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School of Public and Environmental AffairsIntroduction IntroductionThe School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) is a multidisciplinary division of Indiana University. The school is organized as a professional school, committed to teaching, research, and service. The interests of the faculty and professional staf f typically fall into one or more of the following areas: policy and administration; finance and economics; urban affairs; environmental science and policy; criminal justice, law, and public safety; health science and administration. 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, can offer scientific and technical assistance to Indiana communities. The organizational design of the school reinforces a wide network of continuing relations with a large number of public agencies at all levels o f government. The School of Public and Environmental Affairs offers bachelor of science degrees and associate of science degrees. These programs provide a sound general education with specialized study of criminal justice, public affairs, public health, or environmenta l systems. The school also offers minors and certificate programs. Placement and Internship OfficeThis Bloomington-based office assists students in making the transition from the university setting to the working world. Workshops, individual counseling, alumni mentoring, and an extensive library are provided. Further assistance is offered in finding i nternships and employment through SPEA V252 Career Development, and an advanced course, Personal Career Planning, SPEA V352. Other services include interviews with on-campus recruiters, automated resume preparation and distribution to employers, bulletins , directories, and networking. An experiential requirement is a component of most of the undergraduate programs on the Bloomington campus, and students usually fulfill this with an internship. Internships give students an excellent opportunity to apply classroom theory and techniques t o real-life experiences. Students must be in good academic standing and file an internship contract with the Placement and Internship Office. In addition, SPEA students must have completed a specified course in their major/concentration and be a junior o r senior in class standing. The internship program is designed for maximum flexibility so that many valid learning experiences can qualify as internships. Work can be full- or part-time, paid or unpaid; however, prior approval by the student’s faculty advisor is always required. Aft er obtaining approval for an internship, a student may register for 1-6 credit hours, earning one credit for the first 120 hours of work and additional credit for 80 hours worth of work. All credit for an internship is awarded on an S/F (Satisfactory/Fail ) basis. Credit is not granted for work experience obtained prior to approval of an internship and enrollment in the appropriate internship class. Students seeking career-planning assistance should check with the Placement and Internship Office, located on the Bloomington campus in SPEA 200, (812) 855-9639, for answers to specific questions. Visit us on the Web at www.indiana.edu/~speaweb/careers. Career-planning assistance is also available on other campuses. For information, contact: Indianapolis Campus Fort Wayne Campus East Campus Kokomo Campus Northwest Campus South Bend Campus Southeast Campus SPEA Alumni AssociationSPEA maintains contact with alumni through the SPEA Alumni Association, a constituent society within the parent Indiana University Alumni Association. The SPEA Alumni Association publishes the school’s newsletter, Alumni Update, mailed three times a year to more than 16,000 SPEA alumni located in all 50 states and 21 foreign countries. Through this newsletter, alumni, faculty, and students are able to maintain contact. The Alumni Association raises funds for student scholarships with a summer golf outing in Indianapolis and with specialized efforts for specific programs. It sponsors the publication of an alumni directory and sponsors alumni events in several major cities. The SPEA Alumni Association is governed by an elected board of directors, wh ich meets biannually. SPEA Centers, Institutes, Programs, and ServicesThe School of Public and Environmental Affairs encompasses public service activities that complement innovative academic programs. The school provides a wide variety of services to a number of federal, state, and local agencies. The Bowen Research Center, based in Indianapolis, is a joint effort of the School of Medicine and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Named for Governor Otis R. Bowen, the former director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Servi ces, the Bowen Research Center is the university’s leader in health policy and health services research. The center’s research program provides important research opportunities for faculty, staff, and students. The center’s research focuses on primary hea lth care services among rural and underserved populations; promotes health, disease prevention, and reduction of untimely loss of lives through research on lifestyle changes; develops methods to control health care costs and improve the effectiveness, eff iciency, humaneness, and appropriateness of health services. The Bowen Research Center can be reached at www.bowenresearchcenter.iupui.edu. The Business/SPEA Library is a Bloomington branch of the Indiana University Libraries. It fulfills the research