongovernmental organizations in emergency management; 4) The role of land use regulation, the media, crisis communication, insurance and citizen participation; 5) The social and economic costs of disasters; 6) The management of a natural or man-made disaster.

PUB 5465     Public-Sector Human Resource Management  (3 cr.)

The political and institutional environment of public human resource management is examined. Emphasis is given to the challenges facing the public sector in attracting and developing human assets in an environment of conflicting goals, stakeholder obligations, and a highly aware electorate. Specific topics include the evolution of the modern public service, the functions of human resource management, employment discrimination, labor management relations, professionalism and ethics.

PUB 5472     Public Finance  (3 cr.)

This course focuses on the economics of the public sector. It delineates the goods and services provided by government and how they are funded. It deals with the public goods and their characteristics. It explores income redistribution. The efficiency, equity and incentive effects of taxation are studied. Multilevel government relations and finances are examined.

PUB 5473     Public Budgeting  (3 cr.)

The budgeting process required to determine how public sector organizations spend money is often characterized as a time-consuming and frustrating process. Yet, it is also the central vehicle for determining the public policy agenda. Budgeting is at once a highly technical, structured, even rational process and simultaneously a politically charged and controversial event. This course explores both sides of this budget equation. Students become familiar with the techniques and practices of budget preparation and documentation including how to develop and present a government budget. In addition, students gain an appreciation of the political and policy implications of budget decisions. Prerequisite: ACTP 5001 or equivalent and PUB 5472.

PUB 5477     Public-Sector Statistical Analysis  (3 cr.)

Students gain an overview of the commonly used statistics and research methods in public administration including descriptive statistics, statistical distributions, probability, hypothesis development and testing, correlation, contingency table analysis, and regression. Research design, measurement strategy, data collection, data analysis, and reporting results are discussed. A broad range of quantitative and qualitative methods are covered in order to provide the analytical tools necessary to examine the myriad public sector issues. Prerequisite: QNTP 5002 or equivalent.

PUB 5480     Public Policy and Program Formulation and Implementation  (3 cr.)

Students develop a working knowledge of public-sector policymaking and learn to analyze public policy problems in order to understand how public policy is formulated, decided upon, and implemented. Emphasis is on agenda setting, program design, and implementation. Prerequisite: PUB 5450.

PUB 5481     Evaluation of Public Policies and Programs  (3 cr.)

Students develop a working knowledge of public sector policy and program evaluation with an emphasis on the history of evaluation, the social indicators movement, the politics of program evaluation, goal identification, Wilson's Law, performance measurement, methods of analysis, who uses evaluations and the problem of partisanship. Prerequisites: GMP 5480 and PUB 5480.

PUB 5499     Strategic Planning in the Changing Public Environment  (3 cr.)

This course emphasizes two broad approaches to strategic planning: explicit planning and adaptive planning. Students develop a working knowledge of how to do planning in the public sector according to these two approaches. In the usual way, students learn about the SWOT method, but then much more is gained by studying how planning is actually carried out according to three adaptive perspectives and other ancillary and explicit approaches including learning theory and contingency theory. Students learn what went wrong in the Katrina disaster and what continues to go wrong. The question is put: Can Americans plan? Finally, students review how local community and economic development planning occurs through resort to charettes and public-private partnerships. Prerequisites: PUB 5450

PUB 5402     Master of Public.Administration Integrative Capstone  (4 cr.)

The M.P.A. capstone workshop focuses on the knowledge, skills, and abilities that define a competent public or non-profit sector manager. A central theme of the course is the roles, responsibilities, and outlooks of the manager today and the competing influences in public decision making under fragmented authority that result in public sector management as the art of compromise. Through role-playing in the various roles of elected officials or professional administrators, students will conduct a city council meeting to experience the actual administration of the political agenda. They will learn to integrate public values and ethical perspectives in decision-making including the mobilization of support for decision-outcomes and garnering resources for implementation of policy. This course gives students first-hand experience in dealing with political mandates that often come loaded down with special interests that make it hard to reconcile the manager's desire to guard the general public interest with politically driven policy. This class is pass/fail and does not calculate into the student's GPA. This course is not financial aid eligible when taken by itself.

Prerequisite Course Descriptions  top

ACTP 5001     Introductory Accounting  (3 cr.)

An accelerated introductory course stressing the essential elements of accounting skills that will be used in the master's degree program. Managerial uses of accounting data and preparation of financial statements will be covered in this course. Course satisfies program prerequisite of financial accounting for master's degree programs.

QNTP 5002     Introductory Statistics  (3 cr.)

This course satisfies the prerequisite of statistics for master's degree programs. The concepts of statistical notation, probability are covered as well as the principles of estimation using the central limit theorem.

POLS 1010     American Govt & Politics  (3 cr.)

An introduction to the processes of the American national and local forms of government. Included are the nature and structure of government, its characteristics and functions, and the intimate relation of government to other interests.