The mission of the Master of Public Administration program is to offer graduates the knowledge of values, roles, skills, and practices that will help them become competent professionals capable of ethical, intelligent, and creative leadership in the public service. As a member of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA), the MPA program’s mission and set of goals also reflect NASPAA's Code of Good Practice.
The Four Goals of Our Mission
- Stress the study of how values from political (constitutional and legal), philosophic, and religious traditions, guide the actions of successful public administrators.
- Offer an interdisciplinary curriculum featuring the integration of knowledge from sociology, political science, economics, psychology, communication, history, philosophy, and statistics.
- Nurture a sense of service to community
- by featuring the study of successful public administrators as roles models.
- by exploring the traditions and approaches in public administration theory
- Emphasize the importance of practical experience
- by discussing case studies of public administration in practice.
- by using simulations and other exercises to use knowledge in the safe environment of the classroom.
- by stressing the need for work experience in the application of public administration knowledge
- by requiring an internship for students lacking such experience.
The MPA faculty's approach to teaching - both in the classroom and in one-on-one interactions with students - is a very Augustinian one.
AugustinianTeaching.pdfThis article, written by John Immerwahr, Ph.D., offers some insight into this pedagogy.
