• Nonprofit and Community Advocacy;
• Labor Organizing and Leadership; and
• Advocacy in the Public Sector.

Students are not required to take a concentration but they may do so if they are able to take the classes offered in that concentration.

NEW MAPL CONCENTRATION AIMED AT STUDENTS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

As MAPL students worked through the program and obtained jobs, it became clear that many of them were working in the public sector, as staffers, elected officials, administrators. A call from a graduate generated the new concentration. It’s important, this graduate said, for us to know how to staff elected officials, or how to be elected officials if that should happen. A new concentration was born and will begin its first classes in the Fall of 2008. It turns out that many MAPL students end up receiving paychecks from some level of government; preparation for how to perform that service effectively and ethically was clearly called for.

The new concentration is divided into two segments, one focusing on legislative service and one on administrative service.

MAPL 5311 - Advocacy in the Public Sector: Service in the Elected Branch
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.

MAPL 5312 - Advocacy in the Public Sector: Service in the Administrative Branch
A course being designed to begin in Spring, 2009, for persons involved in government administration at all levels. Features prominent lecturers from consulting and government service whose primary focus is the efficacy of government administration.