and study needs of the School of Business and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. The library has extensive electronic and t raditional resources. Detailed information about the Business/ SPEA Library can be found at its Web site at www.indiana.edu/~bslib/index.html. The Environmental Systems Application Center (ESAC) promotes, facilitates, and administers externally funded environmental research within the school. The ESAC staff works with SPEA faculty, staff, and students to identify new research opportunitie s, prepare proposals, manage project budgets, carry out research, and prepare final reports. Center research often involves investigations of multiple disciplines and sometimes requires investigators from other Indiana University departments or other univ ersities. This interdisciplinary, multi-institutional approach is a particular strength of ESAC. Although some basic research is conducted in the center, ESAC research activities typically have a strong public service focus of both state and national sign ificance. Areas of expertise within the center include limnology, stream ecology, lake and watershed management, applied ecology, aquatic chemistry, environmental chemistry, hazardous waste management, risk assessment, and wetlands ecology. In carrying out its mission, the center utilizes student research assistants whenever possible, providing valuable experience and financial assistance to students in the process. The Executive Education Program offers governmental, health care and nonprofit leaders and managers concentrated academic offerings as well as short-term noncredit seminars. Thousands of public managers each year attend Executive Education Programs to update techniques and hone administrative skills for increased managerial effectiveness. The Geographic Information Systems Laboratory (GIS) is a state-of-the-art computing facility. The lab has information processing technology that manages, analyzes, and displays spatial data for scientific and policy research. Information about the GIS Lab can be found at www.indiana.edu/~speagis. The Great Lakes Center for Public Affairs and Administration is a unit of the Division of Public and Environmental Affairs on the IU Northwest campus. The center conducts research and provides technical services to units of governments and other in stitutions in northwest Indiana. The center also focuses on issues in public affairs and administration in the Great Lakes region. The Indiana Conflict Resolution Institute (ICRI) has a three-fold mission: teaching, research, and service in conflict resolution and dispute-resolution processes. ICRI’s teaching mission includes the development of undergraduate, graduate, continu ing education, and executive education curricula to foster a deeper understanding and broader use of dispute-resolution processes such as mediation facilitation, early neutral evaluation, ombudsmen programs, arbitration, partnering, and related consensus- based processes. Its research mission includes evaluation of dispute- resolution processes and programs in public and nonprofit organizations, with the goal of contributing to continuous improvement in both the processes, and knowledge of their impact on participants and organizations. ICRI’s service mission is to provide information and technical assistance regarding dispute resolution for the state of Indiana. Additional information about ICRI can be found at www.spea.indiana.edu/icri. The Institute for Development Strategies, sponsored by the Office of Research and the University Graduate School and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, is a university-wide research program linking faculty resources from various depart ments and campuses, and integrating them with external projects and research being undertaken elsewhere in this country and in other countries. The institute is inter-disciplinary and focuses on research to promote economic development at the city, region al, national, and international levels. A particular focus of the institute is on the links between globalization, entrepreneurship, and the strategic management of regions to promote economic development. The Institute for Family and Social Responsibility (FASR) is a joint effort of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the School of Social Work, with its focus on social policy research and outreach activities. The institute’s mission i s to bring together the resources of citizens, governments, communities, and Indiana University to better the lives of children and families. Ongoing research projects examine the impacts of welfare reforms; the adequacy of child support guidelines; commu nity responses to the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families legislation; AIDS education for incarcerated youth; and the homeless, child welfare, and fatherhood programs. The institute serves as the National Child Support Enforcement Research Clearinghous e. It also administers a university-wide competitive student internship program in collaboration with the Indiana Family Social Services Administration. The institute is a founding partner of the Partners for Hoosier Communities, a project that brings together economic development and social welfare program administrators across the state. The FASR Institute is also a member of the Indiana Council of Family Organizations, which sponsors biannual Family Impact seminars for state legislators and policy makers. Further information concerning FASR can be found at