PAPP5160 Urban Management/Planning Internship
1 credit hour
Graduate |
Intended to enhance readiness for professional work through exposure to planning practice in a one semester log internship (100 hrs in the spring or fall semester or 75 hrs in the summer). Integrates work experience and coursework through journaling and reflective practice. Requirements: (1)student secures an internship from a planning related employer and approval from the student's major professor prior to enrolling in the course;(2)the intern must provide performance evaluation by the job supervisor and the intern's evaluation of the internship experience. Enrollment open to students with no previous formal planning experience. Credit not available for previous internship or planning experience. P/F grade. |
PAPP5300 Foundation of Urban Theory
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Social theories that explain the life cycle of urban communities as they develop, expand, and are sustained or decay are presented and contrasted. Special consideration is given to role of social policy. Topics such as poverty, race, neighborhoods, and environment are addressed. |
PAPP5301 Foundations of Urban Politics and Economics
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Examines the major political and economic institutions and processes in urban communities and their effect on urban policy.
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PAPP5302 Foundations of Urban Research and Analysis
3 credit hours
Graduate |
An introduction to research methodologies, both quantitative and qualitative, and statistical techniques useful in the analysis of urban trends and administrative programs.
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PAPP5303 The Metroplex: Survey of Urban Affairs, Planning, and Administration
3 credit hours
Graduate |
The Metroplex provides an ideal laboratory for study with more than 100 cities and other governmental units, thousands of neighborhoods and business enterprises, major concentration of minorities and dozens of ethnic groups. An in-depth orientation on urban dynamics utilizing senior faculty members, governmental and community leaders, and current research reports and studies.
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PAPP5304 Urban Politics
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Examination of the city as a political system, including the impact of urbanization and fragmentation on policies; input dimensions, including voting patterns and interest group development; decision-making structures, especially types of community power structures and the impact of the reform movement on structural processes. |
PAPP5305 Theories of Urban Society
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Several theoretical perspectives of the community and community organization examined. Special emphasis given to theories from human ecology, organization and stratification, and social welfare. |
PAPP5306 The Urban Economy
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Internal dynamics of the growth and development of the urban system and its relation to the national economy. National and urban economic policy, urban growth and land use, market imperfections, urban financial issues, and the environmental implications of urban growth studied through lecture, game simulation and policy debates. |
PAPP5307 Urban Geography
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Emphasizes real aspects associated with urban physical environments and social, behavioral and financial processes that shape these environments.
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PAPP5308 Urban History
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Extensive reading primarily in the history of the urbanization and metropolitanization of the people of the United States. Historical methods as exemplified in the works of leading historians and analyzed; examples of the scholarship of selected historians and treatises on selected cities, regions, and urban institutions studied.
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PAPP5309 Local Politics in the Intergovernmental Setting
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Critical analysis of the implications of federalism, and the changing nature of intergovernmental relations on state and local management, administration, planning, and policy making.
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PAPP5310 Urban Policy and the Law
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Critical analysis of federal government and selected state and local government policies and programs designed to influence the course of change and the future development of cities and urban areas. The role of "private" governments in affecting policy explored. |
PAPP5311 Public Policy Formation and Analysis
3 credit hours
Graduate |
The course covers the policy process, policy formulation and provides an introduction to the tools and techniques of policy analysis, using multiple theoretical and analytical perspectives. The primary focus is on U.S. policy, with an emphasis on state and local policy issues. The course aims to provide students with a foundation in the theory, process, and tools of policy analysis, so that they are able to think critically about applied public policy problems and the role of policy analysts. Students will also gain practical skills in the development and presentation of policy analysis and recommendations.
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PAPP5312 Economic Policy
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Examines structure of the U.S. economic system and its impact on welfare of consumers, workers, and industry; public policy efforts to provide for management of critical economic variables are evaluated for effectiveness and equity as they impact different interest groups.
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PAPP5313 Community Development
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Focuses on current problems of community development and neighborhood revitalization. Housing, community assets, the roles of community development corporations and social capital in cities, and community economic development will be analyzed. Federal, state, and local policies, with grassroots initiatives evaluated for effectiveness on promoting alternatives for community building and organizing. |
PAPP5314 Health Policy
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Current health policy and programs, examination of historical development, economic and legal aspects, interest groups and health constituencies. |
PAPP5315 Urban Education Policy
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Examines current education policy and programs, including public school districts, charter schools, and vouchers; economic and political aspects; role of adult education programs in improving human capital.
