Tarleton Master of Public Administration (MPA)

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