Current Academic Year Course Offerings (2008-2009)

PLS 500. Managing Public and Nonprofit Organizations (3). Provides an overview of theories of organization, decision making, leadership, motivation, communication, and conflict resolution in the environment of public and nonprofit organizations.

PLS 501. Statistics for Public Managers and Policy Analysts (3). Issues and techniques in data collection and statistical analysis for managers and policy analysts in public and nonprofit organizations.

PLS 502. Public Human Resources Development and Administration (3). The study of policies, methods and techniques utilized in the public human resource function. Special attention is given to challenges reflecting contemporary demands in the areas of recruitment, training, compensation, performance evaluation, motivation, labor relations, sexual harassment policies, and diversity in the public workforce.

PLS 503. Public Budgeting and Finance Administration (3). Focuses on governmental budgeting and finance at the federal, state, and local level. Topics include budget types, budget preparation, politics of the budgetary process, tax policy, revenue sources, and other public finance issues. Attention is also paid to specific issues related to budgeting and finance issues in the nonprofit sector.

PLS 504. Computer Applications and MIS in Public Administration (3). Theory and application of the use of information technology to support decision making in public organizations. Topics include the use of the Internet to share and collect information, Geographic Information Systems, and appropriate software packages.

PLS 505. Applied Policy Analysis and Cost-Benefit Analysis (3). Examines the different approaches to public policy analysis and the various techniques that an analyst uses such as cost-benefit analysis. Students complete an applied policy analysis and present results to a simulated audience.

PLS 506. Research Methods and Program Evaluation (3). Covers research methods and basic statistics including hypothesis testing and examines the theory and practice of program evaluation including the ethical issues related to the practice of program evaluation.

PLS 507. Applied Management Tools, Skills, and Techniques (3). Examines concepts, techniques, and tools used by organizations with a focus on improving management skills. Topics covered include managing meetings, giving presentations, interacting with the media, strategic planning, performance measurement and contracting.

PLS 508. Ethics in Public Life (3). Examination of ethical principals as they apply to the practice of public administration; basic legal constraints such as conflict of interest laws; role of codes of ethics; and models for the responsible exercise of administrative discretion by public officials.

PLS 509. Leading Public and Nonprofit Organizations (3). Examines the theoretical and practical approaches to leading and managing public and nonprofit organizations.

PLS 510. Political, Social and Economic Context of Public Administration (3). Covers the rationales for public policy and critical concepts in public economics (e.g., market failures, public goods, externalities, monopolies, information asymmetries, and public choice theory). Class also examines the public policy process (e.g., context, agenda setting, implementation, evaluation, etc.), and the legal foundations of public administration (i.e., federalism, checks and balances, roles of the courts, etc.) and the basics of state and local politics in the U.S.

PLS 513. Regional Planning, Politics and Policy (3). Explores the connection between formal planning processes and political decision making at the regional and local levels for various policy issues (e.g., rapid development, sprawl, transportation, aging population, affordable housing, rural poverty, economic development, quality of life, etc.). Special attention is given to how planners and analysts provide advice to elected and non-elected decision makers.

PLS 514. Conflict Resolution (3). Examines the theoretical and practical perspectives and techniques for resolving conflict. Emphasis is placed on bargaining, negotiation, and conflict management techniques used in public and nonprofit organizations and interpersonal relationships.

PLS 517. Strategic Planning and Management (3). Examines the theoretical and practical approaches to conducting strategic planning and management in public and nonprofit organizations.

PLS 520. Seminar in Coastal Processes and Problems (3). Examines various coastal management policies and problems from a variety of perspectives (e.g., legal, economic, political, scientific, etc.).

PLS 521. Foundations of Coastal and Environmental Management (3). Analyzes key policy issues and the laws, regulations, and legal decisions that influence the management of coastal land use in North Carolina and the United States.

PLS 522. Field Seminar in Coastal Management (3). Field seminar that uses an applied project to examine the political, economic, and socio-cultural challenges facing coastal managers. It also examines the role of science in the policy and management process. Students are expected to collect and analyze data, prepare a report, and present their findings.

PLS 524. Managing Coastal Hazards (3). Explores the natural and technological hazards that threaten coastal areas, the principles of coastal hazard mitigation and the development of policy dealing with the preparedness, response to, and recovery from the events.

PLS 525. Managing Coastal Ecosystems (3). Examines programs, policies, and approaches to managing coastal ecosystems such as watershed management, ecosystem management, command and control approaches, and market-based approaches.

