MPA Sustainability Courses

PA 5351: Urban Transportation Policy examines key policy issues related to transportation policy from a sustainability perspective. The current course catalog includes the sustainability focus within the description. The description notes, “In addition to building an understanding of the historic foundation of transportation policy, students explore the underlying concepts related to congestion management, transit and active transportation planning, and impacts on land use and sustainability.” This course is offered as both a regular semester course and as a study abroad offering in the summer. In the summer version, students travel to conduct a comparative evaluation of sustainable transportation systems between the Netherlands and the United States. The experiential focus of the class unpacks the transit and active transportation systems of the Netherlands with field excursions to explore how these systems function. In the regular semester class, the Netherlands systems are analyzed from afar, but the US system is analyzed via the experiential framework with analysis of local Central Texas systems. The class is in the process of being updated to include the sustainability theme within the course title itself. The new class title that will go into effect in 2022 will be Urban Sustainability Policy and will expand from the transportation systems focus to include broader land use and water management issues through a sustainability lens.

PA 5351 Syllabus

PA 5351 Syllabus (Summer Study Abroad)

Visit the University Course Catalog for degree requirements and course options.

Study Abroad

Every summer this course is also taught in the Netherlands. For more information on program dates and activities, visit the university Education Abroad office.

PA 5353: Ecology and the Politics of Sustainability is an examination of key issues and theories involved in the crisis areas of energy resources, arable land, water, and food amidst increasing population and pollution of the environment. The course is designed to allow students to read a great deal of material, thoughtfully consider it, and write about it.  Although the books selected for reading change from time to time, all focus on the theme of ecological resources and the political arena in which policy plays out.  The most recent time the course was offered, the following books were used:  Reisner, Marc, Cadillac Desert:  The American West and its Disappearing Water (New York:  Penguin Books, 1993), Rich, Nathaniel, Losing Earth:  A Recent History (New York:  MCD Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019), and Thiele, Leslie Paul.  Sustainability (Cambridge, UK:  Polity Press, 2013). The Reisner book deals with water scarcity issues in the American West and the history of water development primarily west of the 100th meridian.  The Rich book focuses on climate change and the role that leaders in the decade of the 1980s played.  The Thiele book is an introduction to the concept of sustainability and issues associated with achieving a sustainable society.  Students are required to write essays addressing the following questions:  In Cadillac Desert Marc Reisner discusses the history of water development in the U.S., albeit with a focus on the American West.  Reisner looks at the rancorous competition between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation.  Discuss these agencies and the role they played in the West’s water development. In Losing Earth Rich discusses climate change and why we have not been able to forge a binding political solution to the problem, even though the science has been clear for at least half a century.  Describe the argument Rich lays out. In Sustainability Leslie Paul Thiele provides an overview to a concept that has been widely adopted by many people, businesses, and governments yet implemented by few.  What key approaches to achieving a sustainable environment, economy, and social equity does Thiele advocate? 

PA 5353 Syllabus

Visit the University Course Catalog for degree requirements and course options.

PA 5355: Environmental Policy introduces students to the public policy process and the details of U.S. environmental policy and administration.  Problems and policies dealing with air, water, solid waste, hazardous waste, energy, natural resources, business regulation, sustainability, and global environmental governance are discussed.  The relationship between science and politics, especially dealing with international environmental issues, is addressed.  A primary goal of the class is to provide students with factual knowledge about environmental policy including an awareness of the terminology specific to environmental policy, classifications used within the field, methods of environmental analysis and decision making, and overall trends in environmental quality both in the United States and internationally.  Other goals of this class include helping students to analyze and critically evaluate the controversies in environmental policy involving ideas, arguments, and points of view.  Many of these controversies stem from fundamental differences in values, disparate views of risk and uncertainty, as well as disagreements regarding how best to implement and obtain policy objectives.  Finally, the class material will provide students with the substance of environmental law and regulation, including specific details of how environmental regulations are implemented. Books vary by semester but always include a policy book so that student come to understand the US policy making process, and two other books that address the major environmental issues of our time. The most recent year the course was offered these books included:  Hawken, Paul editor Drawdown:  The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. 2017, Penguin, and Rhodes, Richard, Energy:  A Human History. Simon & Schuster, 2018. Students write a review of each of the books read during the semester.  Students are also required to create a portfolio of current events in environment, energy, or sustainability issues and to present the substance of these articles to the class as well as to tie them to the required reading materials.  

PA 5355 Syllabus

Visit the University Course Catalog for degree requirements and course options.

In twenty-first century Texas, no single public policy problem will be more urgent than maintaining a water supply for the state’s burgeoning population. The singular importance of this increasingly scarce resource compels everyone planning a career in public service to learn the fundamental principles of Texas ground and surface water law, the responsibilities of state and local governments charged with water-related responsibilities, and the regulatory framework that governs the Texas water supply.  At a minimum, this course seeks to convey these concepts. Hopefully, this course will also help students gain an understanding of our collective responsibility as problem solvers for the public who relies on government for water.

PA 5380A Syllabus

Visit the University Course Catalog for degree requirements and course options.