Tarleton MPA Students and beyond,
Well, the fall semester is coming to a too quick end it seems. Finals are just ahead and papers are being finalized and ready for submission. I hope you all have had a great semester.
The MPA program has grown exponentially since it became a part of the School of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Strategic Studies -- from about 20 students in August 2015 to over 90 at this point. I hope you are continuing to get the word out among your colleagues and friends who are looking for a great MPA learning experience that will, no doubt, help them achieve not only personal goals, but also career goals.
Registration is now open for spring 2017 courses. We have a great line-up of both online and face-to-face courses to choose from. There will be three (3) courses offered at the Hickman Building in Fort Worth and eight (8) online courses.
F2F courses:
MAPA 5300, Public Administration (Mondays, 6 to 9 p.m.), Dr. Kathy Rowe
MAPA 5301, Org Behavior (Tuesdays, 6 to 9 p.m.), yours truly
MAPA 5302, HR Management (Wednesdays, 6 to 9 p.m.), yours truly
Online courses:
MAPA 5300, Public Administration, Dr. Brian Wish
MAPA 5304, Public Sector Law, Dr. Weeks
MAPA 5320, State and Local Government (IGR), Dr. Harvey
MAPA 5322, Advance Ethics, Dr. GM Cox
MAPA 5340, Critical Incident Management, Dr. Munn
MAPA 5345, Critical Social Issues, Dr. Rowe
MAPA 5311, Intergovernmental Relations, Dr. Pewitt
MAPA 5331, Public Policy, Dr. Morrow
Some of these courses are very close to being cancelled due to low enrollment. If you're interested in taking any of these courses, please register soon so that decisions can be made about what courses will make.
See you all in the spring.
Dr. Cox
Asst. Professor
Director, MPA Program
SCCJSS
Tarleton State University
Monday, November 21, 2016
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Tarleton MPA Nation
I am an MPA Student at Tarleton.
Here is my post and question:
Taxation
So a a topic that I have been learning on appears to be an anomaly to not only Texas but also to seems just the DFW area. That is the Crime Control Prevention District. I lived in the City of Fort Worth from 2007 to 2013. Fort Worth operates a crime control budget for 2017 is proposed at $74,884,251. This money is derived from the 1/2 cent sales tax on purchases made in the City of Fort Worth. That is nearly $75 million dollars. This is money that comes from a regressive tax that appears to add up substantially. This is money that is used, especially in Fort Worth for a wide variety of uses from leasing a new helicopter for the police department to funding after school and parenting programs for youth and disadvantaged parent. Several cities in the area also use this form of taxation for fundraising. If you will pay attention many of the patrol cars on the street today in these communities have a "Funded by CCPD" marking on the trunk. The definition of what qualifies as a crime control prevention eligible program appears to depend on the city. Fort Worth seems to have a fairly liberal definition as to qualifications, but funds important programs that may not get the funding if not for it.
Obviously this sales tax frees up other accounts including General Funds, Police Department Budgets and others. The observation and accountability of these budgets is by a citizen or appointed community panel that appears to be made up of 5-9 members depending on the city that report to the city council.
Here is my discussion piece. If $75 million dollars is pulled separately from the operating budget and is operated as a separate entity for the purpose of the broad subject matter of 'crime control prevention':
1- why are not more cities doing this
2- what pit falls do you potentially see
3- Should there be more knowledge about these tax districts to the citizens as well as input.
Review the Fort Worth budget proposal for 2017 here.
C. Aller
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Hello Tarleton MPA Nation.
The fall semester of the MPA program at Tarleton is off to a robust start. All our class offerings made with over 80 students taking classes from Public Administration to Critical Social Problems. Our students come all walks of public administration environments -- federal government, education, police officers, public works, city management, fire fighters, corrections, nonprofits and NGO employees. We even have a couple private sector folks interested in branching into the public sector. Welcome, all.
We offered 5 online courses and 3 face-to-face. Students are exploring public budgeting, public policy and policy analysis, intergovernmental relations, critical incident management, critical social issues, and intro into public administration.
As you all know, we are in the middle of a presidential campaign. While the candidates themselves create a great deal of political theater, it is the policy issues that I find most germane to the Administrative State.
So, I hope you all start paying attention to what the candidates say about all the policy issues that usually accompany such campaign silliness. However, more often than not, what the candidates talk about, what makes the list of items to be included in the debate circuit, we in public administration will have to deal with the fallout or deal with the process of formulating, negotiating and implementing those very policy initiatives.
Have fun, don't take what the candidates say to serious, especially what they say about each other, focus on the policy issues and ask yourself this question, if I have to deal with the policy issues being debated, how would I go about it?
Dr. G. M. Cox, Chief (Ret)
Asst. Professor
Director, MPA Program
The fall semester of the MPA program at Tarleton is off to a robust start. All our class offerings made with over 80 students taking classes from Public Administration to Critical Social Problems. Our students come all walks of public administration environments -- federal government, education, police officers, public works, city management, fire fighters, corrections, nonprofits and NGO employees. We even have a couple private sector folks interested in branching into the public sector. Welcome, all.
We offered 5 online courses and 3 face-to-face. Students are exploring public budgeting, public policy and policy analysis, intergovernmental relations, critical incident management, critical social issues, and intro into public administration.
As you all know, we are in the middle of a presidential campaign. While the candidates themselves create a great deal of political theater, it is the policy issues that I find most germane to the Administrative State.
So, I hope you all start paying attention to what the candidates say about all the policy issues that usually accompany such campaign silliness. However, more often than not, what the candidates talk about, what makes the list of items to be included in the debate circuit, we in public administration will have to deal with the fallout or deal with the process of formulating, negotiating and implementing those very policy initiatives.
Have fun, don't take what the candidates say to serious, especially what they say about each other, focus on the policy issues and ask yourself this question, if I have to deal with the policy issues being debated, how would I go about it?
Dr. G. M. Cox, Chief (Ret)
Asst. Professor
Director, MPA Program
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Good morning, Tarleton MPA nation. Wow, it has been a year now since the Master's in Public Administration degree program moved from the College of Business Administration to the School of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Strategic Studies, Since that time, the program has grown immensely.
Two of our students, one who graduated spring 2016, Dallas Sims, and another that graduates in August, Alan Fourmenten, accomplished graduate papers to complete their degree requirements. Their papers have made practical and real contributions to our citizens and governmental operations. These graduate papers are excellent and I hope they will consider having their papers submitted for publishing in trade journals.