PLS 527. Planning Theory and Planning Law (3). Course reviews and provides an overview of this history of the major urban/regional planning theories in the U.S. and Europe. Emphasizes the legal framework and case law connected to local land use policies and regulations.

PLS 528. Local Government Administration (3). Examines the institutions, laws and policies that surround local government administration. It also examines contemporary issues and problems faced by town administrators from a variety of perspectives (e.g., legal, economic, social, political, societal, etc.)

PLS 530. Management Practices in Nonprofit Organizations (3). Introduction to theoretical foundations, structures, and processes of nonprofit organizations; historical development and impact, social, political, legal and economic environment in which nonprofit organizations exist, and complexities of organizational governance shared by volunteer and professional staff decision makers.

PLS 531. Resource Development in Nonprofit Organizations (3). Introduction to various resources important to nonprofit organizations including financial support, volunteers, and community awareness, and to the wide ranges of organization activities utilized for acquisition and maintenance of these structures such as grant writing and fundraising strategies.

PLS 532. Issues in Nonprofit Management (3). Examination of the current managerial, legal, and political challenges facing nonprofit organizations.

PLS 540. Environmental Management (3). Examines selected policies and programs including both regulatory and non-regulatory approaches to environmental management in the United States.

PLS 541. Public Economics and Cost-Benefit Analysis (3). An applied policy analysis course covering basic economic concepts. The class will also provide an introduction to the techniques of cost-benefit analysis. Students complete an applied cost-benefit project and present results to a simulated audience.

PLS 542. Managing Inter-organizational Relations (3). Course provides an overview of the theory and practice of inter-organizational relations. Topics generally include inter-governmental management, collaboration, networks, policy implementation and governance. Emphasis is placed on emerging trends from the new governance movement and the increased relationships between public, private, and nonprofit organizations in government service delivery.

PLS 543. Environmental Policy Analysis (3). Examines the fundamental factors that influence environmental policy in the United States. It also examines the different approaches to policy analysis and the techniques available to environmental policy analysis.

PLS 544. Resource Economics (3). Introduction to environmental and natural resource economics and policy. Emphasizes applied methods and results of use to practicing coastal managers. Topics include pollution regulation and pollution damage assessment, recreation and tourism impact analysis, public good valuation methods, the economics of land development and urban sprawl, and economic issues in forestry, wetlands and fisheries management.

PLS 545. Government Planning and Geographic Information Systems (3). Examines the use of government geographic information systems (GIS) in the context of land use planning and other applications in state and local government. Course provides an introduction to the theory and application of GIS, spatial data collection, relational databases, spatial analysis, and mapping.

PLS 561. Comparative Public Administration (3). Examines public administration in many different countries with a particular emphasis on development administration, the government-administration interface, and the administrative issues of cooperation between two or more countries.

PLS 562. International Environmental Policy (3). Examines major political issues related to national level and international environmental politics and policy-making.  Emphasis is placed on democracy, political transition, levels of development, national cultural values, political institutions, and citizens as potential shapers of the nature and dynamics of environmental politics and vice versa as well as trans-boundary interactions and relations affecting the environment.

PLS 591. Directed Individual Study in Public Administration (1-6). Independent investigation of research problems or directed readings in a selected area of public administration.

PLS 592. Special Topics in Public Administration (3). Intensive study of selected topics in public administration. (Repeatable course as topics change)

PLS 594. Practicum in Public Administration (3-6). The application of knowledge, concepts and analytical tools to contemporary issues that challenge public administrators. Individuals select special projects to pursue in local public and nonprofit organizations and conduct research under the guidance of a faculty member. With permission only.

PLS 595. Capstone Seminar in Public Administration (3). Synthesizing experience at end of program where key concepts from total curriculum are integrated and applied to contemporary issues in public administration. Public administration as a profession and career opportunities for graduate students are discussed. Student completes an applied research project that integrates materials from the curriculum and the internship or practicum.

PLS 598. Internship in Public Administration (3-6). Participation in a field experience, including a journal and written report critically describing the student’s responsibilities and experiences, focusing on linkages between the theory learned in coursework and the practice of public administration. Field experience will result from a supervised internship in cooperating public or nonprofit organization.

PLS 599. Thesis in Public Administration (1-6). Prerequisites: at least 30 hours toward completion of the master's degree and permission of the MPA coordinator. Intensive study of a topic selected by the student and approved by a thesis committee. Includes definition of problem, review of related literature, application of appropriate methodology, and interpretation of results and conclusions. Oral presentation and defense of thesis are required.

.