Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
The Freshman Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small-seminar setting. Freshman seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment limited to 15 freshmen.

Terms offered: Spring 2012
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower-division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester. Enrollment limits are set by the faculty, but the suggested limit is 25.

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Group study on selected public policy topics. Open to freshmen and sophomores.

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
A systematic and critical approach to evaluating and designing public policies. Combines theory and application to particular cases and problems. Diverse policy topics, including environmental, health, education, communications, safety, and arts policy issues, among others.

Terms offered: Spring 2009, Spring 2008
This course is designed to provide students with a deeper understanding both of the structure of political economy and of why the distribution of earnings, wealth, and opportunity have been diverging in the United States and in other nations. It is also intended to provide insight into the political and public policy debates that have arisen in light of the divergence as well as possible means of reversing it.

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course is designed to provide students with a deeper understanding both of the organization of the political economy in the United States and of other advanced economies, and of why the distribution of earnings, wealth, and opportunity have been diverging in the United States and in other nations. It also is intended to provide insights into the political and public-policy debates that have arisen in light of this divergence, as well as possible means of reversing it.

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Spring 2016
The objective of this course is to use the tools and insights of public policy analysis as a means of understanding the ways in which policies are shaped by and respond to issues of race, ethnicity, and cultural difference. The course is organized around a series of discrete policy problems involving issues of race and ethnicity. It is designed to allow for comparative analysis within and across cases to explore the variety of ways in which policy intersects with different racial and ethnic groups.

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course focuses on the sensible application of econometric methods to empirical problems in economics and public policy analysis. It provides background on issues that arise when analyzing non-experimental social science data and a guide for tools that are useful for empirical research. By the end of the course, students will have an understanding of the types of research designs that can lead to convincing analysis and be comfortable working with large scale data sets.

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2012
Studio/laboratory in the design of nonphysical environments. Complements courses in policy analysis, public management, economics, and political science; especially intended to integrate elements of professional programs in public policy and related areas. Students will design, in groups and individually, programs and policies that create value in the public sector, including statutes, regulations, and implementation projects. Comparative reviews will feature invited guests. Undergraduate level of 256.

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Survey of government policy toward the arts (especially direct subsidy, copyright and regulation, and indirect assistance) and its effects on artists, audiences, and institutions. Emphasizes "highbrow" arts, U.S. policy, and the social and economic roles of participants in the arts. Readings, field trips, and case discussion. One paper in two drafts required for undergraduate credit; graduate credit awarded for an additional short paper to be arranged and attendance at four advanced colloquia throughout the term. Undergraduate level of 257.

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2013
Survey of government policy toward the arts (especially direct subsidy, copyright and regulation, and indirect assistance) and its effects on artists, audiences, and institutions. Emphasizes "highbrow" arts, U.S. policy, and the social and economic roles of participants in the arts. Readings, field trips, and case discussion. One paper in two drafts required for undergraduate credit; graduate credit awarded for an additional short paper to be arranged and attendance at four advanced colloquia throughout the term. Undergraduate level of 257.

Terms offered: Spring 2007
Examination of the impact of policies of state intervention and public benefit programs on poor children and families. Introduction to child and family policy, and study of specific issue areas, such as income transfer programs, housing, health care, and child abuse.

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2013
Public sector budgeting incorporates many, perhaps most, of the skills of the public manager and analyst. The goal of this course is to develop and hone these skills. Using cases and readings from all levels of American government, the course will allow the student to gain and understanding of the effects and consequences of public sector budgeting, its processes and participants, and the potential impacts of various reforms. Undegraduate level of Public Policy 269. This course can be applied to the political science major.

Terms offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2009, Fall 2008
Most environmental issues involve technology, either in the role of "villain" or "hero." This course uses the lens of specific technologies to survey environmental policy and management, with an emphasis on the complexities of policy-making with diverse interest groups. The class includes case studies, guest practitioners, and a group project in which students employ a range of analytic tools and frameworks in order to develop creative, effective, and actionable environmental solutions.

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 8 Week Session, Fall 2016
Energy sources, uses, and impacts: an introduction to the technology, politics, economics, and environmental effects of energy in contemporary society. Energy and well-being; energy in international perspective, origins, and character of energy crisis.

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 8 Week Session, Spring 2017
Course examines current problems and issues in the field of public policy. Topics may vary from year to year and will be announced at the beginning of the semester. Open to students from other departments.

Terms offered: Not yet offered
This course in practical policy evaluation will focus on two primary sites of racial and economic inequality in America today: higher education and mass incarceration. We will examine both the causes and consequences of the underrepresentation of racial minorities and the poor on college campuses and the overrepresentation of these same groups in the nation’s prisons and jails. In collaboration with our community partner, the Prison University Project’s College Program at San Quentin State Prison, students will then have the opportunity to participate in an original research project designed to explore the challenges and potential of providing incarcerated individuals with college courses behind bars.

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Group study of a selected topic or topics in Public Policy. Meetings to be arranged.

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 8 Week Session, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session
For upper division students wishing to pursue special study and directed research under direction of a member of the staff. Enrollment restrictions apply; see the Introduction to Courses and Curricula section of this catalog.