The School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA), the nation’s largest school of its kind, is a professional school dedicated to applied, interdisciplinary learning combining the study of public affairs and environmental sciences. The interests of the faculty and professional staff typically fall into one or more of the following areas:

• criminal justice
• environmental science and policy
• finance and economics
• law
• policy and administration
• public safety
• urban affairs

The school’s faculty, staff, and students work individually and jointly to solve problems that require SPEA’s unique combination of in-depth knowledge in the natural, behavioral, social, and administrative sciences.

SPEA, because of its broad program base, offers scientific and technical assistance to Indiana communities from all of the eight Indiana University campuses. The school maintains a wide network of relations with a large number of public agencies at all levels of government.

The degree programs offered by the School of Public and Environmental Affairs range from the associate degree, offered primarily on some of the regional campuses, to the Ph.D. The school offers four professional master’s degrees for individuals interested in achieving leadership positions in public, private, and nonprofit organizations:

• Master of Public Affairs (M.P.A.)
• Master of Science in Environmental Science (M.S.E.S.)
• Master of Public Management (M.P.M.)

The M.P.A. is a professional degree structured around concepts and skills essential to public management, policy, and planning activities in the government, nonprofit, and private sectors. The M.S.E.S. provides students with a strong background in environmental sciences while emphasizing the applied aspects of environmental research and management. The M.P.M. program is an interdisciplinary professional program structured around concepts and skills essential to management, policy, planning activities within governmental, quasi-governmental, and nonprofit organizations. Additionally, SPEA’s master’s degrees may be pursued in combination with degrees in law, library science, biology, information science, journalism, geography, geological sciences, and degrees offered by a number of area studies centers and institutes.

At the doctoral level, SPEA offers:

• Ph.D. in Environmental Science
• Ph.D. in Public Affairs
• Ph.D. in Public Policy

The Ph.D. in public policy is jointly delivered with the Department of Political Science. The Ph.D. in environmental science is delivered by SPEA with the cooperation of the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, Geography, Geological Sciences, and others.