In about a week, on August 6th, the MPA program will have seven students graduate with their MPAs -- six of those will be our Emirati students that transferred in from Western Kentucky University a little over a year ago. These seven students will be a milestone for our program since they will be the first cohort of students who went through our program to graduation. I am very proud of these students. I will have the honor of hooding them at Commencement.
From August of 2015 to now, we have grown from a program of just under 20 students to one with over 75 students. Plus, more students are being admitted every week. This is awesome growth. Our best recruiters are our students. I hope you all take the opportunity to extol the virtues of Tarleton State University and, in particular, the MPA program. I know many students have applied who were first told or our program by one of our current or past students. Please, keep that up.
As our program grows, so too must our cadre of faculty. We have added four (4) adjunct faculty and, hopefully, will be adding another full-time PA professor as of fall 2017 to handle the course load for our ever growing program. Drs. Brian Wish and Coby Pewitt have along with me handled all of the teaching duties over the past year. Starting this fall, Drs. Kathy Rowe and Bill Munn will be assisting. All our PA faculty are Ph.D.s and seasoned professionals in the public administration field.
Currently, our students represent a very broad range of practitioners in PA, nonprofits and NGOs -- we have educators, police officers, fire fighters, assistant city managers, public works personnel, probation, corrections, and administrative personnel from local and state agencies and many, many others in the program. Some are private sector professionals looking to transition into public administration careers.
Fall is approaching quickly. The fall semester will start a week later than usual -- August 29th. This change will also result in changing down the line. Graduation for the fall will, as a result, will be a week later than usual.
The MPA program has a great line-up of courses scheduled for fall. As many of you are already aware, our program is fully online as well as face-to-face. So, a student can mix and match or pursue their Master's online or F2F. I will be teaching MAPA 5311, Intergovernmental Relations; MAPA 5315, Public Budgeting; and, MAPA 5331, Public Policy this fall -- all face-to-face at our Southwest Metro Campus in Fort Worth. The online offerings will be MAPA 5331, MAPA 5300, MAPA 5315, and MAPA 5340, and MAPA 5345. Plus, we have a number of criminal justice courses that are cross-listed and available -- ethics, research methods and statistics. On the CJ courses, I have personally visited with all the profs that teach these courses and they are aware and supportive of PA students taking their classes and allow them to pursue PA topics to fulfill course requirements.
I have some great plans for the MPA program's future -- publishing our own journal for our students' papers to be published in, an annual colloquium for our students to present their papers and inviting visiting scholars to our colloquium just a few example. So, stay tuned.
See you all soon and I hope you are having a great summer.
Dr. G.M. Cox
Assistant Professor
Director, MPA Program
Two of our students, one who graduated spring 2016, Dallas Sims, and another that graduates in August, Alan Fourmenten, accomplished graduate papers to complete their degree requirements. Their papers have made practical and real contributions to our citizens and governmental operations. These graduate papers are excellent and I hope they will consider having their papers submitted for publishing in trade journals.
In about a week, on August 6th, the MPA program will have seven students graduate with their MPAs -- six of those will be our Emirati students that transferred in from Western Kentucky University a little over a year ago. These seven students will be a milestone for our program since they will be the first cohort of students who went through our program to graduation. I am very proud of these students. I will have the honor of hooding them at Commencement.
From August of 2015 to now, we have grown from a program of just under 20 students to one with over 75 students. Plus, more students are being admitted every week. This is awesome growth. Our best recruiters are our students. I hope you all take the opportunity to extol the virtues of Tarleton State University and, in particular, the MPA program. I know many students have applied who were first told or our program by one of our current or past students. Please, keep that up.
As our program grows, so too must our cadre of faculty. We have added four (4) adjunct faculty and, hopefully, will be adding another full-time PA professor as of fall 2017 to handle the course load for our ever growing program. Drs. Brian Wish and Coby Pewitt have along with me handled all of the teaching duties over the past year. Starting this fall, Drs. Kathy Rowe and Bill Munn will be assisting. All our PA faculty are Ph.D.s and seasoned professionals in the public administration field.
Currently, our students represent a very broad range of practitioners in PA, nonprofits and NGOs -- we have educators, police officers, fire fighters, assistant city managers, public works personnel, probation, corrections, and administrative personnel from local and state agencies and many, many others in the program. Some are private sector professionals looking to transition into public administration careers.
Fall is approaching quickly. The fall semester will start a week later than usual -- August 29th. This change will also result in changing down the line. Graduation for the fall will, as a result, will be a week later than usual.
The MPA program has a great line-up of courses scheduled for fall. As many of you are already aware, our program is fully online as well as face-to-face. So, a student can mix and match or pursue their Master's online or F2F. I will be teaching MAPA 5311, Intergovernmental Relations; MAPA 5315, Public Budgeting; and, MAPA 5331, Public Policy this fall -- all face-to-face at our Southwest Metro Campus in Fort Worth. The online offerings will be MAPA 5331, MAPA 5300, MAPA 5315, and MAPA 5340, and MAPA 5345. Plus, we have a number of criminal justice courses that are cross-listed and available -- ethics, research methods and statistics. On the CJ courses, I have personally visited with all the profs that teach these courses and they are aware and supportive of PA students taking their classes and allow them to pursue PA topics to fulfill course requirements.
I have some great plans for the MPA program's future -- publishing our own journal for our students' papers to be published in, an annual colloquium for our students to present their papers and inviting visiting scholars to our colloquium just a few example. So, stay tuned.
See you all soon and I hope you are having a great summer.
Dr. G.M. Cox
Assistant Professor
Director, MPA Program
Monday, June 6, 2016
Good morning, Tarleton MPA Nation.
Recently, Dr. del Carmen and I ventured to the United Arab Emirates to network with our growing cadre of Tarleton grads -- with both MPAs and MCJs degrees -- and to, hopefully, create lasting relationships and networks with several UAE universities.
I am extremely glad that I made this trip for a number of reasons. First, I now have a very good idea of the kind of stress our students from UAE must endure to travel back and forth. The flight over was just over 14 hours and the flight back to the States took just over 15 hours.
