Public Policy Minor Continues to Grow in 2011 - 2012

As the spring term begins, we are now able to tally all of the course enrollments for the 2011-2012 academic year.Once again, student enrollments in public policy courses has reached new record with over 440 students taking summer, fall, winter, and spring classes. Also, enrollment in our gateway class taught by Professor Ron Shaiko—PBPL 5: Introduction to Public Policy—reached an all-time high during the winter term with 101 students completing the class.

At the conclusion of the public policy minor, 38 graduating seniors will complete their degree requirements with minors in public policy, including six students graduating with engineering majors modified with public policy, also an all-time high. More than half of the students who enrolled in PBPL 5 as first-year students four years ago have completed five additional courses in public policy are graduating with minors in public policy this year.

On Wednesday, February 8, 2012, Dr. Peter Orszag discusses his experiences as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Barack Obama with Professor Ron Shaiko’s PBPL 5 class.  Dr. Orszag focused a great deal on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which he helped to create.

In additional to the growth in enrollments, we have had several new courses to the public policy curriculum during this academic year. During the winter term, Professor Tim Ruback, a visiting assistant professor of public policy at the Rockefeller Center, offered a first-year seminar, PBPL 7: Leadership in Foreign Policy Decision-Making. Former Center Director and professor of government, Linda Fowler, also offered a new course in our leadership track during the winter term—PBPL 52: Leadership in Political Institutions.

During the spring term, Professor Benjamin Cole, one of our post-doctoral fellows who co-manages the Policy Research Shop, will be offering PBPL 10: Statistical Analysis for Public Policy.  We are also bringing back a course we offered several years ago as part of the methods sequence in the public policy minor—PBPL 41: Writing and Speaking Public Policy. Professor Julie Kalish, a faculty member in the Institute for Writing and Rhetoric, is teaching PBPL 41. These new and returning courses, along with numerous courses that are offered annually by the Center, bring the total number of courses offered in the public policy minor by the Center in 2011- 2012 to 15 — another all-time high.