CORNELL INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS
GENERAL INFORMATION
The Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) is a university-wide two-year graduate professional program leading to a Master of Public Administration degree. Its mission is to develop professionals who can be effective, ethical, and creative leaders in government and in the private sector's interface with government.
CIPA emphasizes the interactions between public and private interests for the benefit of all sectors of society. We use Cornell's cutting-edge strengths as a major research university to understand rapidly evolving public interests, technological opportunities, ecological constraints, individual aspirations, and political possibilities. Examples of Cornell's extraordinary breadth of policy-related specialities include science and technology; health, education, and social services administration; agricultural policy; nutrition; international development; environmental studies; peace studies; labor relations; city and regional planning; and ethics in public life. These areas of expertise provide a diverse base for the CIPA Fellows (our students) to pursue the study of public affairs. Thus, CIPA Fellows take courses and work with faculty from all of Cornell's colleges as well as the Cornell Law School, with whom a joint M.P.A./J.D. degree is offered, and the Johnson Graduate School of Management.
The CIPA program has been developed to offer both a sound foundation in the principles, tools, and techniques for a career and leadership in public affairs and the flexibility to accommodate and encourage the special policy-related interests of its students.
The curriculum is structured into three parts: four required core courses taken by all CIPA Fellows; area requirements focused on developing the wide variety of skills necessary for the public policy professional; and sectoral specialties, focused on the particular interest of the Fellow and leading to a thesis.
The Core Courses
These courses have been developed specially for CIPA Fellows to provide a common, hands-on experience in employing the latest analytical techniques to guide the formulation of programs, their supporting institutions, and their effective administration. They will also provide strategies for implementing change in complex heterogeneous societies.
CIPA I: Quantitative Techniques for Policy Analysis and Program Management (CRP 720) This course is designed to give students the basic management tools essential for the contemporary career in public affairs. It includes hands-on practice with formal management techniques, including investment analysis and linear and dynamic programming.
CIPA II: Public Political Economy (ECON 639 or CEE 528) Techniques of economic analysis are used to understand the need for various public programs, to estimate the value of new programs and policies, to forge desirable institutional structures for service delivery, and to anticipate and evaluate outcomes.
CIPA III: Administration, Politics, and Public Affairs (GOVT 621) This course is focused on the processes and institutional context of public affairs and analyzes the political and administrative structure and dynamics of policy development and implementation.
CIPA IV: Social Policy (SOC 526) This course incorporates the study of analytic methods, especially the use of statistics and simulation models, to study the structure of public programs and to assess their consequences.
The Area Requirements
In addition to the four core courses, Fellows must also complete satisfactorily a series of foundation subject or area requirements that are essential to the training of public policy professionals. These areas are: methodologies, politics and policy, economics, math and statistics, finance, regulation, ethics, and public law.
The Sectoral Specialty
At least three courses taken by individual Fellows will be in their sectoral specialty or "concentration." These are widely divergent and depend on the unique interests and background of the individual student.
The CIPA Thesis
Each Fellow must complete a thesis that applies the conceptual tools, theories, and analytical techniques to a problem in the Fellow's area of sectoral expertise. As the culmination of each M.P.A. course of study, this thesis must be both critical and creative, reflecting the Fellow's ability to identify, analyze, and generate supportable solutions to important public policy questions.
Additional Requirements
All M.P.A. candidates must spend four semesters in residence to complete the degree.
The Faculty
In addition to our four core faculty members (Richard E. Schuler, director, economics and civil and environmental engineering; Steven Caldwell, sociology; Arch Dotson, government; and David Lewis, city and regional planning) who offer the four core courses and advise the Fellows in the development of their programs of study, more than one hundred faculty members from nearly all colleges at Cornell participate in the graduate field of public affairs and policy, and they are available to supervise the theses of individual Fellows whose policy interests coincide with faculty expertise.
Special Programs
A combined four-year MPA/JD degree program is available. For selected Cornell undergraduates who are accepted by the end of their junior year, a combined five-year bachelors/MPA program can be arranged.
Application. Applicants are required to submit GRE general test scores. CIPA has a policy of rolling admissions. Students requesting aid, however, must submit applications by March 1 for consideration. For an application or more information, contact Cornell Institute for Public Affairs, 473 Hollister Hall (phone: 607Ð255Ð8018; fax: 607Ð255Ð5240; e-mail: cipa@cornell.edu; web site: www.cfe.cornell.edu/cipa/).
Financial Support. As a professional program, the financial aid resources of CIPA are extremely limited. Students of unusual merit and documented need will be considered for support, but CIPA is unable to provide any one student full support. Therefore, applicants are encouraged to explore and exploit all available sources of external funding.
For an application or more information, contact Cornell Institute for Public Affairs, 473 Hollister Hall (phone: 607Ð255Ð8018; fax: 607Ð255Ð5240; e-mail: cipa@cornell.edu).