Second, I saw and experienced what life, if only from a visitor's eyes, is like for them in the UAE. It is a place where modernity meets the sand. The people are gracious and polite, or at least they were to Dr. del Carmen and me, and the country is very tidy. Transportation is modern, multi-modal, and well designed -- they drive on the right like we do. The architecture was amazing with modern, creative building designs blended with traditional middle-eastern. Building is going on everywhere. I actually counted 13 large construction cranes, all in a row, on what appeared to be new construction of high rise buildings in Dubai. Wow! Dubai, is a modern, fast-paced, urban juggernaut. It is has a bustling and hectic pace to it. It seemed to me to have more than one "downtown" center with very tall and dense centers -- it was like having several downtown Dallas's in several areas. It was a sight to see.
Third, we had very productive meetings with the Ministry of Education, leaders of Zayed University and the University of Modern Science. We hope to create on-going and leading-edge programs between these prestigious institutions and Tarleton.
Finally, I got to see and experience many great things while on our visit. I saw an indoor ski slope. I saw the third largest mosque in the world, Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and actually went inside for a tour and Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi. I experienced traditional Arab and Lebanese food -- most of which was good -- some I did not enjoy. Of course, I saw several huge malls -- one had Ferrari World in it. We were treated to a cruise in the harbor next to Palm Island in Dubai. In short, we experienced a lot in just 6 days.
Our hosts, mostly our students, who by the way, did a great job of both tour guides and liaisons with the various entities and officials we were able to meet. Our sincere thanks to them for making our visit both productive and enjoyable.
From an MPA perspective, several things come to mind. The country is relatively young -- formed in 1971 -- has had rapid and sustained growth. It is not a democracy, but the country seems to be run with the best interests of its citizens in mind. It is an affluent place, which means all kinds of social problems that confront us in the USA are not present in the UAE. However, other challenges await this young country such as a large guest-worker population, dwindling oil supplies and developing technologies that reduce dependence on oil, small size of endogenous Emiratee population and rapid growth of both infrastructure and urban centers. The UAE government is very much focused on futures thinking and strategic planning.
The UAE has one of the most aggressive modernization schedules I have seen. By 2030, the UAE has a goal of 100% autonomous driven vehicles, at least of government vehicles. That is mind-blowing. I wonder if they have any idea of the problems that might accompany this innovation? The USA is trying to grapple with these issues now -- think Google cars, car crashes, breakdowns, traffic law violations, rules that apply to ADVs that might not apply to people driven vehicles, etc.
Glad to be back in the USA, but I, truly, enjoyed my experience in the UAE. Thank you to our students who took such great care of us. By the way, one of our MCJ students had some issues with coming back to Tarleton to receive his Masters in Criminal Justice degree in May 2016 and missed his commencement. So, being the number 1 student focused university in Texas and beyond, Dr. del Carmen donned his regalia, had our student done his cap and gown, and bestowed upon him his MCJ degree -- we believe that is the first MCJ degree, possibly any degree, conferred outside the USA and in the UAE. Awesome to see his family's eyes light up as Dr. del Carmen said the words and gave him his degree.
Dr. G M Cox
Assistant Professor
Director, MPA Program
Tarleton State University
Recently, Dr. del Carmen and I ventured to the United Arab Emirates to network with our growing cadre of Tarleton grads -- with both MPAs and MCJs degrees -- and to, hopefully, create lasting relationships and networks with several UAE universities.I am extremely glad that I made this trip for a number of reasons. First, I now have a very good idea of the kind of stress our students from UAE must endure to travel back and forth. The flight over was just over 14 hours and the flight back to the States took just over 15 hours.
Second, I saw and experienced what life, if only from a visitor's eyes, is like for them in the UAE. It is a place where modernity meets the sand. The people are gracious and polite, or at least they were to Dr. del Carmen and me, and the country is very tidy. Transportation is modern, multi-modal, and well designed -- they drive on the right like we do. The architecture was amazing with modern, creative building designs blended with traditional middle-eastern. Building is going on everywhere. I actually counted 13 large construction cranes, all in a row, on what appeared to be new construction of high rise buildings in Dubai. Wow! Dubai, is a modern, fast-paced, urban juggernaut. It is has a bustling and hectic pace to it. It seemed to me to have more than one "downtown" center with very tall and dense centers -- it was like having several downtown Dallas's in several areas. It was a sight to see.
Third, we had very productive meetings with the Ministry of Education, leaders of Zayed University and the University of Modern Science. We hope to create on-going and leading-edge programs between these prestigious institutions and Tarleton.
Finally, I got to see and experience many great things while on our visit. I saw an indoor ski slope. I saw the third largest mosque in the world, Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and actually went inside for a tour and Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi. I experienced traditional Arab and Lebanese food -- most of which was good -- some I did not enjoy. Of course, I saw several huge malls -- one had Ferrari World in it. We were treated to a cruise in the harbor next to Palm Island in Dubai. In short, we experienced a lot in just 6 days.
Our hosts, mostly our students, who by the way, did a great job of both tour guides and liaisons with the various entities and officials we were able to meet. Our sincere thanks to them for making our visit both productive and enjoyable.
From an MPA perspective, several things come to mind. The country is relatively young -- formed in 1971 -- has had rapid and sustained growth. It is not a democracy, but the country seems to be run with the best interests of its citizens in mind. It is an affluent place, which means all kinds of social problems that confront us in the USA are not present in the UAE. However, other challenges await this young country such as a large guest-worker population, dwindling oil supplies and developing technologies that reduce dependence on oil, small size of endogenous Emiratee population and rapid growth of both infrastructure and urban centers. The UAE government is very much focused on futures thinking and strategic planning.
The UAE has one of the most aggressive modernization schedules I have seen. By 2030, the UAE has a goal of 100% autonomous driven vehicles, at least of government vehicles. That is mind-blowing. I wonder if they have any idea of the problems that might accompany this innovation? The USA is trying to grapple with these issues now -- think Google cars, car crashes, breakdowns, traffic law violations, rules that apply to ADVs that might not apply to people driven vehicles, etc.
Glad to be back in the USA, but I, truly, enjoyed my experience in the UAE. Thank you to our students who took such great care of us. By the way, one of our MCJ students had some issues with coming back to Tarleton to receive his Masters in Criminal Justice degree in May 2016 and missed his commencement. So, being the number 1 student focused university in Texas and beyond, Dr. del Carmen donned his regalia, had our student done his cap and gown, and bestowed upon him his MCJ degree -- we believe that is the first MCJ degree, possibly any degree, conferred outside the USA and in the UAE. Awesome to see his family's eyes light up as Dr. del Carmen said the words and gave him his degree.