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PAPP5316 Human Services
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Social welfare institutions: private and public; needs assessment, resource allocation, procedures, city/state/federal/private policy review; highlights of current system demands and changes. |
PAPP5317 Environmental Policy
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Focuses on the physical environmental dimensions of urbanization including such factors as pollution, waste disposal, and land use; stresses the role of economic, social, and political institutions as these affect environmental quality of the city. |
PAPP5318 Social Welfare Policy
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Examines recent welfare reform measures (federal, state, and local levels), the political issues behind them, and their influence on urban life. A central topic will be the impact of a changing society on social welfare policy needs, including analyses of labor force participation and family structure. |
PAPP5319 Urban Problems
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Specific urban problems examined in depth, traced to their historical origins to see how they or similar problems have been dealt with in other times and places. Students will then propose possible solutions to the problems in their contemporary form. |
PAPP5320 Public and Non-Profit Organization Theory
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Historical evolution of administrative theory including classical, sociological and social-psychological dimensions; decision-making theory; implications of public interest theory for public and non-profit management; basic concepts of organization development and impact on public administration paradigms; new public administration; and future of public and nonprofit urban organization. |
PAPP5321 Urban Management
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Focuses through lectures, readings, and exercises on major administrative process: personnel and policy development and analysis; management styles and key contemporary management problems explored through presentations by prominent local practitioners.
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PAPP5322 Politics and Policy in Public and Non-Profit Management
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Development of theory of bureaucracy; bureaucracy as social issue; ethics and morality in public and non-profit bureaucracy; mobilization of special interest support; power differentials in urban agencies; policy process in bureaucracy; new bureaucratic structures and processes for urban policy making.
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PAPP5323 Managing Change in the Public and Non-Profit Services
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Current theories and concepts of public and non-profit organizational change with particular emphasis on organization development and action research; theoretical roots of contemporary change literature traced through readings and discussion of classical organization theory, public administration including New Public Administration decision making, public interest, phenomenology, learning theory and general systems. Prerequisite: Basic organizational theory course or permission of instructor. |
PAPP5324 Urban Public Finance
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Local urban governments increasingly rely less and less on support from the state and federal governments. Many local governments rely heavily on a limited number of taxes and fees to finance services. This course explores the variety of revenue sources and fiscal problems of cities and local governments in metropolitan areas. This includes the topics of tax burden and tax equity. The second half of the course focuses on the unique challenges of financing the diversity of activities that cities in particular support, e.g. housing, transportation, economic and community development and human services. |
PAPP5325 Administrative Law
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Examines scope and role of administrative regulation of and by governmental agencies; explores constitutional principles which limit administrative power and administrative law which governs classical areas of conflict between administrative agencies and their constituencies; rule-making, judicial review and informal regulatory processes of importance to public officials.
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PAPP5326 Public Budgeting
3 credit hours
Graduate |
This course introduces students to the principles and practices used by federal, state, and local governments to acquire and spend revenues within the context of American democracy, capitalism, federalism, and economics. The primary objective of this course is to provide students with the practical skills and theoretical knowledge to enable them to be effective participants in the budgeting process and critical consumers and producers of research relevant to public budgeting. |
PAPP5327 Comparative Administration and Policy
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Extensive, multidisciplinary exposure to concepts and models of administration in developed and modernizing countries; role of the military, bureaucracy and traditional elites in development; practices and concepts of strategies for effective change. |
PAPP5328 Small City Management
3 credit hours
Graduate |
This course will focus on problems peculiar to small cities, including administrative law; personnel, planning; public works, public safety; human services; budget and finance; public relations and parks and recreation.
