Message from the Executive Director

New Programming

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Graduation Weekend

Congratulations to the graduating students – I am happy for you as you mark the end of graduate school, and wish you every success as you head out to the next stage in your lives! Please don’t forget us – and keep your ideas, suggestions and thoughts coming. We need that insight to make the GSPM better. A long-lasting relationship with each of you is god for the GSPM – and I hope it is of use to you, too. (And I do not mean send us money: I mean share your ideas with us and make sure we stay on top of changes in the business.)

New Programming Ideas

Speaking of ideas, over the past few weeks I have tossed around a bunch of things we are working on here already, and I have heard some more good stuff from email traffic and from this week’s Community Forum –thanks to the students who shared their thoughts at that!

I now seek feedback on two questions: One, alternative scheduling. I have been talking to Starfleet about offering classes in non-traditional formats, such as 4 weekend workshops, or as 8-week intensives, instead of everything being 14-week semester classes. If we build it, will you come?

Two, we have been looking at international-focused classes, such as international political consulting and the spring class on comparative campaigns. A GSPM alum recently approached the School with an idea to do a summer practicum overseas, in which students would work with a non-governmental organization helping them with their educational, organizing, or advocacy efforts. It would probably be a 6-credit, two course thing that would entail a lot of hands-on in South America (likely) or Africa (less likely, at least at first). If we build it, will you come?

I will see you at the CPS celebration Saturday night, or on the Mall Sunday for GW’s commencement exercises!

On the Road Again

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On the Road Again

I file this report from Madrid, Spain, where I am presenting a workshop on American politics and public policy this weekend.

I will be talking to senior managers in publishing, political leaders (local and regional level) and public officials. My presentation is based on the class I teach in legislative affairs, “Politics and Public Policy” but the format means I have two days to cover the whole class. It is a pretty intense experience for me, and I hope the audience learns something from it.

One of the key things I present is the connection between our history and how we do things. Spanish audiences and Latin American audiences don’t share the US’s English heritage, so they are not familiar with some of the reasons why we do what we do in Washington, or why some of them are so important to us even if they don’t make sense to anybody else. And Spain and Latin America have unique political traditions based on their histories – shared and separate – that the US does not understand. The exercise helps us all to see where we can borrow ideas from others, and where their ideas will not help us any in our situation.

Navarra Students in Madrid

I have also had the chance to meet over dinner with three of our recent Universidad de Navarra students, who were all in DC in March with their class for a month-long program with GSPM. They enjoyed the time in Washington so much they asked me to visit with them when I came to Madrid for the workshop. We had a great meal at a wonderful restaurant (La Gloria de Montera), and we had a good conversation about Spanish, American, and British politics. I left the meeting in a good mood. What they learned in DC with us has been very useful to them in Madrid, and they appreciated the effort we put into the program (thanks to Ricardo and Gaston for their amazing work producing the program). We must be doing something right to have had that effect.

One point raised during the meal was especially interesting to me: the Navarra students have seen presentations and other events that tout some kind of connection to GSPM. Several GSPM graduates are out and about in Europe doing very interesting work based on their GSPM education, and that connection to the School is a big deal for them. I love that, obviously, and hope that everybody gets something out of the experience that they can use in a similar way. The students asked me if it was OK or bad for all these things to be happening without any kind of official connection to GSPM. I think it’s great – the whole idea of GSPM is to find a better model for teaching politics that can be copied and exported to other schools, and other countries too.

Upcoming Events

We welcome our new students starting this summer at a small orientation session this coming Thursday, followed by the semester’s last GSPM community forum at the Marvin Center. I expect we will do one over the summer too, and then three each term from here on out – one on campus, one at Alexandria for SPR, and one at the Hall of States for Legislative Affairs…. I look forward to seeing our graduating class at the CPS celebration next Saturday and the GW commencement on the Mall on Sunday. Congratulations on completing your degrees!

Core Courses

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Program Structure

I got a number of emails last week from students with end-of-semester comments and with ideas about the strategic planning we are working on for the GSPM. Thank you for your input!

One of the emails recommended a significant reduction in core course requirements for political management, to allow for more flexibility in what course PMGT students could take. Core versus concentration versus electives is a topic that comes up in graduate education all the time – and it is a tough question, so I was glad to hear this student’s thoughts on the matter.

Core Courses – Do They Work?

The student email on core courses also made another good point deserving attention: are the core courses effective in passing on the skills and knowledge you need to be successful? I know that several of the PMGT core courses need modification, based on student evaluations and faculty observation. We have been working on that for a long time, and I know how frustrating it is that the classes do not all accomplish our purpose. We are working together to improve each class, and how they fit together – it is taking longer than any of us want to make this happen, but we are working on it. Steve Billet and his team of students produced a great report on upgrading the LEGA courses, as I discussed in a previous note; their recommendations are being implemented in LEGA already, and the PMGT and SPR programs have agreed to follow suit and are instructing the faculty on what this will mean for each program. Fast? No, but given the number of people involved, and the fact that most of our students and faculty have professional demands that take up most of their time, I don’t think we can move all that fast on any significant change.

Core Courses, Concentrations, and Electives – What’s the Pattern?

SO what about the structure of the degree programs here at GSPM? Our purpose is to prepare our students for successful careers as leaders in three fields – professional politics, legislative affairs, and public relations. When we talk about program structure, I have to talk about all three of our master’s programs. Each of our programs has a set of core courses that all students in that degree program take, followed by concentrations and/or electives that the students select based on their career goals. Core courses focus on the key skills and/or knowledge needed to be capable in the business, which is why they are required. Six core courses make up the requirement in public relations and political management (plus a capstone), and legislative affairs requires four core courses. Legislative affairs also requires students to take two classes in its two concentration areas, American political processes and public policy analysis. So LEGA students end up taking eight courses specified by the program.

There is a pattern there – about half to more than half of each program is required, with the remainder left flexible to meet specific student career needs. That tracks with other master’s programs in related fields at GW – public policy and public administration require 22 credits of core courses, nine credits of concentration courses, and offer nine credits of electives, and political science requires six core courses (eighteen credits), with five course (fifteen credits) of electives for their master’s candidates.

The same pattern occurs in applied politics programs at our sister schools. Akron’s applied politics master’s degree is a 39-credit program, requiring eighteen credits of core courses, six credits of electives in specified topics, and the remainder (fifteen credits) in open electives. Florida State’s master’s in Applied American Politics and Policy is a 37-credit program. The program requires 24 credits of courses, 12 credits of internship, and one credit for “program planning”. Twelve of the 24 course credits are required, core courses.

Graduate programs mix core courses, electives and concentration courses to meet two related goals: one, to make sure every student gets the shared knowledge/ skills everyone on the field needs to know, and two, to give enough flexibility to each student to tailor the program to meet each student’s specific career goals. PMGT is the most flexible of the three GSPM programs, and all three of the programs we run at GSPM are significantly more personalized than other CPS programs – students in paralegal studies have NO electives, and publishing students have no choices after they decide which track to follow, each track following a set course sequence. We have tried to balance the core and electives in each of our programs to maximize individual flexibility, and I think we do a pretty good job of giving students wide latitude to construct their own courses of study within that balance.

We owe it to each of you to make the core courses the best they can be, and I know we have work to do. Keep your suggestions coming, and I promise you are being heard, and I am acting on your ideas.