Dr. G M Cox
Assistant Professor
Director, MPA Program
Tarleton State University
Monday, April 25, 2016
UMANT (Urban Management Assistants of North Texas) Event
Come to Addison’s unique entrepreneurial business incubator,
the TreeHouse, for some personal time with influential managers and
executives from local governments and governmental organizations. Participants
will first sit down to dinner with local execs, then personally meet with each
one during a round of “speed interviews.” Exec.Connect is an
unparalleled format to gain access to important manager throughout the metro
area. Confirmed attendees include: Wes Pierson, City Manager, Addison, Tom
Hart, City Manager, Grand Prairie, Anna Doll, Assistant City Manager, Grand
Prairie, Jon Fortune, Assistant City Manager, Denton, Bryan Langley, Assistant
City Manager/CFO, Denton and Jennifer Fadden, City Manager, Colleyville. Dinner
is included in the registration cost. http://umant.com/event-2215837
I hope you all check out this unique opportunity to meet and greet several city managers and assistant city managers relative to public administration.
Dr. G. M. Cox
Assistant Professor
Director, MPA Program
(817) 484-4395
Hello everyone from the land of the Texans -- Tarleton Texans, that is.
Just an update of the MPA program at Tarleton -- we are blowing and growing. Just in April we have had over 10 admissions to the MPA program. Overall, we are above 60 students in the program -- evenly spaced in our online and Face-to-Face courses.
I cannot begin to tell you how impressed I am with the interest in our program, but the quality of those seeking admission to our program is outstanding. We have asst. city managers, asst. chiefs of police, fire fighters, police officers, educators and many more public sector practitioners enrolled and enrolling to receive their master's degree in public administration.
The Tarleton MPA is a top-notch, broad-based solid public administration degree. It is responsive to practitioners' needs and career goals. It is affordable and responsive to our students' needs -- local and distant students alike.
If you know of someone who is thinking about pursuing their master's degree, please consider steering them our way. The MPA is a very versatile comprehensive degree program aimed at the practitioner in the public sector whether it being the local, state or federal government and the nonprofit and NGO practitioners who deliver public service.
We have rolling start dates. Our degree is a 36-hour, non-thesis or thesis track, master's degree. The core of both tracks is made up of ten courses in core PA. The other six hours are designed to allow our students to develop an interest in any number of elective course work or 6 hours in thesis.
If your undergraduate GPA is at least 2.5, we waive the GRE.
You can check out our program at www.Tarleton.edu -- degrees offered for more information.
Dr. G.M. Cox
Asst. Professor and Director,
MPA Program
Tarleton State University
(817) 484-4395
Just an update of the MPA program at Tarleton -- we are blowing and growing. Just in April we have had over 10 admissions to the MPA program. Overall, we are above 60 students in the program -- evenly spaced in our online and Face-to-Face courses.
I cannot begin to tell you how impressed I am with the interest in our program, but the quality of those seeking admission to our program is outstanding. We have asst. city managers, asst. chiefs of police, fire fighters, police officers, educators and many more public sector practitioners enrolled and enrolling to receive their master's degree in public administration.
The Tarleton MPA is a top-notch, broad-based solid public administration degree. It is responsive to practitioners' needs and career goals. It is affordable and responsive to our students' needs -- local and distant students alike.
If you know of someone who is thinking about pursuing their master's degree, please consider steering them our way. The MPA is a very versatile comprehensive degree program aimed at the practitioner in the public sector whether it being the local, state or federal government and the nonprofit and NGO practitioners who deliver public service.
We have rolling start dates. Our degree is a 36-hour, non-thesis or thesis track, master's degree. The core of both tracks is made up of ten courses in core PA. The other six hours are designed to allow our students to develop an interest in any number of elective course work or 6 hours in thesis.
If your undergraduate GPA is at least 2.5, we waive the GRE.
You can check out our program at www.Tarleton.edu -- degrees offered for more information.
Dr. G.M. Cox
Asst. Professor and Director,
MPA Program
Tarleton State University
(817) 484-4395
Monday, April 4, 2016
Good afternoon, Texan MPA students.
Briefly, I want you all to know that the degree plan for the MPA degree is in a state of flux, at least as it reads in the catalog.
My purpose in writing this blog entry is to let you know that the MPA degree is very much a program that focuses on solid public administration core subjects.
That said, the current degree plan, the one we are currently operating under has some course listed different from the MPA that is in the catalog, so please be aware of that when you look at the catalog.
For the most part, we have substituted several courses that really are more cogent and responsive to our current students' needs than the program listed -- it takes the bureaucracy a bit of time to catch up, but it will catch up eventually.
Until then, the primary track for the MPA that we have laid out is:
Core courses (with substitutions indicated):
MAPA 5300, Public Administration
MAPA 5310, Intro to PA, which will be taught as a Public Sector Systems course. However, we will be submitting a course alternative titled Public Sector Systems with a PA prefix soon and this course will be substituted for MAPA 5310 once approved.
CRIJ 5321, Management of Criminal Justice Personnel (this course is substituted for HRMT 5302), which has been moved to a required course -- substituted for MKTG 5303, which may be taken as an elective if this is a class you think would benefit you. The plan is to submit a course created titled, "Public Personnel Administration." Once that class is approved, it will become a required course and CRIJ 5321 will be dropped or cross-listed.
MAPA 5311, Intergovernmental Relations
MAPA 5315, Public Budgeting (5330, Advanced Public Budgeting can be substituted for 5315 with Director's approval)
MAPA 5322, Ethics (cross-listed with CRIJ 5322)
MAPA 5398, Research Methods (cross-listed with CRIJ 5398 -- must be taken prior to taking MAPA 5307 (cross-listed with CRIJ 5300)
MAPA 5307, Statistics
MAPA 5331, Public Policy
MAPA 5340, PA Capstone
You have a number of great courses available for your 6 hours of electives. However, if you are thesis student, you will not have an option for electives under the 36-hour degree program.
If you have any questions, please give Mrs. Johnson, Program Coordinator (254-986-9106), or me (817-484-4395) a call and we can steer you towards the appropriate course mixes.
Dr. G. M. Cox
Assistant Professor
Director, MPA Program
Tarleton State University
Briefly, I want you all to know that the degree plan for the MPA degree is in a state of flux, at least as it reads in the catalog.