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PAPP5329 Financial Management in the Public and Non-Profit Services
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Overview of the principles of finance as they apply to the public and non-profit services, financial reporting for state and local governments and non-profit organizations and evaluation. |
PAPP5330 Community and Neighborhood Organization
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Structure and processes in the analysis and development of community and neighborhood organizations; special emphasis given to poverty and minority communities and neighborhoods. |
PAPP5331 Land Use Planning and the Law
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Explores the law of land use in the context of the American legal, economic, and political systems. Examines leading court decisions and precedents for their background, content, and applicability to contemporary land use. |
PAPP5332 Public Capital Budgeting
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Examines governmental capital budgeting processes with a focus on understanding the significance of capital improvement planning, public facility investment, and project evaluation to sound infrastructure financing and regional economic growth. Governments purchase or construct long-lasting physical assets or facilities financed mostly through borrowing. This course aims to understand the rationale for public capital budgeting and debt instruments used to finance capital investment in the political context of public budgeting in America. |
PAPP5333 Governmental and Nonprofit Accounting
3 credit hours
Graduate |
This course is designed as an introduction to governmental and nonprofit accounting. The course reviews major fund accounting principles, accounting for budgetary, revenue, and expenditure funds, accounting for general capital assets and long-term liabilities, accounting for fiduciary and proprietary funds, auditing practices, and financial reporting unique to government and non-profit organizations. |
PAPP5334 Management of Economic Development
3 credit hours
Graduate |
This course focuses on the knowledge, organization, politics, issues, techniques and processes of local economic development. Emphasis is placed on contemporary issues and trends in the rich, dynamic laboratory of local economic development in Texas. Learning objectives include: 1) comprehension of basic techniques and issues such as strategic planning, leadership strategies, financial options and evaluation; 2) increased knowledge of the positive potential of thoughtful economic development for local environmental, infrastructure, and revenue challenges; and 3) enhanced professional development through individual and classroom exposure to successful practitioners. |
PAPP5341 Professional Report Writing
3 credit hours
Graduate |
The course aims to build professional writing skills. It reviews memo and report writing including grammatical construction, identifying and writing for a targeted audience, and writing in a clear, concise, and professional style. |
PAPP5342 Intermediate Data Analysis
3 credit hours
Graduate |
An intermediate level examination of statistical and research techniques appropriate to urban and social analysis. Presuming a basic understanding of descriptive and inferential statistics, the course covers multivariate regression, including error analysis and non-linear models, path analysis, ANOVA, logit and probit models, and techniques for data reduction (e.g., factor analysis). |
PAPP5343 Applied Urban Analysis
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Group and individual projects to develop research studies or strategies, data reports for local government, agency or citizen group; techniques appropriate to task utilized. P/F only. |
PAPP5344 Qualitative Methods
3 credit hours
Graduate |
The study of qualitative research and analysis methods. |
PAPP5344 Evaluation Research
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Methodological issues in evaluating public programs; identification of variables, indicators and analyses formats presented. |
PAPP5346 Big Data and Public Policy Analysis
3 credit hours
Graduate |
An examination of the data competencies and quantitative techniques necessary for policy analysis, with a special emphasis on big data and policy analysis. Increasingly, the rise and aggregation of what is commonly referred to as "big data" has raised many questions about the potential of this data for informing public policy as well as the tools and techniques appropriate for analysis. This course focuses on questions as to what constitutes big data, what sources of big data have relevance for public policy analysis, and concerns related to generalizability, reliability and validity. The course presumes a basic understanding of the basic statistical and research techniques taught in PAPP 5302 and PAPP 5342 (or equivalents from other departments). It builds on this foundation to analyze the tools and techniques appropriate for big data analysis in the field of public policy. The purpose of the course is to prepare students to understand what constitutes big data and evaluate the potential and limitations of its use in policy analysis. Students will be responsible for analyzing a source of big data, evaluating its research potential, and communicating the results of the analysis in a professional manner. |
PAPP5347 Demographic Methods
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Examination of sources of data-census, vital statistics, special surveys, reports, special studies; techniques of analysis with particular emphasis on growth and projection models, interpretation of findings as a major policy area in urban analysis. |
PAPP5348 Cost Benefit Analysis
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Reviews theory of cost-benefit and cost-effective analyses; explores the research, measurement and methodological requirements for the assessments of costs and benefits. It is recommended that students have completed at least one graduate course in research and one graduate class in public finance. |
PAPP5349 Research Design in Public Policy
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Application of research issues, writing, and communication skills in public policy. Designed to assist students in preparing their research for master's thesis or project report. |
PAPP5350 Introduction to Public Administration
3 credit hours
Graduate |
This is a graduate level introductory course designed to give students an understanding of public administration as a field of academic inquiry and professional practice within the context of American federalism, democratic values, institutional dynamics, and bureaucratic politics. In addition to contextually defining public administration, the course addresses government reform, intergovernmental relations, public ethics, organizational dynamics and behavior, personnel issues, budgeting, and e-governance. |
PAPP5351 Human Resource Management in Government and Non-Profits
3 credit hours
Graduate |
The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with key functions of government and non-profit personnel systems, discuss various theoretical approaches and techniques, and understand the major legal requirements of public and non-profit personnel management. The course examines the structure, role, and evolution of the Civil Service, current personnel policies, and personnel management tasks such as examination, recruitment, position classification, and collective bargaining. |
PAPP5352 Conflict Resolution in the Public and Nonprofit Management
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Labor management at all levels of government and non-profits, ability to work together to solve problems. Emphasis on collective and interest based bargaining, mediation, labor management partnership. Simulation exercises teach dynamics of bargaining, negotiation, problem solving, and small group dynamics.
