Oct 03, 2024  
2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog

Brookings Public Policy Minor


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The Brookings Institution is the oldest “think tank” in the United States and a source of independent information about public policy in the United States. The minor is an eighteen credit minor designed to give students the opportunity to explore the world of public issues and policy. There are five major policy areas that serve as the focus of organizing courses, lectures and student projects including: 1. Elections and Governance; 2. Global Economics; 3. Economic Analysis; 4. Foreign Policy; and 5. Metropolitan Issues and Governance.

Goal

To provide UNLV undergraduate students with a unique educational experience, the opportunity to explore the world around them through a series of courses taught by UNLV faculty and scholars from the Brookings Institution.

Please see the UNLV Greenspun College of Urban Affairs web page at www.unlv.edu/urbanaffairs for information about department programs, faculty and facilities.  Degree worksheets are available at www.unlv.edu/degree/minor-brookings-public-policy.

Learning Outcomes

In UNLV-Brookings courses, students will:

  • Learn about real people in real places.
  • Link societies by their connections and commonalities as much as by their differences.
  • Integrate general issues of globalization, past and present, into the study of specific people and places in the world.
  • Include cross-disciplinary approaches to break down conventional academic barriers.
  • Emphasize experiential as well as classroom learning .
  • Foster research and information literacy through coordinated lectures, readings, and assignments.

Admission Policies

Students may declare Brookings Policy as a minor at anytime subsequent to being matriculated. Students must have a minimum overall GPA of 3.00 to declare and to graduate with a minor in Brookings Policy.

Upon acceptance into the minor, we recommend that students meet with an advisor from the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs Advising Center 702-895-1009. Students should meet with their advisor prior to each semester they are taking classes. The program has developed a schedule of when classes will be offered. Meeting with an advisor will ensure the student stays on track and can graduate in a timely manner.

Academic Policies

A minimum overall GPA of 3.00 must be maintained in order to continue in the Brookings Policy minor.

Advising


Please see advising information at the UNLV Greenspun College of Urban Affairs Student Advising Center.

Accreditation


For information regarding accreditation at UNLV, please head over to Academic Program Accreditations.

University Graduation Requirements


To obtain this minor, you must be a degree seeking undergraduate student pursuing an approved UNLV bachelor’s degree. Please see Graduation Policies  for complete information.

Brookings Public Policy Minor - Total Credits: 18


Students who complete an approved sequence of courses will obtain from UNLV a “Brookings Minor in Public Policy.” Priority enrollment is open to students enrolled in the Brookings Minor. Completion of six courses is required to complete the minor. Classes are, however, open to all UNLV students.

Required Course - Credits: 3


Students must complete URST 101. The introductory level (URST 101) survey course is designed to provide a general introduction to key global and national public policy issues that parallel Brookings five major programs.

Upper-Division Courses - Credits: 12


Students select 4 upper-division (300 or 400-level) courses from the following list:

These three credit “Brookings courses” are available from a rotating slate of courses approved for this program. Undergraduates must select four courses, and achieve a grade level of 3.0 or above for each of the courses.

Capstone Course - Credits: 3


Student then must complete a 3 credit Capstone course. 

As a culminating project, students must also complete a three credit “capstone” course in their college. Requirements include a research paper of roughly 3,000 words, patterned on a Brookings Policy Brief. That paper is written under the supervision of a UNLV faculty member. Selected student papers may be published by the Brookings Mountain West, the Brookings Institution, and/or UNLV’s Institutional Repository, Digital Scholarship@UNLV.

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