My purpose in writing this blog entry is to let you know that the MPA degree is very much a program that focuses on solid public administration core subjects.
That said, the current degree plan, the one we are currently operating under has some course listed different from the MPA that is in the catalog, so please be aware of that when you look at the catalog.
For the most part, we have substituted several courses that really are more cogent and responsive to our current students' needs than the program listed -- it takes the bureaucracy a bit of time to catch up, but it will catch up eventually.
Until then, the primary track for the MPA that we have laid out is:
Core courses (with substitutions indicated):
MAPA 5300, Public Administration
MAPA 5310, Intro to PA, which will be taught as a Public Sector Systems course. However, we will be submitting a course alternative titled Public Sector Systems with a PA prefix soon and this course will be substituted for MAPA 5310 once approved.
CRIJ 5321, Management of Criminal Justice Personnel (this course is substituted for HRMT 5302), which has been moved to a required course -- substituted for MKTG 5303, which may be taken as an elective if this is a class you think would benefit you. The plan is to submit a course created titled, "Public Personnel Administration." Once that class is approved, it will become a required course and CRIJ 5321 will be dropped or cross-listed.
MAPA 5311, Intergovernmental Relations
MAPA 5315, Public Budgeting (5330, Advanced Public Budgeting can be substituted for 5315 with Director's approval)
MAPA 5322, Ethics (cross-listed with CRIJ 5322)
MAPA 5398, Research Methods (cross-listed with CRIJ 5398 -- must be taken prior to taking MAPA 5307 (cross-listed with CRIJ 5300)
MAPA 5307, Statistics
MAPA 5331, Public Policy
MAPA 5340, PA Capstone
You have a number of great courses available for your 6 hours of electives. However, if you are thesis student, you will not have an option for electives under the 36-hour degree program.
If you have any questions, please give Mrs. Johnson, Program Coordinator (254-986-9106), or me (817-484-4395) a call and we can steer you towards the appropriate course mixes.
Dr. G. M. Cox
Assistant Professor
Director, MPA Program
Tarleton State University
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
ASPA -- Final Installment
My last few days in Seattle have been very interesting.
It rained all day Sunday and Monday so my adventures by-walking-aound were curtailed a bit, but I still managed to meander to a couple of interesting places in the downtown area.
I had breakfast at a local restaurant named "Lola." I knew I was in trouble when the only omelet they offered was made with octopus. Nope. Not me. Never. Not for breakfast. LOL Nice place though.
As with most conferences it was both a learning and networking opportunity. I met and had several interesting discussions with academics and practitioners from all over the USA and abroad. I liberally gave out my business cards -- you never know when one of those contacts will turn into an opportunity.
I attended more presentations and went through the exhibit area, which was like a candy story for academics...books, books, books. I even found one that I might utilize in the fall in public policy and requested an inspection copy right there.
I had the opportunity to visit with a young lady, Rebecca, from upstate New York, a graduate of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who wants to continue her education in cyber-crime and crime analysis. So, not being one to miss the opportunity to recruit for our school, I gave her soon-to-be Dr. Chris Copeland's contact email. He is without a doubt one of the most gifted and educated persons I know in this area. He can rock some "white hat" hacker stuff.
I also visited with a student from Bhutan who was looking for an opportunity to pursue his MPA degree. Of course, what I really think he wanted was someone or some institution to sponsor him (meaning pay for his education), but he was motivated and interesting.
As my adventures in Seattle were coming to a close, I still heard some great presentations on trust, trust building, competencies and practical uses derived from earning an MPA, an interesting presentation calling for bringing back the bureaucracy (hiring more people) versus growing government through contracting out (and the concomitant issues with inefficiencies and corruption), reducing turnover in the public sector, impacts from Act 10 in Wisconsin (reducing power of labor unions in the public sector) and evidence-based decision making (in other words -- relying on empirical evidence in public administration).
When it comes to utilizing evidence (research, etc.) in public policy making, I have four comments:
1) much of public policy making is VALUE laden, which means a great deal of decision-making is less about what the evidence suggests and more about decision-makers' wants; 2) most public managers/entities are risk averse (can you imagine a city being willing to replicate the Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment today?); 3) research is NOT usually published in places that practitioners are likely to even see it; and, 4) many practitioners are not able to fully utilize research results because of the way it is reported (read this as language and prose).
My trip home was very uneventful, but it started very early on Tuesday morning, 4:30 a.m. in fact. It makes for a very long day, but it was so worth it. Seattle was a great host city and it is a great place to visit.
I want to thank both Tarleton State University for sponsoring my trip and Dr. Alex del Carmen, the Executive Director of the School of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Strategic Studies, in fact, my boss for allowing me to attend my very first ASPA annual conference. Thank you, Alex.
My hope is that next year we can take a group of MPA students from our program to the ASPA Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, March 17-21, 2017. Think about submitting a topic for presentation.
Dr. GM Cox
Asst. Professor
Director, MPA Program
Tarleton State University
It rained all day Sunday and Monday so my adventures by-walking-aound were curtailed a bit, but I still managed to meander to a couple of interesting places in the downtown area.
I had breakfast at a local restaurant named "Lola." I knew I was in trouble when the only omelet they offered was made with octopus. Nope. Not me. Never. Not for breakfast. LOL Nice place though.
As with most conferences it was both a learning and networking opportunity. I met and had several interesting discussions with academics and practitioners from all over the USA and abroad. I liberally gave out my business cards -- you never know when one of those contacts will turn into an opportunity.
I attended more presentations and went through the exhibit area, which was like a candy story for academics...books, books, books. I even found one that I might utilize in the fall in public policy and requested an inspection copy right there.
I had the opportunity to visit with a young lady, Rebecca, from upstate New York, a graduate of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who wants to continue her education in cyber-crime and crime analysis. So, not being one to miss the opportunity to recruit for our school, I gave her soon-to-be Dr. Chris Copeland's contact email. He is without a doubt one of the most gifted and educated persons I know in this area. He can rock some "white hat" hacker stuff.
I also visited with a student from Bhutan who was looking for an opportunity to pursue his MPA degree. Of course, what I really think he wanted was someone or some institution to sponsor him (meaning pay for his education), but he was motivated and interesting.
As my adventures in Seattle were coming to a close, I still heard some great presentations on trust, trust building, competencies and practical uses derived from earning an MPA, an interesting presentation calling for bringing back the bureaucracy (hiring more people) versus growing government through contracting out (and the concomitant issues with inefficiencies and corruption), reducing turnover in the public sector, impacts from Act 10 in Wisconsin (reducing power of labor unions in the public sector) and evidence-based decision making (in other words -- relying on empirical evidence in public administration).
