| PA | 400 | Public Administration Theory | 3 OR 4 hours. | PA as a professional and scholarly area of knowledge and practice focusing on administrative reform and its intellectual roots. Politics versus administration, efficiency, effectiveness, representative bureaucracy, and market versus bureaucratic alternatives. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 407 | Data Analysis for Public Administration | 4 hours. | Topics and methods of analyzing information relevant to the administration and management of public programs and organizations. Includes causation, univariate statistics, significance testing, correlation, and regression. Prerequisite(s): Appropriate score on the department placement test; and graduate standing; or consent of the instructor. Admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 410 | Economics for Public Administration and Policy Decisions | 3 OR 4 hours. | Basic economic tools and methods relevant to public administration and current policy, including opportunity cost, competition versus monopoly, economic efficiency, equity, market failure, public goods, and externalities. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite(s): Appropriate score on the department placement test and graduate standing and admission to the MPA program; or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 415 | Organization Theory and Public Management | 3 OR 4 hours. | Theories and concepts of organizational behavior and public management from economics, sociology and political science. Organizational decision making, bureaucracy, organizational change and learning, public versus private organizations, leadership, and organizational culture. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 447 | Survey Planning and Design | 3 hours. | Theory and applications of sample survey planning and design for conducting research in health sciences and related fields. Addresses three major topics: survey design and planning, sampling and data collection procedures. Same as CHSC 447. Prerequisite(s): Graduate or professional standing and BSTT 400 or the equivalent. Recommended background: Credit in CHSC 446 or the equivalent. |
| PA | 460 | Data Management | 4 hours. | Database theory and constructing and managing databases relevant to the operation of government. Utilizes database software and allows students to gain practice with complex database programs and development of a database system. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 461 | Management of Information Technology in Government | 4 hours. | Concepts and methods of planning, implementing, and managing new information technology or modifying existing technology. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 462 | Project Management for Public Managers | 4 hours. | Discusses the theory, principles, tools, and techniques behind solid project management. The Project Management Institute's (PMI) standards for project management will be emphasized throughout the course. |
| PA | 463 | The Internet and Public Administration | 4 hours. | Application of the Internet for public management. Web-based service delivery, online governance, the technological divide, and the changing role of public managers. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 464 | Technology and Innovation Theory | 4 hours. | The course focuses on theories surrounding the creation, development, transfer, and use of technology. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the PhD in Public Administration program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 465 | Geographic Information Systems for Public Managers | 4 hours. | Individuals completing this course will have an understanding of some fundamental GIS tools and applications as well as the challenges in implementing and sustaining a GIS function in the public setting. |
| PA | 466 | Science, Technology and Public Policy | 4 hours. | This course addresses the relationships between public policy and science and technology in the United States. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the PhD in Public Administration program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 490 | Field Experience in Public Administration | 4 hours. | Students work in an organization such as a government agency, community group, or nonprofit organization. Students are required to submit written work and meet with professor on periodic basis to review work experience. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grading only. May be repeated. A maximum of 4 hours of credit may be applied to the Master of Public Administration program. Field work required. Students who have no prior work experience in the public or non-profit sectors are strongly recommended to register for this course. Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing required; and admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 494 | Special Topics in Public Administration | 3 OR 4 hours. | Consideration of timely or enduring issues in public administration not available in regularly offered courses. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. May be repeated to a maximum of 12 hours. Students may register in more than one section per term. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 502 | The Legal Context of Public Administration | 4 hours. | Legal basis and statutory framework for administrative agencies and actions in government. Relationship between courts and public agencies, rulemaking and adjudicative powers of public agencies, and impact of specific laws on government. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 503 | Public Personnel Management | 4 hours. | History and current innovations in managing personnel and other areas of human resources. Compensation, classification, affirmative action, performance appraisal, labor relations, and unions. Statutory and court decisions affecting government personnel issues. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 504 | Budgeting for Public Administration | 4 hours. | Processes and methods relevant to government finances and fiscal health: revenues, taxation, budget formulation, operating budgets, cost analysis, planning and performance, budget reforms, politics, capital budgeting, role of budgeting in management. