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| Focused and Flexible Drake's MPA Program Leads Future Leaders by Angela Hume Des Moines citizen Margaret Wright wants to improve the quality of life in her community. "After a certian point in my career, I realized that I wanted to do something with a public focus," she explains. "I have a very strong interest in housing issues." To achieve her goals, Wright, formerly with the Principal Financial Group, enrolled this past fall in Drake's Master of Public Administration (MPA) graduate program. The program, which has prepared individuals for careers in the public and nonprofit sectors since its birth in 1973, attracts people from a variety of backgrounds. Traditionally, the program has successfully educated individuals in the areas of public policy, people manage-ment, human resources and organizational behavior. Over the past year, Drake restructured the MPA curriculum to satisfy the demands of the rapidly evolving public and nonprofit environment. "Our world is not nearly as tidy as it used to be," explains Nancy Gabriel, former director of graduate programs in the College of Business and Public Administration (CBPA). "There are relationships between the public and private sectors that never existed before." Today's challenge for managers in the public and nonprofit arenas is to achieve efficiency and effectiveness while maintaining the core values associated with public services, such as fairness, equal access to services, public accountability and public participation in decision making. "There is a stronger emphasis in the public and nonprofit sectors today on cost efficiency and effective resource management," says Patrick Heaston, director of the School of Accounting and chair of the Graduate Curriculum Committee. "There has been a movement toward the development of professional managers."
The Drake program is the largest stand-alone MPA of any reported program in Iowa or surrounding states. The curriculum requires 36 credit hours and can be completed on a part-time basis in two years. The program, with an enrollment of nearly 200 students, draws people from areas such as criminal justice, law enforcement, health care, corrections, state and local government, higher education, human resources and nonprofit organizations. Garry Frank, professor of public administration, describes the new curriculum as performance and result-oriented, two qualities commonly associated with the private sector. "Many individuals with non-business backgrounds become involved with nonprofit organizations," he adds. "One of our goals is to provide them with a strong business foundation that reflects the current trends in management in the public and private sectors." The curriculum requires that MPA and MBA (Master of Business Administration) students take some of the same classes. Integrating graduate students reinforces the cross-disciplinary approach that is unique to Drake's program. "We also want to ensure that MPA students are exposed to faculty from all areas of the CBPA," says Frank. "The placement of the MPA in the CBPA is a tremendous strength," says Gabriel. "It allows MPA students to focus on administration, organization and leadership." Mary Beth Schroeder Fracek enrolled in the program to help expand her career opportunities. "I have worked in state government for 13 years," she says. "I think the MPA program will enable me to gain a new perspective on administration." To reconstruct the program, the CBPA responded to information collected through benchmarking and focus groups. "The process was outcome-based," says Gabriel. "We wanted to identify our strengths as well as our areas in need of improvement." Mary Clary, a first-year student, is impressed with the program's new approach. "It really forces you to step outside of the box. This approach is necessary when learning how to be a good administrator," she says. "The MPA program has a tremendous amount of potential to impact the quality of the people's business," says Gabriel. "The quality of our students is important to the health of the community." Wright is just one student who exemplifies the program's potential. "I want to be involved in making long-term, sustainable life changes for members of my community," Wright says. Enthusiastic individuals such as Wright, combined with Drake's new MPA curriculum, will help accomplish the public and nonprofit sector's fundamental mission of service to society. Wright says, "I want to provide people with a sense of stability---an opportunity to step up." Angela Hume is a junior marketing major from St. Paul, Minnesota. |
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