Goldman School of Public Policy

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The Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy (GSPP) is a public policy school and one of 14 schools and colleges at the University of California, Berkeley. Originally named the Graduate School of Public Policy, it was founded in 1969 as one of the first public policy institutions in the United States. The Graduate School was renamed after the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund donated $10 million in 1997. The current dean is Michael Nacht. The first dean was political scientist Aaron Wildavsky.

The building was originally designed by Ernest Coxhead in 1893 as the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house. It's located on the historic north side of the Berkeley campus. The building underwent seismic strengthening recently and received a Preservation Award from the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA).

The heart of GSPP is its two-year Master of Public Policy (MPP) program, with a core curriculum emphasizing practical and applied dimensions of policymaking. The curriculum includes core courses that provide a foundation in subjects ranging from political elements of the decision-making process and legal analysis to such specific analytic tools and concepts as microeconomic theory and statistical modeling. The curriculum also includes five electives, taken either at GSPP or elsewhere on the Berkeley campus, that allow students to focus on a particular policy area or a set of policy tools.

Because real public policy problems are often ill-defined and resistant to straightforward application of formal analytic techniques, the curriculum includes substantial field work allowing students to apply their learning in the service of real-life policy clients. Students work at a summer policy internship between their first and second years and complete an analysis, in groups and individually, during the spring semester of each year. Students also benefit from frequent visits by local and nationally known policy professionals, many of whom are GSPP alumni, who provide perspective and guidance to students both individually and in group talks.

In 2004's US News and World Report rankings on Public Affairs schools, GSPP was ranked fifth overall and first in public policy analysis.

GSPP not only offers the Master of Public Policy degree but also a Ph.D. for those interested in furthering research in public policy methods. Though it does not award bachelor's degrees, it offers a minor program for undergraduates.