Development Goals

When you give to the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy, helping students is the bottom line.

Over the next 5 years (2010-2015) our objective is to strengthen the following College initiatives:

• foster excellence in its undergraduate programs and increase opportunities for leadership development to better prepare our students for life in a global society;
• provide outstanding undergraduates with opportunities to earn career enhancing applied masters degrees;
• engage doctoral students in research that provides solutions to the nation’s most pressing domestic problems;
• provide faculty with the resources needed to achieve the above objectives

Achieving these goals requires that we recruit and retain the best professors by increasing our number of named professorships and eminent scholar chairs.

1. Leadership Development for our Students

   Among the nearly 3200 undergraduate majors within the College are hundreds of students with extraordinary drive, creativity and leadership qualities which are displayed in a variety of student organizations, internships and service activities. In addition, there are over 600 Masters degree students being groomed to assume leadership roles in their chosen field and in our communities, the state and Nation.

   Our goal is to enhance and expand students’ opportunities for personal growth and development outside the classroom. In part this will be achieved by increasing opportunities to participate in student-run organizations; however, our major thrust is to help students develop their full potential by providing a personal and professional development program that includes:

   • training in leadership skills

   • negotiation and mediation training

   • research internships with faculty

   • international service and internship programs

   • meetings with community, business and political leaders

   • engaging students in international and intercultural dialogue

   • opportunities for involvement in professional organizations

   • sponsoring symposia and seminars on current domestic and international issues

   The net result is to give our bright and ambitious students numerous opportunities to build a personal resume that will open doors to jobs in all sectors of the economy and prepare them for leadership in local, state, national and international organizations.

2. Scholarships for Applied Masters Programs

   Our MS programs provide outstanding undergraduates within the College with an extraordinary opportunity to refine their job skills and improve their career prospects. These scholarships also enable the College to recruit and enroll excellent students who improve the quality and reputation of these programs.

3. Research in service of the greater good

   Conducting research that serves society, guides public policy, and is integrated into our teaching programs is critical to the College’s mission. Hiring and retaining first class faculty, attracting the nation’s most promising graduate students, and involving our best undergraduates in research efforts are critical to our having a strong and positive impact on the design and effectiveness of public policies at the local level, in Florida and the Nation.

   Our mission is to conduct important research on critical local, state, and national issues and to train the next generation of professors to be first rate teachers of future generations. To achieve these goals, our stipends for Ph.D students must be competitive nationally while we recruit and retain the nation’s premier professors. The following gift opportunities help accomplish these goals: graduate scholarships and Ph.D research fellowships, named professorships, distinguished professorships and Eminent Scholar Chairs.