New York City is home to the United Nations; global businesses and foundations; prestigious institutions of higher learning; thousands of nonprofits; and more non-governmental and international non-governmental organizations than any other American city. 8000+ alumni can attest that there is no better place to study public affairs and administration, international affairs, or higher education administration; and no better place to experience an educational experience built on principles of rigor, access, and value than Baruch College‘s nationally recognized Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs.
Here’s a snapshot of Marxe School outcomes: as of Summer 2022, 97% of the School’s 2020-21 graduates are employed, with a median salary of about $70,000/year.
Marxe U.S. News and World Report Rankings – 2023-2024
Public Affairs – MPA
#2 in New York City among public institutions
#3 in New York State among public institutions
#4 in New York City, among public and private institutions
#7 in New York State, among public and private institutions
#39 nationwide among public institutions (tie)
#53 nationwide (tie)
Nonprofit Management – Public Affairs Specialty
#1 in New York City among public institutions
#2 in New York State among public institutions
#2 in New York City, among public and private institutions
#4 in New York State, among public and private institutions
#21 nationwide among public institutions (tie)
#27 nationwide (tie)
Public Management and Leadership – Public Affairs Specialty
#2 in New York City among public institutions
#3 in New York State among public institutions
#3 in New York City, among public and private institutions
#5 in New York State, among public and private institutions
#23 nationwide among public institutions (tie)
#31 nationwide (tie)
Urban Policy - Public Affairs Specialty
#2 in New York City among public institutions
#2 in New York State among public institutions
#3 in New York City, among public and private institutions (tie)
#4 in New York State, among public and private institutions (tie)
#10 nationwide among public institutions (tie)
#17 nationwide (tie)
Groundbreaking Research and Noteworthy Awards
Voting Rights
Professor Don Waisanen; Distinguished Lecturer Sonia R. Jarvis; Distinguished Lecturer Nicole A. Gordon States of Confusion: How Our Voter ID Laws Fail Democracy and What to Do About It
Over the past decade, and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of voter ID laws has skyrocketed, limiting the ability of nearly twenty-five million eligible voters from exercising their constitutional right to cast a vote. In States of Confusion, Don Waisanen, Sonia Jarvis, and Nicole Gordon explore this crisis and the difficulties it has created for American voters, offering practical solutions for this increasingly important problem.
Focusing on ten states with the strictest voter documentation requirements, the authors show how people face major barriers to exercising their fundamental democratic right to vote and are therefore slipping through the cracks of our electoral system. They explore voter experiences by drawing on hundreds of online surveys, audits of 150 election offices, community focus groups, and more.
Professor, Dahlia K. Remler; Professor, Sanders D. Korenman
“Including Health Insurance in Poverty Measurement: The Impact of Massachusetts Health Reform on Poverty”, The National Bureau of Economic Research
The professors developed and implemented what they believe is the first conceptually valid Health-inclusive Poverty Measure (HIPM)—a measure that includes health care or insurance in the poverty needs threshold and health insurance benefits in family resources—and discuss its limitations. Building on the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, the professors constructed a pilot HIPM for the under-65 population under ACA-like health reform in Massachusetts. The pilot is intended to demonstrate the practicality, face validity, and value of a HIPM. Results suggest that public health insurance benefits and premium subsidies account for a substantial, one-third reduction in the poverty rate. Among low-income families who purchased individual insurance, premium subsidies reduced poverty by 9.4 percentage points.
Associate Professor Angie Beeman Liberal White Supremacy: How Progressives Silence Racial and Class Oppression
In Liberal White Supremacy, Angie Beeman argues that white supremacy is maintained not only by right-wing conservatives or stereotypically uneducated working-class racial bigots but also by progressives who operate from a liberal ideology of color-blindness, racism-evasiveness, and class elitism. This distinction provides insight on divisions among progressives at the local level, in community organizations, and at the national level, in the Democratic Party. By distinguishing between liberal and radical approaches to racism, class oppression, capitalism, and social movement tactics, Beeman shows how progressives continue to be limited by liberal ideology and perpetuate rather than dismantle white supremacy, all while claiming to be antiracist.