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA Program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 506 | Policy Development and Analysis for Public Administrators | 4 hours. | Examines the process by which public policies are formulated, decided on, implemented, and evaluated. Techniques of analysis appropriate for various policy issues, and substantive policy issues facing us today. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 510 | Organization Theory and Behavior in Public Administration Research | 4 hours. | Analysis of major analytical models of organizations; decision-making; control and accountability; change and development; interorganizational relations; the organization-environment interface. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the PhD in Public Administration program or approval of the program director. |
| PA | 511 | The History and Development of Public Administration Research and Theory | 4 hours. | The history and development of modern public administration, with emphasis on the U.S. model. Major scholarly movements; institutional developments; other factors shaping the present state of the discipline. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the Ph.D in Public Administration program or approval of the program director. |
| PA | 515 | The Bureaucracy and the Policy Process | 4 hours. | Theories and research issues concerning the role of administrators in policy formation. Case studies and research on federal, state, and local agencies. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the PhD in Public Administration program or approval of the program director. |
| PA | 521 | Strategic Management: Planning and Measurement | 4 hours. | This course addresses strategies and issues relating to the strategic management of public and quasi-public organizations. It addresses strategic planning and performance measurement processes within organizations. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 522 | Ethics and Accountability | 4 hours. | Better government through institutionalizing ethics and accountability. Effectiveness of boards of ethics, Inspector General, codes of ethics, and educational programs. History of ethics within the Western intellectual tradition. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 523 | Intergovernmental Management | 4 hours. | Relationships between federal, state and local governments focusing on management of overlapping programmatic, regulatory and fiscal responsibilities. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 524 | Leadership in Public Sector Organizations | 4 hours. | Examines theories and practices of leadership in public sector organizations. Global, political, social, and organizational contexts of public sector leaders and interface between administrators, appointees, elected officials. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 526 | Public Decision Analysis | 4 hours. | Provides an introductory treatment of decision analysis. The intended participants are students who want to learn more about decision making under uncertainty and tools that can be used to support it. Prerequisite(s): PA 407 or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 527 | Public Management Theory | 4 hours. | Addresses the development of the public management subfield within the field of public administration. It covers the development of public management theory from its early stages to current questions and theoretical approaches. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the PhD in Public Administration program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 528 | Public Program Evaluation | 4 hours. | Theory and procedures for evaluating the effectiveness of programs administered by public and non-profit organizations. Includes application of research design, quantitative, and qualitative methodologies. Prerequisite(s): PA 542 or equivalent; and admission to the PhD in Public Administration program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 529 | Change and Reform in Public Organizations | 4 hours. | Examines how large, bureaucratic organizations change how they do business. Can improved efficiency and effectiveness result from such change? What techniques are being applied by public organizations to achieve such change? Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 530 | History and Theory of the Nonprofit Sector | 4 hours. | History of philanthropy in the U.S., noprofits in an international context, the civic base of the nonprofit sector, and the historical and modern relationships between the government and the nonprofit sector. |
| PA | 532 | Labor Management Relations in the Public Sector | 4 hours. | Skills and knowledge to manage labor relations in government. Constitutional influences on public employment, rights of public employees, mgmt and labor unions; civil service laws, collective bargaining, non-discrimination, and equal opportunity. Prerequisite(s): PA 503; and admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 533 | Managing Workplace Diversity | 4 hours. | Examines discrimination and diversity in public sector workplaces along several dimensions including race, ethnicity, sex, age, sexual preference, and physical ability. Prerequisite(s): PA 503; and admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 534 | Human Resource Development and Management in Public Administration | 4 hours. | Topics in public personnel administration; work motivation, performance appraisal, high performance work systems, equal employment opportunity, affirmative action, strategic human resource management and representative bureaucracy. Prerequisite(s): Admission to a PhD program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 536 | Financial Management and Fundraising in Nonprofit Organizations | 4 hours. | Financial management and fundraising activities in nonprofit organizations. Financial accounting, developing nonprofit resources, fundraising, fund development, marketing, philanthropy, grant-writing, and nonprofit budgeting. Prerequisite(s): PA 504 and PA 538; or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 537 | Local Government Management | 4 hours. | Issues in the management of local government, including the metropolitan and regional context, the evolving role of managers and special considerations in finance, reform, service delivery, economic development, and democracy at the local level. