Open House Set for UMaine MPA Classes in Augusta

Contact: Carolyn Ball, (207) 581-4142

ORONO — The University of Maine is again offering graduate-level Masters in Public Administration courses in Augusta in September for working professionals and recent college graduates working or interested in working in government or non-profit fields.

The three courses are: City & Regional Planning; Accountability in Public Policy & Administration; and Community Power, Leadership & Administration. All are taught by UMaine faculty or adjunct Ph.D faculty.

Additional information about the classes will be available at an open house July 24, 3:30-5:30 p.m. at the Department of Labor’s Career Center, 21 Enterprise Drive (Suite 2), in the Central Maine Commerce Center business park off Civic Center Drive, north of the I-95-Route 27 exit in Augusta.

The MPA, offered annually in Augusta since 1968, is the only UMaine degree program offered in Augusta. The MPA has a rich history of alumni who have reached the top of their fields as commissioners and policy advisers in state government, hospital executives, nonprofit directors, and city and county managers. An MPA can help move professionals toward new career opportunities, particularly in government, non-profit, municipal, healthcare or public policy fields.

The advantage of the program, says Carolyn Ball, director of graduate programs, is that students have the opportunity to network with other professionals in their classes, with speakers and with professors who have contacts in government and non-profit careers. An additional advantage of classes being held in Augusta is that students can continue working and still attend class without commuting to the UMaine Orono campus.

Prospective students with degrees from accredited undergraduate colleges or universities may take a class as a non-degree student. Credit may be applied toward the MPA degree, if a student decides to apply later. Online applications can be filed through the Website.

Students can fast-track and complete the degree in as little as two years, or they can take classes at a more leisurely pace and take up to six years, and balance classes with family, financial or career plans, according to Ball.

“The courses offerings give students great flexibility to understand the breadth of the field,” Ball says. “City & Regional Planning nicely fits with the hot topics of handling growth, or lack of growth, in Maine. Accountability in Public Policy & Administration takes students into the complex democratic legal, ethical, political and socio-economic framework of creating public policy and managing government. And Community Power, Leadership & Administration provides students with an understanding of how leadership and power intertwine at the local level from historically important figures such as Robert Moses to current city leaders.

For those interested in the program who cannot attend the open house, information also is available by calling the UMaine Department of Public Administration at (207) 581-1872 or emailing: pubamin@umit.maine.edu.

The Maine Career Center can be reached by telephone at 1-800-760-1573.