MAPL: Where new leaders of our advocacy community emerge.

Fall 2009 -- Spring 2010 -- Fall 2010 -- Spring 2011 -- Fall 2011-- All Courses

Fall 2009 Classes

Fridays 6pm to 9 pm (electives)

MAPL 5301 Campaigns and Elections

Saturday 8:45 am to 11:45 am (Core Classes)

MAPL 6001 The Political Process and Public Polic
MAPL 6003 Civic Engagement and Political Culture
MAPL 6004 Political Organizing and Communication
MAPL 6002 Policy Evaluation

Saturday 1 pm to 4 pm (Concentration Courses)
NOTE: Concentration Courses also serve as electives

MAPL 5111-Labor Organizing
MAPL 5119-Techniques for Nonprofit Advocacy: Nonprofit as Agents of Democracy
MAPL 5311-Advocacy in the Public Sector: Service in the Elected Branch

Internships (Arranged with Instructor)

MAPL 6008--3 credit
MAPL 6009--2 credit

MAPL 5111 - Labor Organizing
(3.0 cr; Prereq-MAPL or Collegiate Grad student status or Grad School student status or #; A-F or Aud)
Historical overview of the evolution of modern labor movement, examine the state of organized labor and labor organizing today, and analyze two emerging models of union leadership--social movement leadership and institutional leadership.

Back to Top

MAPL 5119 - Techniques for Nonprofit Advocacy

Back to Top

MAPL 5301 - Campaigns and Elections
(3.0 cr; Prereq-MAPL or Collegiate Grad student status or Grad School student status or #; A-F or Aud)
Overview of campaigns and elections, to include both the party nomination process and general elections, at the national, state, and local levels.

Back to Top

MAPL 5311 - Advocacy in the Public Sector: Service in the Elected Branch
(3.0 cr; Prereq-No Grad School cr; A-F or Aud)
First of two required segments of the concentration, advocacy in the public sector. Prepares for current or future careers in the elected branches of government, at the local, regional, state or national level as members of councils, boards, the Legislature or Congress, or as staff to those elected. Familiarizes students with three essential skills for persons interested in such careers, instruction on understanding and using public opinion measurement, instruction on best practices for those operating as staff to elected or appointed officials, and instruction on media relations in a political setting; all three skills-oriented segments will be taught by guest lecturers with outstanding credentials; the first and last three-hour periods of the class will discuss the ethical dimensions of working in the political realm.

Back to Top

MAPL 6001 - Political Process and Public Policy
(3.0 cr; Prereq-MAPL or Collegiate Grad student status or Grad School student status or cohort)
Offers familiarity with the concepts of agenda setting and policy development and with the variable meanings used in the political arena to define core concepts like equitable and efficient. After reading and reporting on a leading book from the public affairs literature, students focus primarily on a policy they wish to see enacted or changed, then prepare background papers and oral presentations arguing for that enactment or change.

Back to Top

MAPL 6002 - Policy Evaluation
(3.0 cr; Prereq-MAPL or Collegiate Grad student status or Grad School student status or cohort)
Prepares students to understand and, in some cases, to perform, formal evaluations of policy proposals, including cost benefit analysis and other efficacy-based measures. Students will learn that neither public policy nor politics are or can be ethically neutral.

Back to Top

MAPL 6003 - Civic Engagement and Political Cultures
(3.0 cr; Prereq-MAPL or Collegiate Grad student status or Grad School student status or cohort)
Identification of at least four major issues currently facing the policymakers in Minnesota and/or the nation. Using historical analysis, students will ascertain how these issues came to be what they currently are and attempt to analyze where they might go, given the political culture in the state and nation. Students will quickly survey and critique the philosophical foundations of American politics, from Jefferson and Madison to Rawls and Martin Luther King.

Back to Top

MAPL 6004 - Political Organizing and Communication
(3.0 cr; Prereq-MAPL or Grad School or Collegiate Grad student or cohort)
Designed to give students an understanding of the sociological, intra-personal nature of political and advocacy communication as well as familiarity with successful advocacy writing and with modern organizing strategies.

Back to Top

MAPL 6008 - Advocacy Internship I
(3.0 cr; Prereq-MAPL student or #, no Grad School cr; S-N or Aud, fall, spring, summer, every year)
Internship experiences will be offered in the advocacy and political leadership program. Students will have supervised direct experience with an individual or organizational sponsor in advocacy.

Back to Top

MAPL 6009 - Advocacy Internship
(2.0 cr [max 4.0 cr]; Prereq-MAPL or #, no Grad School cr; S-N or Aud, fall, spring, summer, every year)
Internship experiences will be offered in the advocacy and political leadership program. Students will have supervised direct experience with an individual or organizational sponsor in advocacy.Course Description: Overview of campaigns and elections, to include both the party nomination process and general elections, at the national, state, and local levels. (3 credits)

Back to Top