www.spea.indiana.edu/fasr/. The Institute for the Study of Government and the Nonprofit Sector is a joint initiative of Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy, the Center for Urban Policy and the Environment, and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. The purpos e of the institute is to support intellectual exchange between faculty members, stimulate extramural support for faculty research, and engage students and returning practitioners in a discussion of issues involving the intersection of government and the n onprofit sector. The mission of the institute is to create and disseminate knowledge about the complex linkages between government and the nonprofit sector and to develop specialized faculty expertise. The institute strives to be the preeminent national a nd international resource on matters related to government and the nonprofit sector. The institute can be reached on the Web at isgns.spea.iupui.edu. The Midwestern Regional Center for Global Environmental Change, located on the Bloomington campus, is one of six regional centers of the National Institute for Global Environmental Change, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The Midwestern cen ter, together with the other five centers, provides research support in the field of global environmental change. The other regional centers are located at the University of California—Davis, University of Nebraska—Lincoln, University of Alabama, Harvard University, and Tulane University. The center supports the mission of the national institute by participating in a variety of research activities that focus on global climate change, development of early warning systems for energy-related changes, analysi s of energy-related environmental risks, training of environmental scientists, and preparation of public education programs on global climate change. The Transportation Research Center was established to coordinate and facilitate the transportation research activities of the university. The center’s expertise lies in the areas of transportation safety, urban public transit, transport management, and transport regulatory policy. The center uses a staff of professional researchers, faculty, and graduate students in performing research projects for federal, state, and local government agencies, and for the private sector. The Center for Urban Policy and the Environment helps governmental, nonprofit, and corporate clients address and plan for complex urban and environmental challenges. Center faculty and staff can provide services in economic analysis, conflict avoid ance and resolution, strategic planning, organizational and fiscal capacity analysis, governance, criminal justice and policing, health administration, nonprofit management, and environmental resource management. Since 1992, the center has successfully pr ovided research and technical assistance to governmental agencies throughout Indiana, the Indiana State Legislature, the Office of the Governor, cities and towns across the state, private organizations, nonprofit groups, other states, and several countrie s. Further information can be found at www.urbancenter.iupui.edu. Alpha Phi SigmaAlpha Phi Sigma is the national criminal justice honor society, with chapters established on the Northwest, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Kokomo, and Indianapolis campuses of Indiana University. The society recognizes scholastic excellence of students in the fi eld of criminal justice. It was founded in 1942 and was admitted to the Association of College Honor Societies in l980. To be eligible, undergraduate students must have earned an overall grade point average of at least 3.00 for at least 40 credit hours of course work, and must include at least four criminal justice courses with a minimum 3.20 grade point average. To remain in good standing, students must maintain an overall grade point average of at least 3.00 and a grade point average of at least 3.20 in all criminal justice courses completed. Pi Alpha AlphaPi Alpha Alpha is the national honorary society for schools of public affairs and administration. The society acknowledges outstanding scholarship and contributions to these fields. It was founded in 1972 by the National Association of Schools of Public A ffairs and Administration (NASPAA) to honor those whose performance in public affairs has been distinguished. The Indiana chapter of Pi Alpha Alpha is a charter chapter. Membership in Pi Alpha Alpha may be compared to membership in Phi Beta Kappa for libe ral arts graduates. A person evaluating credentials in the various fields of public service should recognize the professional quality such a membership represents. Undergraduate students are eligible for Pi Alpha Alpha membership when they are in the top 10 percent of their graduating class with a minimum grade point average of 3.50 in at least 15 credit hours of SPEA courses, when they are in the last semester of t he junior year or in the senior year, and when they have earned a grade point average of at least 3.00 in all course work. Alumni are eligible for membership if they meet all the requirements of student membership, even if they graduated before induction by the Indiana chapter. Honorary membership is available to any person who has achieved distinction in public administration and who has the distinguished qualities that Pi Alpha Alpha fosters.
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Last updated: 22 December 2024 01 25 38
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