BSPA Curriculum
The B.S. in Public Affairs degree courses examine how the public sector, along with the nonprofit and private sectors, use the policy process to effect change. Course offerings are flexible with options in-person, hybrid, and online. A majority of classes are small with 20-25 students and all are taught by accomplished scholars with doctorate degrees from major universities, as well as, practitioners with current and previous leadership roles in the field.
The BSPA requires 120 credits: a minimum of 30 public affairs credits and another 90 credits from the CUNY Pathways general education curriculum. In the Pathways curriculum, the recommended college option for BSPA students is a liberal arts minor. BSPA students are not eligible to double major.
The curriculum provides:
- Proficiency in analysis, negotiation, rhetoric, as well as, qualitative and quantitative methods
- Courses that specialize in areas of interest including community development, education, environmental sustainability, health care, housing, immigration, and social welfare
- Tools and knowledge to effectively lead, understand policy, and communicate while implementing practical solutions to challenging issues
3 hours; 3 credits
This course explores the role that public policy can and has played in creating, maintaining, and ameliorating various forms of social, economic, and political inequality, with a special focus on strategies to reduce racial and ethnic inequality. Students will study how inequality has been developed and exacerbated in the United States and examples of policy and program interventions for achieving greater equality.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150
Whether defined by geography, religious or political ideals, or socioeconomic, circumstance, communities are a central building block of American public life and public affairs. This class will equip students with the tools to study various communities with qualitative methods such as participant-observation, intensive interviewing, and content analysis.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150
This course uses economic theory to analyze the causes and consequences of public sector interventions. It covers the fundamentals of microeconomics, with an emphasis on writing and applying the tools of supply and demand analysis to social problems and public policies. Applications are drawn from current policy debates in areas such as trade, the environment, agriculture, health, immigration, and labor markets.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150
In this course students will create and manage persuasive campaigns for a range of government and nonprofit organizations in fields such as healthcare, education, and environmentalism. Students will study theories of persuasion and social influence, and classic media campaigns such as public service announcements against drunk driving and ads for political candidates. Through such studies, students will learn how to apply principles of persuasion to influence diverse audiences in contemporary contexts involving issue advertising, election drives, the Internet, social media, and movement communication.
Prerequisite or co-requisite: ENG 2150
This course focuses on the use of quantitative information and analysis to understand, interpret, promote, critique, and inform the implementation of programs and policies. Real world cases are examined throughout. A statistical software package will be employed to analyze selected data using various methods, such as simple regression.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150 and Math 1023 or 1030, or placement in Math 2003 or higher
PAF 4401 Capstone (PERMISSION REQUIRED)
3 hours; 3 credits
Students will apply advocacy and analysis concepts and skills learned as Public Affairs majors to produce a project or paper on a policy solution or topic of interest.
Prerequisite: 18 PAF credits
OR
PAF 6001H Honors Thesis I and PAF 6002H Honors Thesis II (PERMISSION REQUIRED)
Each Honors Thesis course is 3 hours, 3 credits
The honors thesis is a major research project accomplished under the direction of a professor.
Prerequisite(s): A minimum of 18 credits in public affairs at the 3000 level or above. Open only to students who have earned at least a 3.5 GPA in public affairs and a 3.5 cumulative GPA and who have submitted an application prior to the fall semester of their senior year that has been approved by the prospective mentor, the associate dean of the School of Public Affairs, and the chair of the Committee on Undergraduate Honors.
Events, personalities, and popular culture have shaped public service in New York City. This course examines the impacts of events such as the Draft Riots and 9/11, the influences of prominent mayors and administrators, and the effects of New York-focused movies, music, and television shows. It identifies models of public service to emulate. Enrollment Requirements: Prerequisite: ENG 2150.
Why, how, and to what end are U.S. cities getting involved in immigration and immigrant integration issues? This course examines the growing immigration policy activism of American cities in the context of U.S. federalism, where powers to regulate immigration and citizenship rest squarely with the federal government. It examines the role of various governmental and nongovernmental actors in enacting and implementing city policies affecting immigrants. Finally, this course examines different city policies focused on immigrant communities, including those addressing language access, municipal ID cards, labor rights, noncitizen voting and civic engagement, access to health care and immigration legal services, housing, policing, and refugee resettlement.Prerequisite: ENG 2150
The course identifies the nature of ethical problems faced by citizens and those entrusted with the public interest. It explores alternative forms of ethical analysis. Students will have the opportunity to apply these analytic frames to specific problems related to public policy.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150
This course surveys the nature, production, values, and uses of information in historical perspective; the latest developments in information technology; the ways information is produced and disseminated, and how they affect business, politics, media, science, arts, and culture; the growth of the information society; and major information policy issues in contemporary society.
Cross-listed with COM 3040 and LIB 3040.
