Spring 2023 Electives

October 14, 2022

Happy #FavoriteCourseFriday from UConn School of Public Policy (SPP)! Check out our upcoming Spring 2023 electives below:

The front of the Hartford Times Buildings with UConn flags in front of it
UConn Hartford campus on September 5, 2017. (Bri Diaz/UConn Photo)
  • PP 5348: Urban Planning Principles and Methods
    • Focus Area: Urban Planning
    • Urban planning is an interconnected, complex, technical and political activity that focuses on the physical environment of cities and suburbs.  This course is an introductory graduate-level course, intended to help students understand what urban planning is, why it is done, and who does it. The first portion of this course addresses the history of urban planning and urbanization in the United States and why, how and for whom government engages in planning and implementation. The course then examines several major substantive areas, like sustainability, affordable housing, transportation and urban design. The assignments are designed to develop professional analytical and writing skills. This course is most appropriate for those students who aspire to understand the planning function in a local government setting.  Those who prefer to work in state government will also benefit from developing an understanding of the local planning function.
  • PP 5341/ PP 3030: Public Opinion and Democratic Processes
    • Focus Area: Survey Research
    • This course will theoretically and empirically explore public opinion and assess its place in American democracy. It will examine both the sources of political attitudes in democratic citizens and the role of those attitudes (public opinion) in campaigns, elections, and governance. Students will review research on the current state of public opinion as well as discuss the place of public opinion in politics in historical context.
  • PP 5303 / PP 3033 / AFRA 3033: Race and Public Policy
    • Focus Areas:Public Policy, Diversity and Inclusion; Social Policy
    • This course focuses on an examination of contemporary public policy through the lens of race. Students will begin by looking at the policy process, the racial and ethnic composition of the United States, the impact of immigration, and the malleability of race and ethnicity. Throughout the course, students will analyze past public policies that systematically disadvantaged African Americans compared to their White American counterparts through de jure discrimination and will discuss why policies designed to remedy the resulting disparities have seemed unsuccessful at closing the Black/White wealth gap. Finally, students will trace this gap to the public policy of slavery in the United States and brainstorm about ways how this gap can be reduced or eliminated through race-related public policy proposals regarding reparations for African American descendants of the enslaved.
  • PP 5327: Analysis for Management Decision Making
    • Focus Area: Leadership and Public Management
    • This course introduces students to modeling approaches that can be used to solve public, nonprofit, and business management problems.  This is an applied course with a particular focus on setting up and solving management problems using spreadsheets and Excel Solver. Students will practice model building and gain experience with modeling techniques including decision analysis, queuing analysis, linear programming, simulation, and data envelopment analysis. Students will also learn to interpret model results in different policy or public management context and conduct sensitivity analysis.
  • PP 5349: Public Procurement and Contracting
    • Focus Areas: Leadership and Public Management; State and Local Government Management
    • The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the principles of contract formulation and administration in public procurement.  The growing significance of contracting out and outsourcing in the public sector requires the availability of procurement specialists that are educated and comfortable with best practices in procurement activities from the identification of the need through the close out of contact activities.  Students will learn about best practices for effective contracting relationships between the public and private and nonprofit sectors. 
  • PP 5317: Capital Financing and Budgeting
    • Focus Area: Public Financial Management; State and Local Government Management
    • This course is designed to familiarize students with the municipal bond market and to expose them to key public policy and management issues. Specifically, the course will focus on how the proceeds from municipal bonds are used, the types of securities and issuers, who the players are in the bond market, how prices are determined (including the municipal bond credit rating process), disclosure, and ethical issues in the industry. The course focuses on long term tax exempt public debt; however, there will be some discussion of short term debt.
  • PP 5346 / PP 4346: Child and Family Policy
    • Focus Areas: Public Policy, Diversity and Inclusion; Social Policy
    • This course applies social science theory to the study of the family and is composed of three parts. The first covers the microeconomic tools and perspectives that will be utilized throughout the course. The second focuses on the theoretical models developed to inform our understanding of the family. A variety of topics will be covered including marriage and divorce, fertility, employment, and human capital. The final section will be devoted to the application of this theory in the policy arena. Subject matter in the application section will consist of, but is not limited to, income support, education, and child support policies. Domestic policies are the primary source for examples. Throughout the course, children and their outcomes are of particular concern.
  • PP 5397 / PP 3098: Policymaking and Legislation
    • Focus Area:
    • This course will introduce students to the role and processes of Connecticut’s General Assembly. Topics for discussion will include formal and informal rules and procedures by which legislation is developed and enacted, other legislative authority such as approving regulations and oversight, the impact of elections on the legislative process, methods of tracking and researching legislation, legislative bill drafting, and the role of the public and other stakeholders in shaping and influencing the legislative process.
  • PP 5359: Crisis Management
    • Focus Area: Executive Leadership; State and Local Government Management; Urban Planning
    • This course will examine what happens when things go wrong, and explore ways to avoid catastrophe or at least be better prepared to deal with the consequences. Students will look at different types of disasters and understand what makes them so challenging, and learn about strategies to manage them. Concepts of threats, hazards, risk, safety, and resilience will be discussed along with what governments do and why they do it. Students will have a better understanding of what organizations and communities can do to prepare, and how these activities fit in to a national emergency management system.