Spring 2012 Classes for Alumni

Course Options for MPA Alumni for Spring 2012

Research and practice in public administration are always evolving so there’s always something new among our MPA courses. For the spring 2012 semester we anticipate having extra capacity in several of our offerings and we’d love to welcome you back to the classroom—whether on campus or online—to share your insights and learn alongside our current MPA students. The spring semester begins on January 17 and runs through the first week of May.

All of these courses are 3 credit hours. Depending on the campus, the cost per credit hour for tuition and fees is approximately $400 for Kansas residents and $800 for nonresidents. See the information at http://www.kupa.ku.edu/programs/financial.shtml for more details. Note that KCMO residents will be charged nonresident tuition; the Metro KC tuition rate does not apply after graduation.

If you have questions or need assistance please contact Ray Hummert, rhummert@ku.edu or 785-864-9097, or Lesley Owens, laowens@ku.edu or 913-897-8510.

To take a class, here’s what you need to do:

• Submit a non-degree graduate application by January 5th online at http://www.graduate.ku.edu/01-04_apply.shtml. 
• Pay the non-degree application fee of $30 online.
• Submit proof of your undergraduate degree by uploading an undergraduate transcript that shows degree conferred. It does not need to be an official transcript.

(If you need to, please take a moment to roll your eyes about having to pay the application fee and submit proof of degree. We recognize that especially the latter is somewhat absurd, but we trust that you understand the challenges of working in a large, bureaucratic system.)

• You will be notified of admission via email. This notification should include information about how to set up your KU Online ID and enroll via the Enroll & Pay system.
• Enroll by January 16th to avoid the $150 late enrollment fee that begins on the first day of class.

PUAD 694: Topics – Faces and Places, Dr. Leisha Dehart-Davis
Lawrence: Thursdays, 4:00pm to 6:50pm (Class # 68832)
Overland Park:  Tuesdays, 4:00pm to 6:50pm (Class # 68851)
The U.S. public sector workforce is becoming increasingly diverse, whether in race, ethnicity, gender, culture, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual preference, and emotional and physical disability. This increased diversity requires new knowledge and skills from public managers, including an understanding of diversity dynamics, methods for managing diversity-related workplace conflicts, and increased “culture competency”, to name just a few. These topics will be explored in a highly interactive course with a Kemper Teaching Award winning faculty member. Course content involves a review of America’s changing demographics, intensive readings, in-class exercises, and lively and respectful discussions. This course contributes to the KU School of Public Affairs and Administration’s competencies related to Diversity Management.

PUAD 839: Topics - Service Management, Dr. Chris Silvia

Topeka: Thursdays, 4:30 – 7:20pm (Class # 68439)Increasingly, public sector managers are being challenged to meet citizen expectations while facing conflicting demands, decreasing revenues, changing demographics, etc. This introductory course in public service management will focus on providing students with the conceptual understanding and skills to design, promote, manage, and deliver public services. The underlying premise of the course is that improvements to the ways in which public services are managed can improve citizen outcomes. To accomplish this, this course will integrate operations management, management science, service management, and social marketing concepts and apply them to government and not-for-profit services. Through this course, students will develop a better understanding of methods for improving responsiveness, project management, service design, program awareness, public sector accountability, and the management of citizen services.

PUAD 839: Topics – Performance Management, Dr. Alfred Ho
Overland Park: Wednesdays, 6:00pm to 8:50pm (Class # 68438)
This course examines the practice and governance challenges of performance management and budgeting in the public sector. Topics covered include: a) the historical and theoretical foundation of performance measurement and management; b) the global trend of performance-oriented reforms; c) managerial and financial tools in performance management systems; d) the practice and politics of performance management and budgeting; and e) governance and ethical issues in managing for results. Students are encouraged to have basic understanding of statistics and EXCEL before taking this course.

PUAD 853: Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation, Dr. Adam Eckerd
Online (Class # 68441)
This course will examine the fundamental research techniques associated with analyzing alternative solutions to policy problems, as well as evaluating the effectiveness of public programs. Such techniques include cost-benefit, risk-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis, and quasi-experimental and experimental designs.