Certificate in Environmental Policy and Sustainability

Analysis of concepts, methods, and procedures involved in managing public organizations. Problems of organization, planning, decision-making, performance evaluation, and management of human resources are considered. Cases are drawn from a variety of public services found at federal, state, and local levels of government.

An examination of the role of public affairs professionals in policy processes. Focuses on relationships with political actors in various policy areas.

Advanced topics related to environmental governance and natural resource issues. Current research related to environmental policy instruments, natural resource use, and environmental institutions will be covered in a setting focusing heavily on discussions and presentations. Highlights interactions between society, the economy, politics, and the environment in the U.S. and in non-U.S. settings.

This course studies the interrelationships among social, technical, and natural systems, theories of growth, and causes and implications of environmental problems. Alternative policies and mechanisms for environmental control and bases for choice are also examined.

This course is an introduction to urban government and policy issues within the context of sustainability. Specifically, the course introduces social, fiscal, economic, physical, and political aspects of sustainable policy in urban areas.

The fiscal role of government in a mixed economy; sources of public revenue and credit; administrative, political, and institutional aspects of the budget and the budgetary process; problems and trends in intergovernmental fiscal relations.

Conceptual and technical overview of geographic information systems (GIS). Applications in various fields of public affairs and environmental science.

This class focuses on analytical models and their use in solving problems and making decisions in the public sector, as well as a discussion of standard approaches to modeling and estimation of parameters.

This course focuses on the interaction between the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to achieve consensus in decision-making to influence federal, state, and local policies. The course conveys theoretical and practical aspects of multisector collaboration to achieve more effective outcomes that each sector could individually conceive. 

This course focuses on applications of the principles and concepts of intermediate microeconomic theory and managerial economics to public sector management decisions and policy analysis. The course utilizes case studies to give students opportunities to recognize the economic dimensions inherent in the public policy problems and to develop an analytical problem-solving orientation.

This course applies benefit-cost analysis to public and environmental policies. The first part of the course develops the foundation of benefit-cost analysis. The second part of the course consists of case studies applying benefit-cost analysis to actual policy decisions.

Students will learn the skill of interest-based negotiation through role-play and simulation. Students will learn about dispute resolution techniques such as mediation, arbitration, fact-finding, early neutral evaluation, ombudsmanship, and facilitation. The course covers dispute resolution in the federal government and in the context of public, environmental, labor, and business disputes.