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Mission
The
Graduate Center for Social and Public Policy educates civic minded leaders
to design, implement and evaluate policies to solve pressing
social and political problems, and teaches leaders to mediate
and resolve conflicts. The Center also undertakes research on
relevant policies and programs. In doing so, it actively seeks opportunities to collaborate with other organizations to improve
social and political conditions.
The
Center serves students who are working or plan
to work in public and charitable organizations in urban regions.
It concentrates on research, service and training in the Pittsburgh
region, but is also concerned with global needs and international
responsibilities.
All of the Center's activities are pursuant to Duquesne University's
commitment "to seek truth and to disseminate knowledge
within a moral and spiritual framework in order to prepare leaders
distinguished not only by their academic and professional expertise
but also by their ethical standards, and guided by consciences
sensitive to human needs."
History
1987-1995
The
idea for the Policy Center originated with Dr. Michael Weber,
an urban historian. In 1986, as graduate dean in the College
of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dr. Weber asked the faculties
of the Political Science and Sociology Departments to develop
a proposal for a graduate policy center, pursuant to a recommendation
in the university's five-year academic plan. The proposed program
would replace the departments' master's degree programs. By
January, 1987, a committee consisting of Drs. Kent F. Moors,
Chair of the Department of Political Science, and Norma Feinberg
and Joseph Yenerall of the Department of Sociology, had drafted
an initial proposal, which Dr. Weber presented to the university
in final form in April. The administration and board of directors
approved the proposal later that year.
Documents describing the
new center stressed the following characteristics: the Center
would be interdisciplinary, while encouraging its students to
specialize; its initial research focus would be on local social
problems; students would engage in field research on important
problems or issues; the Center would collaborate to help resolve
persisting urban problems; and it would provide service to the
Pittsburgh region, which would serve as a model for other urban
regions. In contrast to other programs the Center would stress
values and normative analysis of policy making and implementation;
and the Center would enroll a small number of students (25-50)
to maintain a high quality of faculty-student interaction.
The Center started, with
ten students, in the fall term of 1988 and accepted ten students
the following year. A grant from Westinghouse Electric led to
the creation of a computer laboratory that opened in the spring
of 1989. Also in the first year the Center received its first
research contract, for evaluation of Jubilee Soup Kitchen's
employment program for homeless people. In early 1989 the university's
new president, Dr. John E. Murray, Jr., invited a group of distinguished
community leaders to serve as an advisory board. This group
met several times during the Center's first few years and provided
valuable contacts, guidance and support.
The chairs of the two participating departments, Dr. Moors, and Dr. Eleanor Fails, Chair of Sociology, served as the Center's original co-directors, followed by Dr. Fails alone, and subsequently, with Dr. Fails' retirement in June of 1992, by Dr. Feinberg, who not only had been one of the authors of the original proposal for the Center, but had also proposed and overseen development of the Center's computer laboratory. Dr. Evan Stoddard was appointed the Policy Center's director in 1995.
In December, 1994 the faculty adopted a new curriculum for the  Center, effective for the fall, 1995, semester, that reduced the number of required courses, thus allowing students greater flexibility, and introduced two concentrations, one in Policy Analysis and Administration and one, based on the work of Fr. William Headley, Ph.D., C.S.Sp., in Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies. In the fall of 1995 the Center accepted its first students in Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies, some of whom came as representatives of Catholic bishops from war-torn countries in Africa, with scholarships from the university.
1996-present
Dr. Evan Stoddard served as the Policy Center's director from 1995-1999. Dr. Michael Irwin served from 1999-2003, Dr. Richard Colignon from 2003-2005, and Dr. Joseph D. Yenerall, the Policy Center's current director, began serving in 2005.
Enrollment in the Policy Center has grown from 10 full-time students (Fall, 1988) to, typically, 40-45 full-time students (2000-05). To date, more than 140 students, from all regions of the world, have earned master's degrees in Social and Public Policy from our program. Approximately 80 students have earned certificates in Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies (including many who earned the M.A.).
The Gradaute Center currently has eighteen faculty affiliated with its program. These faculty members have diverse research and teaching interests reflecting the Center's mission.
For
more information about programs available in the Graduate Center
for Social and Public Policy contact:
Duquesne University
Graduate Center for Social and Public Policy
539 College Hall
600 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15282
412-396-1780
Fax: 412-396-1739
E-mail: socialpolicy@duq.edu
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