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 538 | Nonprofit Management | 4 hours. | Examines management in nonprofit organizations: volunteer management, membership, fundraising, faith-based organizations, grant management, service delivery, philanthropies and missions, finance and reporting requirements, and performance. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 540 | Research Design for Public Administration | 4 hours. | Logic and methods of quantitative and non-quantitative research in public administration. Issues in measurement; causal inference; experimental and quasi-experimental designs; and methods of data collection. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the PhD in Public Administration program or approval of the program director. |
| PA | 541 | Advanced Data Analysis I | 4 hours. | Elements of matrix theory; introduction to the theory of estimation; hypothesis testing; logit and probit models; factor analysis; and principal components analysis. Application of techniques to public administration research. Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing; and PA 540 or equivalent or approval of the instructor. |
| PA | 542 | Advanced Data Analysis II | 4 hours. | For those likely to pursue careers in the more quantitative aspects of public administration research. Discrete multivariate analysis and regression; multivariate analysis of variance; other advanced techniques. Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing; and PA 541or equivalent or approval of the instructor. |
| PA | 544 | Qualitative Research Methods in Public Administration | 4 hours. | The uses, strengths and limitations of qualitative methods of research and analysis including case studies, participant-observer, and ethnography will be explored. Prerequisite(s): Graduate or professional standing; PA 540 or equivalent; or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 545 | Research Topics in Public Administration I | 2 hours. | Provides PhD students with a better understanding of current research topics in PA. Students will read current working papers and published articles so as to develop the tools needed for critical analysis of current research. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grading only. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the PhD program in Public Administration and advanced standing or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 546 | Research Topics in Public Administration II | 2 hours. | Continuation of PA 545. Students critically analyze current research and will develop a research topic of their own focusing on the elements needed to write a quality research paper. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grading only. Prerequisite(s): PA 545; and admission to the PhD program in Public Administration with advanced standing or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 550 | Financial Management of Government | 4 hours. | Overview of issues and concepts important for admin and mgmnt of govt's financial affairs: govt accounting, purchasing, cash management and investment, risk management, pension and benefits administration, debt management and capital financing. Prerequisite(s): PA 504; and admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 551 | Governmental Accounting | 4 hours. | Introduction to major concepts, principles, and objectives of governmental accounting (including fund accounting) and budgetary control systems for local and state government. Designed for students with little or no background in accounting. Prerequisite(s): PA 504; and admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 552 | Public Capital Budgeting and Finance | 4 hours. | Examines governmental capital budgeting processes, linkages between the capital budget and capital improvement plan, and methods and techniques of financing capital projects including debt financing. Prerequisite(s): PA 504; and admission to the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 553 | State and Local Public Finance | 4 hours. | Analyzes expenditures and revenues of state and local govts and public sector responses to market failures. Examines state and local revenue sources and discusses governmental provision of services. Prerequisite(s): PA 504; and admission in the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 554 | Financial Management in Public Administration | 4 hours. | Principles of financial management and applications in various institutional and programmatic settings. Forecasting techniques, computer applications, innovations in public borrowing and debt management. Prerequisite(s): Graduate or professional standing; and PA 410 and PA 504 or equivalents; or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 567 | Topics in Political Communication | 4 hours. | Intensive study of selected aspects; organizational communication in public institutions, urban political communication patterns, communication elites. Independent research using a variety of community research techniques. Same as COMM 567 and POLS 567. Prerequisite(s): Consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 575 | Survey Planning and Management | 2 hours. | Leads students through the steps of planning and conducting a survey including linking survey goals or research questions to survey design, sampling, sample management, and basic descriptive analysis of survey data. Extensive computer use required. Field work required. Meets eight weeks of the semester. Prerequisite(s): Consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 576 | Applied Survey Sampling | 2 hours. | Provides an overview of current methods and issues in survey sample design. Emphasis will be placed on practical application of sampling methods and procedures to applied research problems. Extensive computer use required. Meets eight weeks of the semester. Prerequisite(s): Consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 577 | Survey Questionnaire Design | 3 hours. | Concepts and strategies for developing survey questionnaires for various modes of survey data collection. Students develop and present questionnaires related to their individual interests. Same as CHSC 577. Prerequisite(s): CHSC 446 or CHSC 447; or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 578 | Surveys, Public Opinion, and Public Policy | 4 hours. | Addresses the nature of the relationship between public policy and public opinion and the role that surveys play in that relationship. