By SUSAN JONES
The move to provide degree programs for undergraduate students who were interested in public policy was directly linked to input from those students, said Carissa Slotterback, dean of the newly renamed School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA).
“We were hearing from more students that they were wanting these kinds of learning opportunities,” she said. “They were interested in the sort of learning opportunities and ways of teaching which tend to be more interdisciplinary, more applied, more connected to practice, … to be able to position them to move into … graduate school or into professions that are connected to public policy.”
This came from undergrads who weren’t finding what they wanted in majors in Pitt’s other schools and from students entering what was the Graduate School for Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), who said they wished they could have started something like this earlier.
She said the undergraduate program, just like the graduate one, “attracts students who want to change the world. … They see pathways for themselves to be able to have an impact. They’re driven by wanting to give back, to have careers that are about serving others, and understand that public policy is a really crucial tool to do that.”
Slotterback said they also were seeing many of the roughly 100 other public policy programs in the U.S. start to offer more undergraduate programs.
Pitt has the expertise to serve students interested in public policy, she said, and the capacity to take on extra classes. Graduate enrollment has seen some decreases over the past decade, similar to many other professional schools, although there was a 10% increase last fall.
About 100 graduate students finished their degrees at GSPIA this spring. “I do anticipate that the addition of the undergraduate program will allow us to grow overall as a school,” Slotterback said. “It’ll take some time to be able to build up to that.”
Because of the hiring freeze, the school is looking at ways to shift some of the roughly 30 faculty who have historically taught at the graduate level into undergraduate courses. For some recent hires — like three new people who started last year — the job ads specifically talked about an expectation that they would teach at the graduate and undergraduate level.
“We’ve also had long-time faculty who are really interested in this, and see this as an important opportunity for the school; who want to be contributing to our mission; who want to be contributing to the stability and impact of our school,” Slotterback said.
Current faculty also were involved in creating the curriculum for the new undergraduate major in public policy, minors in public policy and global policy and a certificate program in nonprofit management. The minors and certificate have already been available at the school.
The core public policy course was first offered to undergraduates starting in fall 2024, and Slotterback said they maxed out enrollment for that.
The new major will start this fall, and Slotterback said they will have multiple sections available. SPIA is actively recruiting students into the major, which will be for upper division students only who can formally declare as juniors.
She said they are building pathways for internal students who want to transition into public policy and for external transfers from community colleges or other universities. Students might get interested in public policy because of different issues that catch their attention, like sustainability or housing or diplomacy, but then they start to figure out what the actual route is to get into jobs in those areas. “And we certainly help them understand the potential career paths.”
While the opportunities to go into public service in the federal government might be limited currently, given the cuts imposed by the Trump administration, Slotterback said they’ve had students who moved into state and local government positions, as well as the nonprofit and private sectors. She estimated about 70 to 80 alums work in Pittsburgh or Allegheny County government.
The school was 34th overall in the latest ranking of graduate programs by U.S. News & World Report and was the top-ranked public school for International Global Policy and Administration and 6th overall. The school also ranked highly in Urban Policy (16th) and Public Policy Analysis (31st).
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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