When it comes to utilizing evidence (research, etc.) in public policy making, I have four comments:
1) much of public policy making is VALUE laden, which means a great deal of decision-making is less about what the evidence suggests and more about decision-makers' wants; 2) most public managers/entities are risk averse (can you imagine a city being willing to replicate the Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment today?); 3) research is NOT usually published in places that practitioners are likely to even see it; and, 4) many practitioners are not able to fully utilize research results because of the way it is reported (read this as language and prose).
My trip home was very uneventful, but it started very early on Tuesday morning, 4:30 a.m. in fact. It makes for a very long day, but it was so worth it. Seattle was a great host city and it is a great place to visit.
I want to thank both Tarleton State University for sponsoring my trip and Dr. Alex del Carmen, the Executive Director of the School of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Strategic Studies, in fact, my boss for allowing me to attend my very first ASPA annual conference. Thank you, Alex.
My hope is that next year we can take a group of MPA students from our program to the ASPA Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, March 17-21, 2017. Think about submitting a topic for presentation.
Dr. GM Cox
Asst. Professor
Director, MPA Program
Tarleton State University
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Seattle -- 3rd Session
My day started much like most other days, well with the exception that it started in Seattle. I had breakfast and read the newspaper at the local Starbucks -- there was literally another Starbucks across the street. Really?
I scoped out the presentations that I wanted to attend on Saturday, Friday evening -- have I ever told you about the 6Ps? It is a rule of life -- most of my former employees and students know it. It means Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance. So, I was ready and primed to listen and learn. One of the topics I explored in my dissertation research was Public Service Motivation (PSM) -- the basic premise of this theory is that people who work in the public sector are motivated intrinsically more than someone who would prefer to work in the private sector (extrinsically). So, I attended a presentation on Motivation in the Public Sector. The conversation was excellent and the topics very germane to what motivates people to work for the public.
Then I attended a discussion on CJ in Public Administration -- there were several presentations in this area...all very interesting. The presentation that garnered a great deal of attention and conversation was on immigration issues, especially related to Muslims. The interesting thing about the research is that economic independence -- in other words the ability to make money and thrive in a community (country) -- was found to be most positively correlated to assimilation. Let me just say that the conversation was very energized.
I bumped into one of the most interesting academics I have had the pleasure of knowing, Dr. Jim Alexander, Texas Woman University. He is such a nice man. So, we headed over to the MOHAI (Museum of History and Industry) for the welcoming reception. What a nice place to visit -- full of artifacts related to industrial history.
The day was full of exploration, explanation and education. In other words, enlightening opportunities.
To summarize, I heard presentations relative to GIS, PSM, crisis management, WEBEoC, 3-strikes punishment processes in Florida, EBOLA crisis in Dallas and immigration assimilation. All from well respected academics and Ph.D. candidates. In totality, a full day.
Tomorrow, I will report on my adventures Sunday. Stay tuned.
Dr. GM Cox
Director, MPA Program and
Asst. Professor
School of Criminology, Criminal Justice
and Strategic Studies
Tarleton State University
I scoped out the presentations that I wanted to attend on Saturday, Friday evening -- have I ever told you about the 6Ps? It is a rule of life -- most of my former employees and students know it. It means Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance. So, I was ready and primed to listen and learn. One of the topics I explored in my dissertation research was Public Service Motivation (PSM) -- the basic premise of this theory is that people who work in the public sector are motivated intrinsically more than someone who would prefer to work in the private sector (extrinsically). So, I attended a presentation on Motivation in the Public Sector. The conversation was excellent and the topics very germane to what motivates people to work for the public.
Then I attended a discussion on CJ in Public Administration -- there were several presentations in this area...all very interesting. The presentation that garnered a great deal of attention and conversation was on immigration issues, especially related to Muslims. The interesting thing about the research is that economic independence -- in other words the ability to make money and thrive in a community (country) -- was found to be most positively correlated to assimilation. Let me just say that the conversation was very energized.
I bumped into one of the most interesting academics I have had the pleasure of knowing, Dr. Jim Alexander, Texas Woman University. He is such a nice man. So, we headed over to the MOHAI (Museum of History and Industry) for the welcoming reception. What a nice place to visit -- full of artifacts related to industrial history.
The day was full of exploration, explanation and education. In other words, enlightening opportunities.
To summarize, I heard presentations relative to GIS, PSM, crisis management, WEBEoC, 3-strikes punishment processes in Florida, EBOLA crisis in Dallas and immigration assimilation. All from well respected academics and Ph.D. candidates. In totality, a full day.
Tomorrow, I will report on my adventures Sunday. Stay tuned.
Dr. GM Cox
Director, MPA Program and
Asst. Professor
School of Criminology, Criminal Justice
and Strategic Studies
Tarleton State University
Saturday, March 19, 2016
Many things can happen at conferences such as these -- meeting new and interesting people, which I have done. Discussing topics of interests, in many cases topics that few would find interesting enough to discuss, and experiencing the local iterations of life experienced by others in their habitat, which I have also done.
Yesterday, I attended several presentations, a kind of mini-course format, on several topics. First up was a discussion on Youngstown, OH, and efforts to deal with violence. Interesting to say the least -- and yes, this is a PA topic. It is also a criminology and CJ topic. See how this works? Oh, the gist of this presentation was that Youngstown like so many similarly situated cities (rust belt, deindustrialization process, dwindling populations, etc.) has challenges with what I would like to call "reverse spatial mismatch." People have left the urban center, leaving fewer and fewer people to pay taxes, work, and consume. The workers who have now left center-city, living in the marginalized areas, some might say the old-suburbs, commute into to the center city to work. Violence is rampant. What to do? Check out the Youngstown's CIRV program.
Then there was the doctoral candidate studying decentralized vs. centralized policing internationally and whether there is a relationship between these two factors (which has many factors within them) and trust by the community of police. This young student, Grichawat Lowatcharin, created a Police Decentralized Index to evaluate his hypotheses. Great research topic. Not sure of his success, but like Thomas Edison pointed out, "there is success in knowing how not to make a light bulbs."
Another doctoral candidate wanted to test her hypothesis against the model of CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) and crime prevention on campuses. Looks like it will be a very interesting research project.
