Director: Dr. Steve DelCastillo 
E-mail: steve.delcastillo@ucdenver.edu

Please click here to see Political Science department information.

The Public, Non-profit and Community Leadership track of the political science MA program is offered off-campus through the Center for New Directions. The Center for New Directions offers an MA program focused on public leadership, community labor organizing, and social economy innovations, in collaboration with community and labor organizations and local government jurisdictions across Colorado. The program seeks to develop the public leadership & community organizing capacities necessary to address challenges and leadership & community organizing capacities necessary to address challenges and opportunities within neighborhoods, communities, government jurisdictions, and non-profit entities.

In addition to their standard coursework, students in this Master's program are encouraged to be involved in experiential learning through professional internships, community-based action research opportunities, and other practicums made available to students through the program's many university-community partnerships, including the possibility of full-time, salaried internships with rural and small jurisdictions across Colorado. Through partnerships with government jurisdictions across the state, and with non-profits and community-based organizations, New Directions seeks to build community power and identify policy solutions to local challenges.

This program presents courses in an intensive weekend format, allowing students to complete their masters entirely through weekend or online courses.

These degree requirements are subject to periodic revision by the academic department, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences reserves the right to make exceptions and substitutions as judged necessary in individual cases. Therefore, the College strongly urges students to consult regularly with their New Directions faculty advisor to confirm the best plans of study before finalizing them.

Certificate Program

The Center for New Directions MA program offers two certificate programs:

• Public, Non-Profit and Community Leadership  
• Labor Leadership Certificate

These certificate programs allow students to focus their studies in a particular direction and to note that particular focus on their transcript. Students do not have to be seeking a full Master's degree to earn a certificate of completion through the certificate program.

For more information on these graduate certificates, click the links above.

Graduate Education Policies and Procedures apply to this program.

Degree Requirements

1. Students must complete a total of 33 graduate credit hours to complete the MA degree.
2. Students must complete a minimum of 33 graduate level (5000-level or higher) PSCI credit hours.
3. Students must earn a minimum grade of B- (2.7) in all courses applied to the degree and must achieve a minimum cumulative masters GPA of 3.0. Courses taken using P+/P/F or S/U grading cannot apply to program requirements.
4. Students must complete all coursework with CU Denver faculty.

Program Restrictions, Allowances and Recommendations

1. Previously earned graduate credit may be submitted for approval to satisfy up to nine hours of the supportive elective requirement. The elective courses offered may change from time to time based on needs, interests and other factors.

Course Format

All courses are offered in a weekend format that consists of three weekend sessions for a given course, spread out over a two or three month period. Weekend classes are held from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm on both Saturday and Sunday of each weekend session. In most cases, a student will complete all of the weekend sessions of one course before starting the weekend sessions for the next course. There is typically a two to three week break between each weekend of class-time in a given course.

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Complete the following program requirements:		33
Complete the following required courses:		6
PSCI 5468	Research Methods in Political Science
PSCI 5914	Community Organizing and Community Development
Complete 24 graduate level PSCI elective credits. 1		24
Complete a three credit hour master’s project under the direction of a faculty advisor. Registration is done using the Special Processing form, rather than online.		3
PSCI 5960	Master's Project

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Elective courses in the New Directions program are offered in three different "pathways" of study, allowing students to choose their particular interest and focus their studies on that subject. The three pathways are: 

1. Local Governance: Curriculum focuses on educating students who are interested in working in local and state government sectors, or with public policy research and advocacy organizations. Curriculum and community partnerships in this area focus on local government and administration, the politics of government finance, state politics and public policy challenges.
2. Community and Labor Organizing: Curriculum focuses on developing diverse theoretical and practical courses in labor and community organizing politics, history and strategies. Courses focus on social movement theories, labor union politics, and community organizing strategies to help students develop theoretical foundations and practical strategies for more effective community and labor leadership.
3. The Social Economy and Sustainable Development: Curriculum focuses on developing an understanding of the current political-economic systems, and on exploring alternative and diverse economic strategies that might work to the benefit of less privileged communities. Courses and community partnerships allow students to explore democratic financial systems, land trusts, and worker cooperatives, and other such innovative "social economy" practices, at the local, national and global levels. In this track, students will learn of diverse economies theory, innovative economic development strategies in both rural and urban areas, the worker cooperative movement, and innovative financial strategies that work for less privileged communities. 

While students are encouraged to focus their studies by taking courses within a chosen pathway, but it is not required that students only take courses within a single pathway (and some courses fit in more than one area). Students should work with the program director to learn more about which courses to complete for each focused pathway. 

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Below is a list of elective courses that are regularly offered in the New Directions program.
All PSCI graduate level courses courses are available to be offered as electives in the New Directions program.
PSCI 5009	Politics of the Budgetary Process
PSCI 5014	Seminar: American Politics
PSCI 5024	State Politics: Focus on Colorado
PSCI 5075	Gentrification and Social Equity
PSCI 5084	Local Government and Administration
PSCI 5085	Comparative Governance: Environment and Society
PSCI 5206	Social Movements, Democracy and Global Politics
PSCI 5265	Social Justice And Globalization
PSCI 5274	Conflict Resolution and Public Consent Building
PSCI 5354	Seminar: Environmental Politics and Policy
PSCI 5414	Non-Profits and Social Change
PSCI 5424	The Social Economy and Sustainable Development
PSCI 5434	The Cooperative Movement: Politics and Policy
PSCI 5457	American Political Thought
PSCI 5545	Immigration Politics
PSCI 5548	Labor Law and Collective Bargaining

To learn more about the Student Learning Outcomes for this program, please visit our website.