an increasing desire for advanced degrees. Senior personnel, in particular, are finding that the MPPA degree, combined with their experience, helps them compete with younger people just getting involved in public policy. Voorhees also observes that people today are more likely to change careers than they were in the past. They are, she says, more inclined to “look at what interests them and what they really want to do.” Often that process leads them to public service. “When you talk with people about how they got into public service, a lot of them say they sort of ‘backed into it,’ says Voorhees. “They find that it’s interesting, rewarding work, but they realize they need to go back for AT A GLANCE that graduate education to do the job Master of Arts in Public Policy effectively.”
gives MPPA students a near-ideal balance of focus and flexibility. “Other programs are so focused that they tend to be more like ‘training’ than ‘education,’” says Alexander Weiss, a founder of and current adviser to the program and director of Northwestern’s Center for Public Safety. The MPPA program is highly interdisciplinary, yet it allows students to focus by choosing one of five tracks to suit their needs: health services policy, public policy, public safety and security, technology and information management, or urban policy and planning. Right time, right place
The MPPA program is certainly meeting students’ needs: it has and Administration program grown fivefold in its first two years. The reasons are many. Following the action Curriculum Consider the fact that Chicago “Our profession is based on the • five-course core is an important hub for several separation of policy and administra• four-course specialization federal offices administering tion,” Voorhees says. “The idea is that • capstone project services to the Midwest, or that elected officials make policy and • four noncredit seminars focusing on the city is economically tied to administrators carry it out.” In reality, management and leadership some 17 counties in three states, elected officials frequently look to or that the Illinois Metropolitan administrators for information about Specializations Mayors Caucus has 272 members policy alternatives. As an example, • Health services policy — each one the head of a municVoorhees cites how city managers • Public policy ipality in the Chicago area. In adhere to a strict code of ethics that • Public safety and security addition, there are an increasing requires they not participate in elec• Technology and information management number of nonprofit and fortions or in local politics of any kind. • Urban policy and planning profit organizations interested in Sometimes, however, it is necessary employees with policy expertise. for city administrators to communicate All classes are offered on evenings It all adds up to an ever-growing to elected officials about the options or weekends. demand for policy-related jobs available to them. in the Midwest — a market SCS “Policy touches people through adMost students take one or two courses is dedicated to serving. ministration,” says Shapiro. “If you’re per quarter, but it is possible to complete “There are no other schools on the policy side and you don’t know all requirements in five quarters. in the region that have been as anything about administration, you’re responsive to the marketplace as lacking.” Likewise, he says, if you’re on For more information, visit we have been and will continue the administrative side, it’s difficult to www.scs.northwestern.edu/grad/ppa to be,” says Salchenberger. Heidi jump into a policy role without further Voorhees agrees. She is an MPPA education. The MPPA program offers instructor and vice president of people in both groups the chance to the PAR Group, a public-sector management consulting rededicate themselves to their careers. The program accepts firm. “The intellectual resources that Northwestern has applications year-round, does not require GRE scores, and to offer can be a wonderful support system for governments welcomes applicants who do not have previous policy or here,” she says. research experience along with those who do. Asked why the program has proven so successful, After just two years, the MPPA program has demonVoorhees points to a growing interest in civic involvement, strated itself to be one of the top public-policy offerings which leads to more competition for jobs, bringing with it at an American university.
4 Continuum Spring 2006