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School of Public and Environmental AffairsAbout the Program About the ProgramThe 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 staff 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 of 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 environmental 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 internships 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 to 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 or 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. After 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/~speacare. 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 magazine, Alumni Update, mailed two times a year to more than 18,000 SPEA alumni located in all 50 states and 50 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, which 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 Department of Family Medicine, the IU School of Medicine, and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Named for Governor Otis R. Bowen, M.D., the former director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Bowen Research Center is the university's leader in health policy and health services research. The Center's multimillion-dollar research program provides important research opportunities for faculty, staff, and students. The Center's research focuses on primary health care services among rural and underserved populations and promotes health, disease prevention, and reduction of the untimely loss of life through research on lifestyle changes. The Center also develops methods to control health care costs and improve the effectiveness, efficiency, humaneness, and appropriateness of health services. The Bowen Research Center can be reached at (317) 278-0300 or www.bowenresearchcenter.iupui.edu. The Business/SPEA Library 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 traditional resources. Detailed information about the Business/ SPEA Library can be found at its Web site at www.indiana.edu/~bslib/index.html. The Community Research Institute (CRI) located on the Fort Wayne campus, provides research and assistance for the economic, social, and public sector development of northeast Indiana. Additional information about CRI can be found at www.ipfw.edu/cri/cri.htm. The goals of the Environmental Science Research Center are to promote excellence in environmental science research and foster increased interdisciplinary collaboration among environmental science faculty on the Indiana University Bloomington campus. The center has no degree programs. The center can be listed as an affiliation of the associated faculty in publications and in correspondence. In this way, the visibility of the environmental sciences at IU Bloomington will be enhanced. Activities of the center include seminars, discussion groups, and proposal preparation workshops. The center director is Distinguished Professor Ronald A. Hites. SPEA's Executive Education Program offers governmental, health care, and nonprofit leaders and managers concentrated academic offerings including the Master of Public Affairs (M.P.A.), the Public Management Certificate, and the Environmental Management Certificate. Noncredit professional seminars are offered as well. Each year thousands of public managers attend Executive Education Programs to update techniques and improve management skills to increase leadership abilities and meet the challenges of managing in a changing world. 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 institutions 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, continuing 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. ICRI also provides training workshops in principled negotiation and mediation. 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 our 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, co-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 departments and campuses. The institute examines research-related problems in the field of regional economic development at the state, national, and international levels. It focuses on mobilization of regional resources for development and conducts research on the causes and consequences of regional change. Additional information can be found at www.spea.indiana.edu/ids. The Institute for Family and Social Responsibility (FASR) is a joint effort of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) and the School of Social Work, with its focus on social policy research and outreach activities. The institute's mission is to bring together the resources of citizens, governments, communities, and Indiana University to better the lives of children and families. Ongoing and completed research projects examine the impact of welfare reforms; the adequacy of child support guidelines; the efficacy of community-based child abuse prevention interventions; community responses to the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families legislation, the scope and level of involvement of faith-based organizations in delivering social services to current and former welfare recipients; and AIDS education for incarcerated youth, battered women, and the homeless. The institute serves as the National Child Support Enforcement Research Clearinghouse. Currently, the institute is operating two U.S. State Department-sponsored curriculum and research projects between SPEA and the Volga Regional Academy of Civil Service and the Northwest Academy of Public Administration in Russia. Both projects have significant components focused on the effectiveness, financing, and management of social welfare programs. The FASR institute also administers a university-wide competitive student internship program in collaboration with the Indiana Family Social Services Administration. Annually, the institute co-sponsors a Family Impact Seminar for state legislators. Further information concerning FASR can be found at www.spea.indiana.edu/fasr/. 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 center, 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, analysis 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 brings analyses and decision facilitation competencies to complex societal problems, especially in central Indiana. Foundations, governments, nonprofit organizations, and businesses have supported center projects. Affiliated faculty from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and other universities, professional staff of the center, and graduate assistants commonly forms teams for projects. Illustrative clients who have engaged the center in recent projects include the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, the State of Indiana, the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library, the City of Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership, and the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. The center is evaluating implementation of the charitable choice provisions of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 with an award from the Ford Foundation. The Lilly Endowment has provided an award of general support to the center that is funding extensive analyses of investments by households, businesses, governments, and nonprofits in central Indiana. Center for Urban Policy and the Environment 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 field 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. Local chapters may modify these requirements. Please check with your local faculty advisor. 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 Affairs 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 liberal 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 the 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: 30 January 2025 08 05 05
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