Of course, I had a brief tit-for-tat with another professor who clearly thinks police -- the institution -- and police officers are to blame for a great many of our problems in America. The rest of the room enjoyed the debate. At some point, I had to allow the final word from the other professor -- for those of you who know me, you know how difficulty that was for me, after all, she was probably an expert. LOL Anyway, several of the attendees shook my hand at the conclusion of the discussion -- not sure why they did that.
One young academic in progress from Washington, D.C. and I had a great conversation about what it is that police officers do that most people do not know about. While a PA doctoral student, she was interested in studying that. I gave her some pointers, etc.
The second session and by far the most interesting was on Virtues Ethics in Public Administration. The co-presenters for the topic were Professor Rebecca Gordon, University of San Francisco and Professor Danny Balfour, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI. So, the presentation started with a test of the two (yes, I said two) attendees -- me and one other lost soul, it seems -- where the question was asked of us -- "What is the purpose of human life?" Now, you all might have simple answers to this questions, but knowing this was a very smart person, I had to come up with some lofty answers and I did. To my surprise -- I was never very good at philosophy, at least not until I had several adult beverages under my belt...then I am very philosophical. Now, my answers were pretty much right on -- "Be," "Happiness" and...wait for it, "Enlightenment." All seems pretty cool answers and were mostly right on.
Professor Gordon then began a lecture on Aristotle and how he went about answering this question. Finally, we discussed why do governments exists? The answers were not so easy or forthcoming. The take-away is that governments exist to provide an environment where "citizens" can pursue excellence in what they want to do -- within the idea of "community" and what Aristotle called "friendship." By the was, this discussion grew to about 5 people and got very interesting and touched on many topics, such as Anonymous, ends justifying the means, J. S. Mill (one of my favorites), St. Thomas Aquinas, and Alasdair MacIntyre's book After Virtue. Read it, I plan to.
So, here it is Saturday and I am about to embark on another day of learning and connecting.
I will post more comments soon.
Dr. GM Cox
Assistant Professor
Director, MPA Program
Tarleton State University
Yesterday, I attended several presentations, a kind of mini-course format, on several topics. First up was a discussion on Youngstown, OH, and efforts to deal with violence. Interesting to say the least -- and yes, this is a PA topic. It is also a criminology and CJ topic. See how this works? Oh, the gist of this presentation was that Youngstown like so many similarly situated cities (rust belt, deindustrialization process, dwindling populations, etc.) has challenges with what I would like to call "reverse spatial mismatch." People have left the urban center, leaving fewer and fewer people to pay taxes, work, and consume. The workers who have now left center-city, living in the marginalized areas, some might say the old-suburbs, commute into to the center city to work. Violence is rampant. What to do? Check out the Youngstown's CIRV program.
Then there was the doctoral candidate studying decentralized vs. centralized policing internationally and whether there is a relationship between these two factors (which has many factors within them) and trust by the community of police. This young student, Grichawat Lowatcharin, created a Police Decentralized Index to evaluate his hypotheses. Great research topic. Not sure of his success, but like Thomas Edison pointed out, "there is success in knowing how not to make a light bulbs."
Another doctoral candidate wanted to test her hypothesis against the model of CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) and crime prevention on campuses. Looks like it will be a very interesting research project.
Of course, I had a brief tit-for-tat with another professor who clearly thinks police -- the institution -- and police officers are to blame for a great many of our problems in America. The rest of the room enjoyed the debate. At some point, I had to allow the final word from the other professor -- for those of you who know me, you know how difficulty that was for me, after all, she was probably an expert. LOL Anyway, several of the attendees shook my hand at the conclusion of the discussion -- not sure why they did that.
One young academic in progress from Washington, D.C. and I had a great conversation about what it is that police officers do that most people do not know about. While a PA doctoral student, she was interested in studying that. I gave her some pointers, etc.
The second session and by far the most interesting was on Virtues Ethics in Public Administration. The co-presenters for the topic were Professor Rebecca Gordon, University of San Francisco and Professor Danny Balfour, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI. So, the presentation started with a test of the two (yes, I said two) attendees -- me and one other lost soul, it seems -- where the question was asked of us -- "What is the purpose of human life?" Now, you all might have simple answers to this questions, but knowing this was a very smart person, I had to come up with some lofty answers and I did. To my surprise -- I was never very good at philosophy, at least not until I had several adult beverages under my belt...then I am very philosophical. Now, my answers were pretty much right on -- "Be," "Happiness" and...wait for it, "Enlightenment." All seems pretty cool answers and were mostly right on.
Professor Gordon then began a lecture on Aristotle and how he went about answering this question. Finally, we discussed why do governments exists? The answers were not so easy or forthcoming. The take-away is that governments exist to provide an environment where "citizens" can pursue excellence in what they want to do -- within the idea of "community" and what Aristotle called "friendship." By the was, this discussion grew to about 5 people and got very interesting and touched on many topics, such as Anonymous, ends justifying the means, J. S. Mill (one of my favorites), St. Thomas Aquinas, and Alasdair MacIntyre's book After Virtue. Read it, I plan to.
So, here it is Saturday and I am about to embark on another day of learning and connecting.
I will post more comments soon.
Dr. GM Cox
Assistant Professor
Director, MPA Program
Tarleton State University
Friday, March 18, 2016
Hello from Seattle -- Attending the ASPA Conference
Hello, Texans MPA Nation from the grand city of Seattle, WA. Yours truly attending the annual conference of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). I am having breakfast in the iconic, for hash browns if you can believe it, US Courthouse Café. Good food, reasonably priced -- try it if you are ever here. But, I am more than just a pretty face in this city attending just another conference -- I'm a professor representing Tarleton SU and public administration among a host of like minded individuals.
This is the grand prix, if you will, of associations for our discipline, public administration.
But, while I am sitting here enjoying the food and people watching, I ponder what is going on in those peoples' lives that I am a voyeur of?
What I "see" is people walking to someplace from somewhere else. Determined. Oblivious, outwardly so at least, to me and my presence and gaze. I have purpose to my gandering -- wondering really, if those peeps have any idea of the number of people, processes and policies handled by public administrators that were involved in making it possible for their relatively safe saunter?
I am struck by the streets, buildings, signs, street lights, by the police officer that just rolled by on his 3-wheeled Segway, and all the other activities that created this place for walking, living, working and recreating. The not so invisible hand of public administration was apparent, if not visible now or ever, to anyone who would take the time (but why in the world would they) to see what I was seeing.
