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Nov 25, 2024
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2020-2021 Graduate Catalog
New Directions in Public, Non-Profit and Community Leadership, Political Science MA
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► Graduate School Policies and Procedures apply to this program.
Director: Minsun Ji
E-mail: minsun.ji@ucdenver.edu
The Public, Non-profit and Community Leadership track of the political science MA program is offered off-campus through the Center for New Directions at CU Denver South in Parker, CO. The Center for New Directions offers an MA program focused on public leadership, community labor organizing, and social economy innovations, in collaboration with community and labor organizations and local government jurisdictions across Colorado. The program seeks to develop the public leadership & community organizing capacities necessary to address challenges and leadership & community organizing capacities necessary to address challenges and opportunities within neighborhoods, communities, government jurisdictions, and non-profit entities.
In addition to their standard coursework, students in this Masters program are encouraged to be involved in experiential learning through professional internships, community-based action research opportunities, and other practicums made available to students through the program’s many university-community partnerships, including the possibility of full-time, salaried internships with rural and small jurisdictions across Colorado. Through partnerships with government jurisdictions across the state, and with non-profits and community-based organizations, New Directions seeks to build community power and identify policy solutions to local challenges.
This program presents courses in an intensive weekend format, allowing students to complete their masters entirely through weekend or online courses.
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Degree Requirements
- Students must complete a total of 33 PSCI graduate credit hours to complete the MA degree.
- Students must earn a minimum grade of B- (2.7) in all masters courses taken at CU Denver and must achieve a minimum cumulative masters GPA of 3.0. All graded attempts in required and elective courses are calculated in the masters GPA. Students cannot complete the masters or ancillary course requirements as pass/fail.
Electives
In addition to the required core courses, students must take 24 credit hours of political science electives.
[Note: Previously earned graduate credit may be submitted for approval to satisfy up to nine hours of the supportive elective requirement. The elective courses offered may change from time to time based on needs, interests and other factors.]
Elective courses in the New Directions program are offered in three different “tracks” of study, allowing students to choose their particular interest and focus their studies on that subject. The three tracks are: Local Governance, Community and Labor Organizing, and The Social Economy and Sustainable Development.
Students are encouraged to focus their studies by taking courses within a chosen track, but it is not required that students only take courses within a single track (and some courses fit in more than one track).
- Local Governance: Curriculum focuses on educating students who are interested in working in local and state government sectors, or with public policy research and advocacy organizations. Curriculum and community partnerships in this area focus on local government and administration, the politics of government finance, state politics and public policy challenges.
- Community and Labor Organizing: Curriculum focuses on developing diverse theoretical and practical courses in labor and community organizing politics, history and strategies. Courses focus on social movement theories, labor union politics, and community organizing strategies to help students develop theoretical foundations and practical strategies for more effective community and labor leadership.
- The Social Economy and Sustainable Development: Curriculum focuses on developing an understanding of the current political-economic systems, and on exploring alternative and diverse economic strategies that might work to the benefit of less privileged communities. Courses and community partnerships allow students to explore democratic financial systems, land trusts, and worker cooperatives, and other such innovative “social economy” practices, at the local, national and global levels. In this track, students will learn of diverse economies theory, innovative economic development strategies in both rural and urban areas, the worker cooperative movement, and innovative financial strategies that work for less privileged communities.
Project Requirement
All students are required to complete a 3-credit master’s project under the direction of a faculty advisor. Registration is done using the Special Processing form, rather than online. Course Format
All courses are offered in a weekend format that consists of three weekend sessions for a given course, spread out over a two or three month period. Weekend classes are held from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm on both Saturday and Sunday of each weekend session. In most cases, a student will complete all of the weekend sessions of one course before starting the weekend sessions for the next course. There is typically a two to three week break between each weekend of class-time in a given course.
Certificate Program
The Center for New Directions MA program offers two certificate programs:
These certificate programs allow students to focus their studies in a particular direction and to note that particular focus on their transcript. Students do not have to be seeking a full Master’s degree to earn a certificate of completion through the certificate program.
For more information on these graduate certificates, click the links above.
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