Core Courses
Students are required to complete the following nine core courses. The order listed is the recommended schedule students follow. It is OK to go out of order, BUT please try to complete Administrative Theory and Research Design during one of your first two semesters and Ethics and Capstone during your final or final two semesters.
PADMN 6300, Administrative Theory (3 credit hours)
Should be taken during the first or second trimester of study. Foundations and issues in the study of administration, theorists of 19th and 20th centuries, bureaucracy, scientific management, human relations movement, organization and innovation, and the politics of administration.
PADMN 6289, Research Design (3 credit hours)
Should be taken during the first or second trimester of study. Introduces scholarly approaches to research and problem solving: assessing relevant literature, formulating research questions, generating relevant evidence, and constructing reasoned arguments. Focuses on design issues of experimental, quasi-experimental, non-experimental and interpretive methodologies as well as standards for evaluating research.
PADMN 6220, Constitutional Law (3 credit hours)
Should be taken prior to Administrative Law. Powers of the judicial, legislative, and executive branches; federalism; due process; First Amendment rights; equal protection of the laws; citizenship; and other constitutional limitations on governmental actions.
PADMN 6230, Administrative Law (3 credit hours)
Should be taken after Constitutional Law. Requirements and limitations on public administrators from constitutional, statutory, and common law. Includes controlling discretion, judicial review of administration, tort liability of government, rule-making, right to a hearing, informal procedure, bias, evidence, constitutional rights of public employees, information gathering and control, and case analysis.
PADMN 6330, Practice of Public Management (3 credit hours)
Public management skills, interpersonal behavior, experiential approaches to public administration, decision making, managing conflict, and handling agency politics.
PADMN 6360, Public Human Resource Management (3 credit hours)
Merit systems, job classification, recruitment, examination, training, promotion, discipline, pay administration, collective bargaining, diversity in the work force, personnel law, and political activity of government employees.
PADMN 6380, Public Budgeting and Finance (3 credit hours)
Methods and politics in public or nonprofit organizations of planning programs, financing operations, allocating resources, and controlling expenditures and results. Topics include program budgeting, cost-benefit analysis, management information systems, pricing and tax policy, and appropriations processes.
PADMN 6870, Seminar: Public Administration Ethics (3 credit hours)
Should be one of the last core courses taken in the MPA program. Integration of courses and administrative experience, exploration and application of ethical theories, substantial research and writing project, and student oral presentation.
PADMN 6890, Seminar: Capstone in Public Administration (3 credit hours)
Should be one of the last core courses taken in the MPA program. Integration of all core material into discussion around a number of cases. Individual, partner and small group papers and presentations.