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

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

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

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

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

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