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PAPP5353 Reform and Innovation in Urban Public and Non-Profit Management
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Designed to acquaint students with urban governance and non-profit reform and innovation. Course will explore how reformed government differs from traditional bureaucracy by contrasting it with entrepreneurial government and other innovations. Examines some of the areas most in need of reform, including service delivery, organizational capacity, and fiscal decentralization. |
PAPP5354 Nonprofit Management and Social Entrepreneurship
3 credit hours
Graduate |
This course prepares students to be entrepreneurs, innovators and change leaders by using social entrepreneurship perspective to examine leadership and management practices of nonprofit organizations. Through hands-on experiential training, developing skills in needs assessment, and formulating interventions for social change, students develop a blueprint of a nonprofit organization that takes an innovative approach for sustainable solutions of social problems. |
PAPP5355 Nonprofit Organizations in Public Policy
3 credit issues
Graduate |
This course examines non-profits as community institutions with an outward focus: the political, economic, and inter-organizational environment, fund-raising and financial management, community relations and needs assessment, the role of the volunteers, boards and community leaders, marketing, and legal and government issues. |
PAPP5356 Entrepreneurship in Public and Non-Profit Management
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Public and non-profit entrepreneurship involves the use of public powers, and partnerships with individuals, firms and other organizations, to achieve public purposes. The focus will be on creative management techniques and methods employed in managing the public and non-profit sectors. |
PAPP5357 Strategic Management and Planning in Public and Non-Profit Services
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Readings and case studies of strategic planning and management in the public and non-profit sectors; application of principles to an actual situation, involving stakeholder identification, environmental scanning, and formulation of mission statements, goals, and strategies. |
PAPP5358 Ethics in the Public Service
3 credit hours
Graduate |
This course examines public service theoretical ethics literature to provide a basis for each student to both reflect upon and expand their comprehension of the values and processes of ethical decision making. Beyond theoretical works, it addresses the application and evaluation of theory against the professional, workaday reality of case studies, ethical codes and other relevant materials. Three major learning objectives are: 1) achievement of a solid understanding of the dominant theoretical perspectives in the public service ethics literature; 2) competency in the development of guidelines and procedures that encourage ethical behavior, and 3) enhancement of the reach and resiliency of each member's personal commitment to public service ethics. |
PAPP5359 Organizational Diagnosis
3 credit hours
Graduate |
This class deals with tools and techniques necessary to manage public organizations. The learning objectives include ability to conduct an organizational diagnostic; and familiarity with group procedures and facilitation techniques involved in organizational change. |
PAPP5360 Public and Non-Profit Management Internship
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Designed to integrate work experience and coursework through a series of brief work-related assignments; presentations by local planning and management practitioners and class discussions and exercises. Enrollment is open to both pre-entry and in-career students. Formal internship placements with agency mentors will be arranged. P/F only. |
PAPP5361 International Organizations
3 credit hours
Graduate |
The course focuses on the rise of governmental and nongovernmental organizations in geopolitics, international development, and environmental management. It analyzes their institutional histories, their organizational structures and cultures, and their role as institutional policy actors in the global diffusion of policy initiatives and managerial knowledge and practices. |
PAPP5362 Urban Diversity
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Examines the growing spatial and social diversity of cities; how physical as well as socioeconomic urban structures have fostered race, class, and gender inequalities; how urban policies have addressed and can address these issues. |
PAPP5363 Civil Rights and Urban Minorities
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Examines the changes in and growth of the civil rights of minorities in the United States from the close of the Civil War to the present. This is accomplished through the study of court decisions, legislation, and the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, as seen through the eyes of contemporary writers, including William Faulkner, Alice Walker, and Alex Haley. |
PAPP5364 Urban Political Economy
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Examines the theoretical bases of economic paradigms and the different economic policies that logically flow from them. Comparison is made between the orthodox, or neoclassical, model of economics and alternative heterodox models, including comparing the growth and development of the urban system, land use patterns, and economic policy debates. Consideration will be given to how and why the neoclassical model remains the dominant model for economic policy in Western, capitalist countries. |
PAPP5365 Foundations of Environmental Policy
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Explores how environmental controversy is rooted in conflict between a number of schools of environmental policy thought with divergent perspectives on issues such as how to define progress, how to balance the needs of economy and ecosystem, how to cope with environmental complexity, and what role science should play in environmental affairs. |
