Aims to inspire, teach and engage students in the theory and practice of public leadership from the local to the national to the global level. Students will learn and apply diverse approaches to leadership in a multicultural society while developing an understanding of key frameworks and practices necessary to foster collective action across private, public, and nonprofit sectors. This course will allow students to become informed citizens able to reason critically and persuasively about public matters Students will also explore and assess their own personal values, beliefs, and purpose as they develop their leadership potential.

Designed for students whose academic majors would be enhanced by the complementary study of a widely shared but hard-to-operationalize aspiration: that present choices should preserve or improve future options rather than foreclose or degrade them. How should we understand sustainability? How might we achieve it? How would we know if we had achieved it? And how could sustainability activists of a rising generation lead by example?

Introduces statistical methods needed for evaluating and choosing among policy options. Topics include probability; decision-making under uncertainty; the organization, interpretation, and visual display of complex data; prediction and inferences about causality; hypothesis testing; and linear and multiple regression. Develops analytical skills and the ability to apply theory to complex, real-world problems.

Explores the normative and political dimensions of governance--or policymaking--at the domestic (focusing on the US) and global levels. Policymaking involves a myriad of public and private actors at the local, national, transnational, and global levels that have competing aims and values. Their interaction produces formal and informal policies that affect the international order, interstate relations, subnational dynamics, and individuals. Drawing on theory from multiple disciplines and case examples, the course examines governance at these interrelated levels. Students learn core concepts, debates, and actors involved in policy making, develop tools to identify the causes and consequences of different policies, and build skills to influence public governance. Students also critically analyze how the actors, institutions, and scholarship covered perpetuate systemic racism and other inequities based on gender, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, dis/ability, etc.

Covers how governments raise, spend, borrow, and manage public funds. Reviews federal,state, and local budget processes and introduces analytical techniques including basic spreadsheet skills, evaluating alternative revenue sources, revenue and expenditure forecasting, cost allocation, capital budgeting, cost-benefit analysis, discounting and present value, bond analysis, cash management and intergovernmental finance.