what Makes Us Unique?
What is unique about the College of Public Affairs & Administration?
by Pinky Wassenberg, Dean of the College of Public Affairs and Administration
- We have a long history of interdisciplinary public affairs education, scholarship and public service.
- Departments in the College meet the needs of a wide range of students from their first semester of undergraduate education through their doctorate. We are the only college at UIS that serves this wide range of students with degree programs.
- Our college offers UIS's only doctoral degree, a doctorate of Public Administration. This degree has been redesigned to better serve practitioners as students.
- Our proximity to the State Capital, the headquarters of state agencies and associations and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library offers our students, staff and faculty educational and co-curricular opportunities designed to encourage life-long civic engagement and a dedication to public service.
- A significant number of political and public policy leaders in Illinois have been our students, teach as adjunct faculty, work with our faculty and seek our expertise on public affairs issues.
- Our students often come to our programs with significant professional experience in government and public policy fields.
- Our faculty members are engaged in Public Affairs scholarship, both traditional and applied, that influences the scholarly community through significant contributions to their disciplines and the practitioner community through significant contributions to the design and dissemination of best practices in government and policy.
- We have a long and productive history of joint ventures and joint appointments with the Center for State Policy and Leadership.
- We have a new, state-of-the-art Geographic Information System Center that provides research and teaching opportunities not previously available on campus. The new GIS Center can provide service to faculty, students, and the community.
- We have three new graduate online programs (Legal Studies, MPA and Environmental Studies). The online MPA is one of very few NASPAA accredited MPA programs offered online in the U.S. The online Risk Sciences concentration in our MPH program is also nationally accredited.
