The courses below are offered to Executive students from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on 35 Saturdays from September to June. Students complete the 42-credit curriculum in two years as a cohort. The below curriculum is a sample.
Year One Fall (August-November)
3 hours; 3 credits
The course is an introduction to politics, government, and public policy in the U.S. It provides a rigorous, scholarly, yet practical view of governmental institutions, policy making, administration, and contemporary public policy. Attention is given to the role of governmental and nongovernmental actors, as well as the influence of history, culture, public opinion, and political economy. Students develop skills in thinking critically and writing clearly about issues of public importance.
Prerequisite: none
3 hours; 3 credits Data Collection and Description (PAF 9270) is the first course in the research methods sequence. PAF 9270 teaches students how to collect qualitative and quantitative data for domestic and international policy or practice purposes and how to analyze and present data for descriptive purposes. It also teaches students how to interpret existing descriptive analyses to extract relevant and accurate information. The course will introduce the following topics: research questions and concepts, descriptive vs. causal research, case-oriented vs. variable-oriented approaches, sampling, data cleaning, and determining and maintaining data collection for organizations. Students will develop the following specific skills: using spreadsheets, univariate and bivariate descriptive statistics, data visualization, conducting interviews or qualitative observation, analyzing and coding qualitative data, designing and assessing measures, and designing survey questionnaires and procedures.
Year One Winter (November-February)
3 hours; 3 credits
Introduces students to communication in public settings and provides extensive opportunities for practice with basic written and oral forms. Interrelationships among communicative activities and organizational goals. Internal and external messages are given equal weight. Argumentative structures necessary for constructing sound policy and persuasive techniques relevant to funding, regulation, client, and public constituencies. Topics will vary somewhat from semester to semester depending on the instructor’s and students’ interests. The course follows a workshop/laboratory format with intensive attention to student work as a fulcrum for the application of theory and refinement of skills. Prerequisite: none
3 hours; 3 credits
Data Analysis for Public Service (PAF 9271) is the second course in the research methods sequence. Upon completion of Data Collection and Description (PAF 9270), students can choose between this course and Causal Analysis and Inference (PAF 9272). PAF 9271 is meant for students pursuing domestic or international careers in management, fundraising, budget analysis, and other practice areas and will use data and applications relevant to such work. It emphasizes managerial, organizational, and practice examples and context. This course teaches students how to extract from existing analyses relevant and accurate information to enhance practice. It also teaches students how to conduct basic quantitative and qualitative analyses within organizations to shed light on which programs do and do not work, how well they work, and which features contribute. Specific topics include logic models and mechanisms; developing and curating administrative data; collecting and analyzing interview, focus group, qualitative observation, and extant qualitative data; analyzing organizational data using spreadsheets and dashboards; pre-post, interrupted time series, comparative designs, and difference-in-difference analysis; methods for rolling out and managing programs to get good causal evidence; recognizing natural experiments.
Prerequisite: PAF 9270 OR permission of instructor
Year One Spring I (March-May)
3 hours; 3 credits
This course focuses on the budget cycle and budget decision-making. It includes tools for developing, implementing, and controlling a budget within a, typically, public organization. Topics include development of operating budgets, cash budgets, break-even analysis, cost behavior, the time value of money, capital budgeting, long-term financing, and variance analysis. Basic budget accounting concepts are studied. The course includes development of spreadsheet skills for budgeting. Open to Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs students and MA in Arts Administration students; others with Marxe School permission.
Prerequisite Open to Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs and MA in Arts Administration students; others with Marxe School permission
3 hours; 3 credits
This course introduces the fundamental concepts and techniques for managing government and not-for-profit agencies, including schools. This course focuses on structural models; individual behavior, including group dynamics and leadership; effective use and management of human resources; and political and cultural frameworks. Questions of effectiveness, responsibility, and professional relations are considered.
Prerequisite: Not open to students who have completed PAF 9302, OR MGT 9300, OR PSY 9788
Year One Spring II (May-June)
PAF 9139 Communication Strategy
3 hours; 3 credits
In this class, students learn to design communication campaigns that will change or modify key behaviors; promote a cause, service, or program; or enhance the brand and fundraising capacity of an organization. Course topics will cover areas such as fear appeals, message fatigue, working with diverse audiences, and online and social media advocacy. Students will develop message strategies using techniques drawn from social marketing, persuasion, and political communication.
Prerequisite: PAF 9103
Year Two Fall (August-November)
3 hours; 3 credits
This course concerns the relationship of ethics and public service. Those in public service face a broad array of ethical problems and dilemmas ranging from simple matters of public trust through the application of ethical reasoning in policymaking. The course examines the limits of self-interest in public service, the differing ethical concerns of elective and appointive officials, the conflict between responsibility to hierarchical authority and personal conceptions of the right, bureaucratic responsibility for the ethical content of public policies, and the possibility of necessary evil. A significant portion of this course focuses on ethical theories that may help resolve these dilemmas.
Prerequisite: none
3 hours; 3 credits
Introduction to concepts and analytic tools necessary to economic examination of individual and firm behavior; analysis of causes and consequences of public sector intervention in the economy.
Prerequisite: Not open to students who have completed ECO 9705, PAF 9415 OR PAF 9760
Year Two Winter (November-February)
3 hours; 3 credits
Examination of the structure and dynamics of New York City government, with special emphasis on the development and delivery of city services.
Prerequisite: none
3 hours; 3 credits This class explains different forms of inequality, identifies their origins, and analyzes how and why race and racism shape laws and public policies. The class will assess policies, current and proposed, to reduce inequality, and strategies to promote a more just and ethical society. Open to Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs students; others with Marxe School permission. Prerequisite: none
Year Two Spring I (March-May)
3 hours; 3 credits
Leadership and Strategy in Public Affairs examines the personal, institutional and strategic circumstances that public (and nonprofit and business) leaders confront as they conduct their work. The course focuses on the exercise of leadership, particularly the development and execution of strategy, particularly within the context of politics and government. Students will explore the strategic calculi employed by leaders as they attempt to mobilize support, achieve personal influence, and exercise institutional authority to accomplish objectives.
Prerequisite: none
3 hours; 3 credits
This course examines program evaluation in public and nonprofit contexts. Topics include: the nature, types, and purposes of evaluation; program theory and logic models; data collection, monitoring, and analysis; experimental and quasi-experimental evaluation designs; internal and external validity; politics of evaluation; stakeholder analysis; and ethics and standards.
Prerequisites: none
Year Two Spring II (May-June)
PAF 9190 Capstone Seminar
3 hours; 3 credits
This course is an advanced seminar in which students in their last semester before graduation produce a semester project drawing from the full course of study toward the Master of Public Administration (MPA). The project may involve policy research, intensive study of an organization, development of a rationale for new or changed service programs, or some combination of these. Special attention is placed on incorporating knowledge from the core MPA curriculum.
Prerequisites: PAF 9100, PAF 9103, PAF 9120, PAF 9130, PAF 9140, PAF 9165, PAF 9270, and PAF 9271 or PAF 9272