Overview
Alma College's Public Affairs Institute offers a productive way to combine understanding of public affairs with any major. If you have led your high school student body, served on committees or provided leadership in a community organization, knowledge of public affairs might appeal to you.
In the Institute's courses, you'll consider issues, policies and decisions that affect the public interest. You'll gain experience in:
- Identifying important public issues.
- Understanding various political perspectives.
- Researching and analyzing public policy.
- Communication between governments, private interests and the public.
- Interacting with professionals in your fields of interest through meetings with visiting scholars and political leaders and working in public or nonprofit organizations.
- Developing public policy within a humane, ethical framework.
Institute Requirements
To become a member of the Public Affairs Institute, you must be accepted for admission by the College and then by the Institute.
Like all Alma College students, members of the Public Affairs Institute must fulfill all College graduation requirements, including completion of an academic major or area of concentration. The Public Affairs Institute offers interdisciplinary courses and experiences regardless of your academic major.
Students who complete the Public Affairs Institute's requirements at a high academic level receive standing as a Public Affairs Fellow at graduation. As a candidate for Public Affairs Fellow designation, you must complete the following courses in addition to your other graduation requirements:
- Public Affairs Colloquium. Taken during your freshman or sophomore year. Through a case-study approach, this course introduces students to a wide range of public affairs issues and to interdisciplinary methods of investigation and research. Guest lecturers from many College departments serve as resources for this class. In addition, the colloquium features guest presentations by practicing professionals from business, government agencies and nonprofit service organizations.
- Introduction to Public Management and Policy Analysis. Taken during your freshman or sophomore year. This political science course introduces leadership, management, budgeting and policy implementation in the public sector.
- Interdisciplinary Seminar Sequence. One seminar is taken during your junior year. Selected public affairs issues are defined and researched. Seminars in Alma, Lansing and other sites provide opportunities to examine public affairs issues through research and interviews with officials.
- Internship in Public Affairs. Typically taken in the summer following the seminar sequence. This practical experience with a public or private agency is arranged in consultation with the Public Affairs Institute advisor. Recent internships included work with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, D.C., the Polish government in Warsaw and an environmental program in Costa Rica.
- Independent Study in Public Affairs. Taken in your senior year. During this study, you complete a research project supervised by advisors from two academic areas.
Washington Semester Program
Alma's Washington Semester Program provides research experience and contact with public and private sector officials. Through this arrangement with American University, qualified students study in Washington, D.C. for one semester. The following semester programs are offered:
- American Politics
- Economic Policy
- Foreign Policy
- Gender and Politics
- Information Technology and Telecommunications Policy
- International Business and Trade
- International Environment and Development
- Journalism
- Justice
- Law Enforcement: Security versus Liberty
- Peace and Conflict Resolution
- Public Law
- Transforming Communities
Credit is awarded for student participation in seminars, internships, research and course work during Fall or Winter terms. Consult the Public Affairs Institute advisor about Washington Semester Program courses that may be used to satisfy the Public Affairs requirements.
Career Possibilities
Alma's Public Affairs Institute advisor and faculty help you plan your future as you progress through the program's coursework and your major. Students who complete the Public Affairs Institute at a high academic level are prepared for graduate or professional study in fields such as law, medicine, education, public policy and business.
Career options include: government services; human services administration; management of private businesses that affect or are affected by public concerns; museum management; private foundation and philanthropic organization administration; public affairs journalism; public and private educational administration; policy development research; and trade and lobbying association administration, including citizens' interest groups. Many use their public affairs training to enhance their work or community service in fields such as medicine, art and journalism.
For more information about Alma's programs in Business Administration, International Business Administration, Education, Pre-Law and Pre-Medicine, contact the Alma Admissions Office.
Faculty Profiles
Because the Public Affairs Institute is not an academic department, professors from a variety of academic disciplines plan or participate in its courses. Faculty members listed have most often been involved in the Institute's coursework.
Edward C. Lorenz:
Ph.D., University of Chicago, Reid-Knox Professor of History and professor of
political science, directs the Public Affairs Institute and provides expertise
in social policy and public affairs. He teaches the Public Affairs Colloquium
and introduction to public management. His perspective on American social and
cultural history includes the history of work and working conditions, labor,
education and family. In addition to teaching, he has 15 years of experience as
an administrator in state and national economic and employment development
programs. He also has been an expert witness on tax and employment policy
before congressional committees. He wrote Defining
Global Justice: The History of U.S. International Labor Standards Policy.
Micheal R. Vickery:
Ph.D., professor and chair of communication, teaches courses in political
communication, media and the presidency, organizational communication, persuasion
and propaganda, health communication and environmental rhetoric. His research
has included analyses of the persuasive strategies used by proponents and
opponents of commercial nuclear power and the role of Presidential rhetoric in
the making of environmental policy. He also is co-director of the McGregor
Summer Colloquium for first-year students and is the campus liaison for the Philadelphia Center internship program. He has
received a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar grant, been recognized
as an Outstanding Faculty Member in the Humanities, and has received the Barlow
Award for Faculty Excellence.
Michael J. Yavenditti:
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, professor of history, supervises internships and
independent studies, and teaches the Public Affairs Seminar. He teaches
American, Latin American and Russian history and specializes in American racial
and ethnic minorities. A National Endowment for the Humanities grant helped him
pursue research on the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1865. Dr.
Yavenditti's publications have focused on American reaction to the use of
atomic bombs on Japan; his current research emphasizes the development of U.S.
immigration policy during the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies. He has been selected
three times as an Outstanding Faculty Member
in the Social Sciences and has twice received the Barlow Award for Faculty
Excellence.
