FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Overview of FIU Florida International University has grown rapidly since it s founding in 1972, and has become one of the nation s leading urban universities. FIU opened for classes in 1972 with 5,667 students - the largest opening day enrollment in U.S. collegiate history. Today it has more than 38,000 students, almost 1,000 full-time faculty and more than 117,500 alumni, making it the largest university in South Florida. The University offers more than 200 bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in 22 colleges and schools. The University is fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools In 1992, FIU was selected for membership in the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, one of the nation s oldest and most prestigious public higher education associations. FIU is the youngest university to have been awarded a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation s oldest and most distinguished academic honor society. FIU recently ranked among the best values in public higher education in the country, according to Kiplinger s Personal Finance magazine s 2006 survey, 100 Best Values in Public Colleges. FIU ranked among the top 50 nationally for in-state students and among the top 100 nationally for out-of-state and international students. FIU recently ranked 3rd in granting bachelors degrees to minorities and 9th in granting masters degrees to minorities (among the top 100 degree producing colleges and universities), according to Diverse Issues in Higher Education, June 1, 2006.
FIU s College of Law led all universities in the state with the highest pass rate of 94.4% on the 2007 Statewide Florida Bar Examination. The second highest pass rate belonged to Florida State University with 88.2%. U.S. News & World Report ranks FIU s undergraduate international business programs 7th in the nation and their graduate programs among the top 20. The university has also been named one of the 10 Cool Colleges for Entrepreneurs by Fortune Small Business magazine. Our Executive MBA program was recently ranked #1 in Florida by the Financial Times. 2
Overview of the School of International and Public Affairs. The College of Social Work, Justice and Public Affairs first started out as the College of Urban and Public Affairs (CUPA) in 1994. CUPA s creation came about based on President Modesto A. Maidique s declaration that the following four themes the environment, transportation and information, international, and urban would play an important role in the University s development. Comprised at the time of the School of Social Work and the School of Policy and Management, CUPA s academic units and programs were devoted to research and teaching that focused on the delivery of public, health, and nonprofit services to South Florida, the Caribbean, and Latin America. The college later merged with the College of Health Sciences in July of 2000 to form the College of Health and Urban Affairs (CHUA), which encompassed the School of Social Work, the School of Policy and Management and the addition of the School of Health Science and School of Nursing. Due to the creation of the School of Medicine and the need for the Robert Stempel School of Public Health to stand alone for re-accreditation purposes the College of Health and Urban Affairs was dismantled. In the fall of 2006 the College of Social Work, Justice, and Public Affairs was organized. In the fall of 2008 the College of Social Work, Justice and Public Affairs was dismantled and reorganized under the College of Arts and Science. The School of Social Work is now part of the Stempel School of Public Health. The Schools of Criminal Justice and Public Administration are now part of the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) in the College of Arts and Science. SIPA will house the consolidated Department of Political Science and International Relations; the newly reconfigured Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Geography; the Department of Criminal Justice; and the Department of Public Administration. SIPA will also bring together a number of prominent areas studies programs and centers and institutes including African New- World Studies, Asian Studies, the Center for the Administration of Justice, the English Language Institute, the European Studies Program, the Institute for Public Management and Community Service, the Middle East Studies Program, the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship Studies, the Labor Center and the Latin American and Caribbean Center. 3
Overview of the Department of Public Administration The Department of Public Administration is an academic unit within the College of Arts and Sciences at Florida International University. The mission of the Department of Public Administration is to advance excellence in teaching, scholarship, and community and professional engagement. Our emphasis is on creative problem-solving, leadership, and management in complex urban environments in this country and internationally. The growing emphasis on globalization, homeland security, and issues of social equity has created extraordinary challenges for individuals in the public service. The anticipated retirement of an unusually high proportion of civil servants in the federal government and other governmental units has created excellent opportunities for public administration practitioners. In the end, a country can be no more successful than its government. Consequently, public administration is both one of the most important careers that a student can choose, and a noble calling- it provides an important opportunity to shape the future. 4
Faculty Howard Frank (305) 348-0410 E-mail: howardf@fiu.edu Meredith Newman Professor and Chair (305) 348-5892 E-mail: newmanm@fiu.edu Valerie L. Patterson (305) 348-0425 E-mail: patterso@fiu.edu N. Emel Ganapati (305) 348-7351 E-mail: ganapat@fiu.edu Website Lourdes Rassi (305) 348-6797 E-mail: rassil@fiu.edu Sukumar Ganapati (305) 348-6275 E-mail: ganapati@fiu.edu Keith D. Revell (305) 348-0411 E-mail: revellk@fiu.edu Jean-Claude Garcia-Zamor Professor (305) 348-0428 E-mail: garciaz@fiu.edu Allan Rosenbaum Professor and Director, Institute for Public Management and Community Service (305) 348-1271 E-mail: rosenbau@fiu.edu 5