PAPP5366 US Immigration Policies and Planning for Immigrants
3 credit hours
Graduate |
A seminar course where weekly readings would include: perspectives on international migration theory; the evolution of US immigration policy and national security; theories and urban issues related to immigrant assimilation and incorporation; urban ethnic economies and ethnic enclaves; segregation and housing of immigrants; globalization and immigrant labor networks; governance issues with providing education and other public services to immigrants and their children; and social work issues regarding generational conflict in immigrant families. |
PAPP5367 Strategic Public and Nonprofit Human Resources Management
3 credit hours
Graduate |
This course is designed to acquaint students with the theory and practice of strategically developing, utilizing, and aligning human resources so that maximum contribution from each member of an organization is used toward the attainment of strategic long-range goals and objectives. Topics include HR strategy, diversity, leadership, selection, training and development, compensation, classification, performance appraisal, and future practices for public and non-profit organizations. |
PAPP5368 Practical Employment for Public and Nonprofit Managers
3 credit hours
Graduate |
The course examines the rights and obligations of employers and employees. It does this by examining the legal background pertinent to public and nonprofit management. Topics addressed include employee selection, promotion and discipline, anti-discrimination legislation, gender and family issues legislation, environmental, safety and health issues, whistleblower legislation, immigration law, worker's compensation, labor law, and drug and alcohol issues. |
PAPP5390 Topics in Urban Theory
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Different topics explored on an intensive basis, especially recent theoretical approaches. May be repeated for credit as topic changes.
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PAPP5391 Topics in Urban Policy
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Different topics and approaches in analysis of urban problems. May be repeated for credit as topic changes. |
PAPP5392 Topics in Urban Management
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Selected topics on current management problems including small city management, community-neighborhood relations, citizen involvement programs and techniques, personal and professional effectiveness as a total person, intergovernmental strategies and styles, public-private sector collaboration and co-planning, privatization, and other alternatives to economic service delivery. May be repeated as topic changes. |
PAPP5394 Special Topics in Urban Research
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Different topics each semester concentrate on a variety of methodological techniques and research strategies, such as demographic research and survey techniques. May be repeated for credit as topic changes. |
PAPP5395 Conference Course in Urban Affairs
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Reading and research in a specialized area of urban affairs under the direction of a member of the graduate faculty.
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PAPP5396 Project Report
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Student prepares report focusing on specific policy or professional issue, utilizing appropriate research techniques; subject area and design of project report with consent of instructor. Graded P/F/R only. |
PAPP5397 Research Report
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Student prepares report comparable to a journal article focusing on research issue, utilizing appropriate theory and research techniques; subject area and design of research report with consent of instructor. Graded P/F/R only. |
PAPP5398 Thesis
3 credit hours
Graduate |
A thesis conforming to University and departmental requirements may be prepared by graduate students in urban affairs. Graded F, R. |
PAPP5399 Public Administration Capstone
3 credit hours
Graduate |
This integrative applied research course assesses the student's ability to analyze, synthesize, and formulate cogent recommendations to solve a real public sector problem. Students will write the capstone paper using concepts drawn from the MPA core curriculum, their chosen emphasis track, and the student's professional public work experience. Students are required to successfully defend their capstone paper before a Public Administration Forum consisting of CAPPA faculty, students, and other interested parties. Prerequisite: Completion of all other course work required for the MPA degree, including core courses and emphasis area courses, unless an exception is approved by the MPA advisor. |
PAPP5698 Thesis
6 credit hours
Graduate |
A thesis conforming to University and departmental requirements may be prepared by graduate students in urban affairs. Graded P/F/R. |
PAPP6301 Theoretical Foundations and Ph.D. Workshop
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Explores the development and function of theoretical models and frameworks. Examines the major theories from the social sciences designed for framing urban planning or administration issues and public policy. Designed to assist doctoral students in preparing their dissertation research. Opportunities to present work in progress, share ideas, and interact with faculty. |
PAPP6305 Advanced Theories of Urban Society
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Advanced theoretical perspectives of the community and community organization are examined. Special emphasis given to theories from human ecology, organization and stratification, and social welfare. |
PAPP6306 Seminar in Public Administration
3 credit hours
Graduate |
Final course in the public administration field, focuses on review and integration of the theories and principles of public administration. |