Prerequisite: ENG 2100
The purpose of the course is to provide an understanding of the nature and function of management in nonprofit organizations. Emphasis is placed on the processes of defining goals and objectives, organizing and staffing for maximum productivity, and dealing with the important aspects of the nonprofit environment.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150
The focus of this course is on the role of the government in the economy. It addresses the reasons for and consequences of government intervention, including the theoretical and empirical examination of whether and when intervention improves economic efficiency and social welfare. Students will learn about and analyze education and environmental policies, social insurance programs such as Social Security, social welfare, income and property taxation, and other means of financing government activities.
Prerequisite: PAF 3102
This course uses economic theory to analyze the causes and consequences of public sector interventions. It covers the fundamentals of microeconomics, with an emphasis on writing and applying the tools of supply and demand analysis to social problems and public policies. Applications are drawn from current policy debates in areas such as trade, the environment, agriculture, health, immigration, and labor markets.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150
This course is an examination of public opinion in the American constitutional and political framework. The emphasis is on the public’s capacity for expressing its political views, the place of attitudinal research in the social sciences, and the uses of opinion polls in public, nonprofit, and private decision-making. The class will learn about the role of public opinion in the advocacy and analysis of public policy.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150
This course examines the advocacy, protest, and organizing strategies of activists and social movement leaders working for the equity and justice of groups marginalized according to race, gender, class, ethnicity, citizenship, sexuality, ability, or religion. The course will focus on the coalition-building and agitation tactics of one or more social movements to explore: their constraints and obstacles; their use of oral, written, embodied, and mediated forms of protest; the impact and implications of their strategies; and the responses to their activism.
Prerequisite: None
Social Innovation is needed to solve the world’s most important issues. This course covers examples of social innovation, and allows students to work on developing one. It covers the interconnectedness of social needs and the range of processes and organizations that can be used to deal with the pressing issues. Students will work on the key elements of a venture plan that takes an idea and moves it to the point of getting executed. They will also be exposed to the innovator of a recent social innovation.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150
Students are taught in this course to understand and apply communication skills in public affairs. The class provides cutting-edge tools for deliberation and speech in organizational environments, focusing on: professional styles and habits, audience analysis, institutional adaptation, political argument, rhetoric, media training, and the innovative use of technologies. New perspectives and practical skills will be acquired for engaging public issues.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150
The principles and problems of delivering urban services and the design of alternative service delivery systems are introduced in this class. The particular focus is on how well government serves the public, what kind of information is needed to answer questions about the effectiveness, efficiency, equity, and quality of services, and how to make service delivery more responsive to the public.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150
3 hours; 3 credits
This course introduces the major concepts behind the public regulation of urban land use. The course examines how market forces and the public sector shape every aspect of urban development, through policies, plans, regulations, and investment. It considers the tension between the market and government regulation. Students will learn how to analyze a community’s land use structure and assess its strengths and weaknesses in order to develop policies that improve public welfare.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150
Examines the housing and community development system and its problems, including neighborhood change. Also, traces the evolution of government programs and policy-making with a focus on New York City. Housing needs, homelessness and community reinvestment issues are considered. Case studies of housing revitalization and neighborhood redevelopment accompany course readings and lectures.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150
This course examines the arguments and analysis used to identify problems, develop policy solutions, and make decisions in the public and nonprofit sectors. Students consider the range of policy goals, alternative policy approaches, and various analytic methods for determining the impacts of policy proposals and for making recommendations.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150
This course expands students’ ability to understand, apply and produce quantitative analysis in aid of policy and practice. Real world cases are examined throughout, with an emphasis on developing and applying critical thinking skills. Students use Excel and a statistical software package to analyze data with various methods, such as multiple regression.
Prerequisite: PAF 3401
An analysis of ongoing and current public policies and programs that affect the greening of cities. The focus is on the historical evolution of land uses in New York City and the environmental sustainability of its neighborhoods and economy.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150
This course examines the history and politics of American school reform. Students will consider the competing purposes often ascribed to public schools and study educational policies at local, state, and federal levels. Particular attention will be paid to urban education and issues of race and class.
Prerequisites or corequisite: ENG 2150
Students will explore how art and arts organizations function in the political, economic, and cultural context of the United States. Through a variety of innovative learning experiences, including field work at museums and other venues, students will grapple with the challenges of leading, funding, and promoting art in public life.
Prerequisites or corequisite: ENG 2150
Issues of special interest will be examined. The subject matter is determined by instructor.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150
This course is an individualized course of study under the direction of a professor.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150. By application only. Instructor permission required
This course introduces students to lawmaking and constituent services. Each intern is assigned to an elected member of the New York State Senate or Assembly. Students must reside in Albany for a full semester, attend classes taught by professors-in-residence, prepare a research paper, contribute to policy forums, and participate in a mock legislative session. By application only.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150
This course requires students to work in an approved public or nonprofit organization. It bridges the gap between theory and practice. By application only.
Prerequisite: ENG 2150
