The Graduate Certificate in Urban and Regional Governance is a 15 credit hour program of study. The certificate program is designed for students with an interest in the planning, financing, and management of urban areas. It’s the only graduate certificate of its kind in Indiana.
Graduates of the program will be able to design research and conduct analysis in the field of urban planning and urban policy. Urban planners and urban geographers support policy with quantitative analysis using statistical software and data management skills.
The Urban and Regional Governance certificate program leverages the urban location of the university, and the social, demographic, and economic trends that are attracting greater numbers of students to study, live, and work in metropolitan areas.
Curriculum
The 15 hour certificate consists of four required courses and one elective.
Required classes (12 credit hours; choose four classes)
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.
Focus on analytical models and their use in solving problems and making decisions in the public sector. 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 than each sector could individually conceive.
An examination of the role of public affairs professionals in policy processes. Focuses on relationships with political actors in various policy areas.
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.
This course covers the creation and management of public spaces as well as aspects of urban planning. Students will be exposed to selected topics of importance in urban/local management including service delivery and sustainability, and methods for improving urban spaces through understanding the relationships between people and spaces.
The fiscal role of government in a mixed economy; sources of public revenue and credit; administrative, political, and institutional aspects of a 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.
Elective (3 credit hours)
Choose one additional O’Neill graduate public affairs course, which cannot include independent research studies, readings, or internship classes.
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 public policy problems and to develop an analytical problem-solving orientation.
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.
An introduction to the field of policy analysis. Includes a discussion of different models, approaches, conceptual foundations of the field, and the basic issues surrounding application. Students without appropriate previous coursework are expected to do extra reading under the guidance of their instructor or choose to audit existing masters courses.