These things that make places function -- and repeated hundreds of thousands of times every day all over the world -- and I was awestruck at the impacts that public administration has.
Peeps -- kinship of the public administration world -- you all are very important cogs in the mechanisms of government and governance. You are what makes communities, states, nation-states or city-states exist and function.
If you serve the public, you rock and I thank you for your service.
I will make more posts as I experience the conference.
Stay tuned.
Dr. GM Cox
Asst. Professor
Director, MPA Program
Tarleton State University
This is the grand prix, if you will, of associations for our discipline, public administration.
But, while I am sitting here enjoying the food and people watching, I ponder what is going on in those peoples' lives that I am a voyeur of?
What I "see" is people walking to someplace from somewhere else. Determined. Oblivious, outwardly so at least, to me and my presence and gaze. I have purpose to my gandering -- wondering really, if those peeps have any idea of the number of people, processes and policies handled by public administrators that were involved in making it possible for their relatively safe saunter?
I am struck by the streets, buildings, signs, street lights, by the police officer that just rolled by on his 3-wheeled Segway, and all the other activities that created this place for walking, living, working and recreating. The not so invisible hand of public administration was apparent, if not visible now or ever, to anyone who would take the time (but why in the world would they) to see what I was seeing.
These things that make places function -- and repeated hundreds of thousands of times every day all over the world -- and I was awestruck at the impacts that public administration has.
Peeps -- kinship of the public administration world -- you all are very important cogs in the mechanisms of government and governance. You are what makes communities, states, nation-states or city-states exist and function.
If you serve the public, you rock and I thank you for your service.
I will make more posts as I experience the conference.
Stay tuned.
Dr. GM Cox
Asst. Professor
Director, MPA Program
Tarleton State University
Friday, March 4, 2016
With all the "talk" and issues (or lack there of) being run up the presidential primary flag pole, by both parties and candidates, and the relative doomsday predictions coming out of the possible election of either leader, we in the Administrative State, must maintain focus. The function of the public administration is to be the action arm of the legislative and executive branches of government. Ok, so I didn't mention the judicial, but that is another argument for another day.
We must keep our sights on the functions we serve, not the politics, especially partisan politics, of the process of selecting our leaders.
PA is first and foremost about service. Sure, we have to play "politics," but we do not try to direct election outcomes -- we deal and cope with them.
Our jobs are to get the job done regardless who wins an election at the national, state or local level.
The American political system, while one of the youngest major democracies on the planet, is one of the most solid, stable, functional and responsive political and public administrative systems that exists. That is not to say that we will continue down that path, but my money is on the system that was set up and evolved from some very smart people -- those who have come before us in developing the Administrative State (and political systems).
I hope you feel free to join in on the blog discussion. Let those of us who serve and steer, and yes, sometimes row, know what your opinions and inputs are on this topic.
Dr. Cox
Asst. Professor
Director, MPA Program
Tarleton State University
P.S.: By the way, invite people to join our blog and get involved. Our blog is not closed loop -- we want and we encourage everyone to jump in and participate.
We must keep our sights on the functions we serve, not the politics, especially partisan politics, of the process of selecting our leaders.
PA is first and foremost about service. Sure, we have to play "politics," but we do not try to direct election outcomes -- we deal and cope with them.
Our jobs are to get the job done regardless who wins an election at the national, state or local level.
The American political system, while one of the youngest major democracies on the planet, is one of the most solid, stable, functional and responsive political and public administrative systems that exists. That is not to say that we will continue down that path, but my money is on the system that was set up and evolved from some very smart people -- those who have come before us in developing the Administrative State (and political systems).
I hope you feel free to join in on the blog discussion. Let those of us who serve and steer, and yes, sometimes row, know what your opinions and inputs are on this topic.
Dr. Cox
Asst. Professor
Director, MPA Program
Tarleton State University
P.S.: By the way, invite people to join our blog and get involved. Our blog is not closed loop -- we want and we encourage everyone to jump in and participate.
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Summer Session for the TSU MPA program
The MPA courses for the summer are about to go live.
So that you can plan accordingly, MAPA 5300, Public Administration and MAPA 5331, Public Policy, will both be offered this summer. Both courses will be online format.
If you are interested in continuing your education and you want a great degree that will prepare you for numerous managerial, administrative and leadership roles in the public sector, you could not pick a better program than Tarleton State's Masters in Public Administration.
If you would like more information on our program, please call me at (817) 484-4395, or Mrs. Sharon Johnson, MPA program coordinator, at (254) 968-9106. Either one of us can get your started in the application process to be admitted to the College of Graduate Studies and the MPA program.
Dr. GM Cox
Assist Professor
Director, MPA Program
Tarleton State University
School of Criminology, Criminal Justice and
Strategic Studies
So that you can plan accordingly, MAPA 5300, Public Administration and MAPA 5331, Public Policy, will both be offered this summer. Both courses will be online format.
If you are interested in continuing your education and you want a great degree that will prepare you for numerous managerial, administrative and leadership roles in the public sector, you could not pick a better program than Tarleton State's Masters in Public Administration.
If you would like more information on our program, please call me at (817) 484-4395, or Mrs. Sharon Johnson, MPA program coordinator, at (254) 968-9106. Either one of us can get your started in the application process to be admitted to the College of Graduate Studies and the MPA program.
Dr. GM Cox
Assist Professor
Director, MPA Program
Tarleton State University
School of Criminology, Criminal Justice and
Strategic Studies
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Welcome to the Tarleton MPA Blog
This is the new Tarleton State University MPA Program blog.
It is intended to provide a forum for discussions, opinions and posts relative to topics germane to public administration across the entire PA spectrum -- public, nonprofit and non-governmental organizations that provide public services.
Our intent is to engage, exchange and contribute to the overall discourse as it relates to all things public administration, which really is just about everything.
Dr. GM Cox
Assistant Professor
Director, MPA Program
Tarleton State University
It is intended to provide a forum for discussions, opinions and posts relative to topics germane to public administration across the entire PA spectrum -- public, nonprofit and non-governmental organizations that provide public services.
Our intent is to engage, exchange and contribute to the overall discourse as it relates to all things public administration, which really is just about everything.
Dr. GM Cox
Assistant Professor
Director, MPA Program
Tarleton State University
Friday, January 15, 2016
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