Assistant Professor, Bryan Jones
“Exposure of US population to extreme heat could quadruple by mid-century”, Nature Climate Change
Extreme heat events are likely to become more frequent in the coming decades due to climate change. Exposure to extreme heat depends not only on changing climate, but also on changes in the size and spatial distribution of the human population. This study provides a new projection of population exposure to extreme heat for the continental United States that takes into account these factors. Using projections from various regional climate models and a spatially explicit population projection consistent with the socioeconomic assumptions of that scenario, changes are projected in exposure into the latter half of the twenty-first century. The study finds that the US population exposure to extreme heat increases four-to-sixfold over observed levels in the late twentieth century with changes in population of equal importance to changes in climate in driving this outcome. Extreme heat kills more people in the US than any other weather-related event, and scientists generally expect the number of deadly heat waves to increase with climate change. The summarize, the study finds that overall exposure of Americans to future heat waves would be vastly underestimated if the role of population changes are ignored.
Professor, Don Waisanen; Professor, Dan Williams Real Money, Real Power?: The Challenges with Participatory Budgeting in New York City
New York City has the largest council-sponsored Participatory Budgeting (PB, a process that empowers the least-advantaged members of the community by providing a way to propose budget allocations through voting) processes in North America. Real Money, Real Power?: The Challenges with Participatory Budgeting in New York City offers an investigative, behind-the-scenes look at New York City’s participatory budgeting (PB) process from the perspective of a city resident over time. To critically examine such top-down assertions, this book researches and navigates its events the way a member of the community would see it and provides a critical review of the experience of the asserted beneficiaries of participatory budgeting, revealing various barriers to actually achieving those benefits. The study reveals a lack of transparency, manipulation by city agencies, the favorable treatment of insider proposed projects, and a failure to reveal the basis of project costs. It also finds that there is no singular participatory budgeting project in New York City. Instead, there are numerous participatory budget projects, as many as there are council members who engage in the practice. Finally Real Money, Real Power provides a ground-level view of these limitations and recommends substantial reform, specifically as it pertains to a lack of transparency, manipulation by city agencies, favorable treatment of insider proposed projects, and a failure to reveal the basis of project costs.
Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Governance
Associate Professor, Cristina Balboa The Paradox of Scale: How NGOs Build, Maintain, and Lose Authority in Environmental Governance
Why do NGOs – even the successful ones – have trouble “scaling up”? In Balboa’s book, The Paradox of Scale, Balboa suggests that an NGO’s authority – a combination of capacity and accountability – is an important and often misunderstood factor. She offers insight into how NGOs can build and maintain authority to be more effective. Drawing on case studies of transnational conservation organizations in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Balboa examines NGO authority, capacity, and accountability to propose that a “paradox of scale” is a primary barrier to NGO effectiveness. This paradox—when what gives an NGO authority on one scale also weakens its authority on another scale—helps explain how NGOs can be seen as an authority on particular causes on a global scale, but then fail to effect change at the local level.
With her research, she offers a framework on how capacity and accountability change across scales. But Associate Professor Balboa doesn’t stop at just defining the problem – her aim is to offer a means to understand the ways NGOs and the broader field of nonprofits can bridge these scales to achieve long-lasting change.
The Future of Transnational Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs)
Associate Professor, George Mitchell (w. Hans Peter Schmitz and Tosca Bruno-van Vijfeijken) Between Power and Irrelevance: The Future of Transnational NGOs
Between Power and Irrelevance explores geopolitical shifts, growing competition, and ever-increasing demands for accountability that have been driving the need for change in transnational nongovernmental organizations (TNGOs) as their work becomes more complex. Why does this gap between rhetoric and reality exist? What can TNGOs do to close it? The book argues that TNGOs need to address fundamental changes to the conditions in which they operate by bringing their culture into better alignment with their strategic goals. Drawing on varied perspectives including interviews with TNGO leaders, involvement in workshops, consultancies, training institutes, research, and TNGO organizational processes the book offers insights on how to adapt TNGOs to a changing future.