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA or PhD in Public Administration program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 579 | Practicum in Survey Methodology | 2 TO 6 hours. | Students learn about survey research by participating in the process of conducting a survey or surveys. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA or PhD in Public Administration program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 580 | Survey Nonresponse | 2 hours. | Provides an overview of current problems in survey nonresponse and related questions of impact on data quality. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA or PhD in Public Administration program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 581 | Cross-Cultural Survey Research Methods | 2 hours. | Provides graduate students with a clear understanding of the methodological issues involved in collecting survey data across multiple cultural groups and best practices when conducting cross-cultural research. Recommended background: Admission to the MPA or PhD in Public Administration program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 582 | Survey Data Collection Methods | 2 hours. | This course will address the impact of data collection methods on survey responses and data quality. Prerequisite(s): Graduate or professional standing or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 583 | The Psychology of Survey Measurement: Cognitive and Social Processes | 2 hours. | Introduces students to one approach to survey methodology ? the examination of the psychological processes through which survey respondents answer questions. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA or PhD in Public Administration program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 584 | Internet Surveys | 2 hours. | Examines current developments in the collection of survey data via the internet, including both the methodological strengths and weaknesses of this approach, as well as current standards for best practice. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA or PhD in Public Administration program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 585 | Survey Research Ethics | 2 hours. | Students will be exposed to survey research ethical issues. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA or PhD in Public Administration program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 586 | The History of Survey Methodology | 2 hours. | Examines the history of surveys, their development and change over time. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA or PhD in Public Administration program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 587 | Seminar on Special Topics in Survey Methodology | 2 hours. | This seminar is for special topics in survey methodology not covered in the other elective courses. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA or PhD in Public Administration program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 588 | Survey Data Reduction and Analysis | 2 hours. | Provides an in-depth overview of available procedures and standards for survey data reduction and data analysis activities. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the MPA or PhD in Public Administration program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 590 | Public Administration Capstone | 4 hours. | Integration of classroom learning with practical experience. Students will work in groups to solve real problems for public and non-profit organizations. Extensive collaboration required among group members outside of class time. Students should expect significant field work at their assigned organizations. Students are responsible to the course professor and to the project supervisor in their assigned organizations. Because the coursework is team-based, students are not allowed to drop this course once teams are created. Prerequisite(s): Consent of the instructor and enrollment in the MPA program. Course must be taken in the last two semesters in the MPA program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 593 | Independent Research in Public Administration | 1 TO 8 hours. | Advanced study and analysis of a topic selected by a student under the supervision of a faculty member. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grading only. May be repeated. Students may register in more than one section per term. Prerequisite(s): Approval of the director of graduate studies and consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 594 | Special Topics in Public Administration | 1 TO 4 hours. | Advanced study of an announced topic. May be repeated. Students may register in more than one section per term. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the PhD in Public Administration program or consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 596 | Independent Study in Public Administration | 1 TO 4 hours. | Advanced study and analysis of a topic under guidance of select faculty. May be repeated. Students may register in more than one section per term. Prerequisite(s): Approval of the director of graduate studies and consent of the instructor. |
| PA | 599 | PhD Thesis Research | 0 TO 16 hours. | Individual study and research. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grading only. May be repeated. Prerequisite(s): Open only to degree candidates, upon approval of topic by dissertation committee. |