MAPL: Where new leaders of our advocacy community emerge.

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

Spring 2010 Classes

Online Electives

MAPL 5400: Organizing and Advocacy in the Digital Age (online)
MAPL 5307: Political Advocacy and Leadership (hybrid course)

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

MAPL 6001 The Political Process and Public Policy
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 5113-Labor and Political Economy
MAPL 5200-Nonprofits and Civic Engagement:Nonprofit Advocacy and Lobbying
MAPL 5312-Advocacy in the Public Sector: Executive Branch

Internships (Arranged with Instructor)

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

MAPL 5113 - Labor and Political Economy
(3.0 cr; Prereq-MAPL or Collegiate Grad student status or Grad School student status or #; A-F or Aud)
Overview of political economy and labor, examine different economic theories, changing economic policies and their impact on workers and labor, and examine specific case studies of political economy: the New Deal/Great Society policies, deindustrialization, monetary policy, globalization, welfare reform and taxation.

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MAPL 5200 - Nonprofits and Civic Engagement
(3.0 cr; Prereq-MAPL or Collegiate Grad student status or Grad School student status or #; A-F or Aud, spring, odd years)
History, theory and current practice of nonprofits in educating and activating citizens to participate in the public dialogue. Special attention is given to the role of nonprofits as resources to elected and appointed policy makers.

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MAPL 5307 - Political and Advocacy Leadership
(3.0 cr; Prereq-MAPL or Collegiate Grad student status or Grad School student status or #; A-F or Aud, fall, even years)
Help advocates strengthen abilities to lead wisely, ethically and effectively in political settings. Provides an interdisciplinary framework to explore the principles of power and leadership, and features effective political leaders from Minnesota and Wisconsin who discuss their principles of leadership.

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MAPL 5312 - Advocacy in the Public Sector: Service in the Executive Branch
(3.0 cr; Prereq-MAPL or Collegiate Grad student or #, no Grad School cr; A-F or Aud)
This is the second of two required segments of the MAPL concentration, Advocacy in the Public Sector, designed for use by students wishing to work in government. Prepares students who have or will have careers in the executive branches of government, at the local, regional, state or national levels as elected officials, as political staff to these various elected officials, or as members of the bureaucracy. Students will become familiarized with how to find and use the best administrative practices as they related to personnel, resource and information management, with special emphasis on finding innovative solutions to management problems.

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MAPL 5400 - Advocacy and Organizing in the Digital Age
(3.0 cr; Prereq-MAPL or Collegiate Grad student status or Grad School student status)
This online course will focus on digital technologies for advocacy and organizing and the challenges for democracy in a digital age. Students will (1) consider the opportunities and risks of social media for connected activism and public-policy making, (2) explore issues relating to digital justice and regulatory and policy issues affecting digital networks, (3) use existing software and applications to find the data and research
needed to build communities and make informed policy.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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)

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