First Semester

SUS6195: Effective Management, Communication & Action (3 units)
This course will take a strengths-based approach to fostering the essential individual leadership and communication capabilities needed for managers in business and public administration. These capacities are necessary for collaborating, influencing and acting as an effective change agent for sustainability in any type of business, organization or community. We will explore various aspects of the human dimension of sustainability including social justice, work/life balance, emotionally intelligent team building and the personal aspects of learning, change, commitment, and courage. We will practice communication skills and strengthen our personal effectiveness through self assessment, feedback, and practice in a reflective, supportive environment. We will work in teams to develop our abilities to observe and respond to team challenges and prepare to work in Service Learning Teams in future Presidio courses.
Pre-requisites: none 

SUS6010: Principles of Sustainable Management (4 units)
The primary objective of this course is to impart a basic understanding of the social and environmental sustainability challenges facing managers in today’s world. The course seeks to develop students’ critical capacities for self-reflection and action in relation to these concepts. Course graduates will possess the understanding and experience to integrate environmental and social sustainability with commercial and economic success. Lectures and readings provide an overview of the critical literacies in environmental and social issues, the history of the sustainability movement, including the various social and economic movements from which the current practices of sustainability in business and society grew, and the key actors and basic literature in the field. The course also addresses the global issues surrounding sustainable management and reviews the major frameworks of sustainability that provide the scientific foundations and economic principles of how sustainability can help managers to achieve natural competitive advantage.
Pre-requisites: none

SUS 7010: Introduction to Public Administration & Policy (4 units)
This foundational course presents key themes in public administration and policy. It focuses on developing increased understanding of public administration theories and on applying this information for professional growth. The course will introduce the history of public administration theory, including a discussion of key figures, theorists, and eras. Topics of both technical and practical interest such as budgeting, human resources, ethics, agenda setting, policy development, policy process, and leadership development will be introduced. The course will also introduce students to meta-narratives of public administration and discuss their importance to practice and theory.
Pre-requisites: none

SUS 7020: Civic Leadership, Decision-Making & Systems Thinking (4 units)
This course defines civic leadership and systems theory in the context of public administration and sustainable development planning and policy. It considers the role of citizens, government, special interest groups, and private organizations in environmental decision making. The course explores the development of environmental policy in the public and non profit sectors during the Progressive Era. It explores theories of networks, community building, civil society, democratic decision making, citizen inclusion, citizen diversity, and government participation. The course provides a foundation for sustainable development assessment, decision making, and planning. This course is service learning intensive and requires students to complete a community service project.
Pre-requisites: none

Second Semester

SUS6015: Business, Government & Civil Society (3 units)
This course provides an overview of definitions, frameworks and perspectives regarding the role of business in society. The goal is to understand the history and the theoretical perspectives that underpin arguments for responsible business. The course will aid students in: 1) analyzing the relationships between various stakeholders; 2) better understanding the policy and governance context; 3) identifying appropriate programs; and 4) exploring and building the business case for sustainability and social justice.
Pre-requisites: none

SUS6020: Managerial Economics (4 units)
Focusing on microeconomics, this course is a one-semester introduction to the fundamentals of managerial economics. It has three primary objectives: to provide an understanding of the standard or neoclassical microeconomic model and how this model relates to, and is useful for, business decision-making; to provide a critique of this model and present a more heterodox view of economics; and to provide a variety of quantitative skills that are useful for economic analysis and other aspects of managerial decision-making. The course will cover basic economic relationships, focusing on analysis at the margin, supply and demand theory, production theory, capital theory, profit maximization and cost minimization, firm structure, and types of markets. The critical aspect of the class will both consider how the neoclassical model is unrealistic, and therefore of limited value, and how this model is problematic in terms of sustainability. Quantitative skills developed include linear algebra, statistics, graphing, linear programming, and game theory.
Pre-requisites: none

SUS 7030: Research Methods & Policy Evaluation (4 units)
This course focuses on the use of research methods, performance management, informational technology, ethics, and development theories in order to assess public and non-profit organizations and their policy decisions and program outcomes. Through the use of service focused evaluation projects, students use tools of program evaluation as well as quantitative and qualitative research methods to answer important organizational questions related to process, outputs, outcomes, and resources. Students will also learn and apply information on management ethics, citizen rights and protections, and confidentiality in research and policy evaluation. Strategic Planning, SWOT analysis, PEST analysis, and other popular assessment and decision making tools will be introduced. The course will expose students to assessment tools used in sustainable development.Student will also practice public administration tools for use in achieving sustainability goals.
Pre-requisites: none

SUS 7040: Human Resources & Management Ethics (4 units)
This course focuses on the management of employees and volunteers in public and non-profit organizations. It explores ethics and decision making in human resources development, law, hiring process, allocation, and training. It considers the relationships, contracts, and structures that support human resources planning and action. The course explores theoretical concepts in the ethics of decision making and applies those concepts to practice in public administration. The course focuses on concepts such as public service, scientific management and sustainability, gender equity, neutrality, professionalism, and communication in public administration.
Pre-requisites: none

Third Semester

SUS6200: Ecological Economics & Macroeconomics (4 units)
This course is a continuation of managerial economics, focusing on two additional realms of economics: macroeconomics and ecological economics. Macroeconomics is concerned with the economic aspects associated with national level economic policy and international economic issues, rather than the behavior of households and firms (the realm of microeconomics). Ecological economics is an evolving branch of, or approach to, economics that understands markets in a far more complex, evolving and interrelated manner than traditional economics. It parallels ecology in that it sees elements of the economy as part of an ecosystem rather than as isolated components. This course has two primary objectives: to provide an understanding of the central elements of the macroeconomic model and how these elements relate to managerial decision-making, and to provide an overview of the field of ecological economics and how this field views and illuminates the issue of sustainability.
Pre-requisites: SUS6020: Managerial Economics

SUS6105: Culture, Values & Ethics (4 units)
This course addresses the business world of increasing globalization, the cross cultural and organizational situations in which managers are challenged to develop solutions between their own culture and the values and ethics of people and organizations in their extended markets. The intent is to develop the managerial skills to lead from a value-based, ethical orientation to resolve workplace dilemmas while also equipping the manager to guide the change of a business, a government entity or a civil society organization. The purpose is to develop the cultural intelligence and change management competencies of students to equip them in implementing ethical and values-based interventions supportive of sustainable organizations and relationships.
Pre-requisites: none

SUS 7050: Sustainable Development: Local & Global Institutions (3 units)
Sustainable development and sustainability are increasingly important to public administration planning and infrastructure design. As the theoretical concepts guiding sustainability and sustainable development are translated into practice, it is important to understand the local to global implications of sustainable action. This course introduces issues of governance, citizen participation, organizational change, networks, and scarcity by exploring institutions, policies, organizational structures, stakeholders, and infrastructures. Readings and service learning focus on leading transformational change in public administration through sustainable development for non profit and public organizations.
Pre-requisites: none

SUS 7060: Public Sector Finance (4 units)
This course focuses on microeconomics, finance, and budgeting theories and their application to policy and management in the public and non profit sectors. In this course, the concept of efficiency is developed and applied along with the goal of social equity to help determine the roles of the public, private and non profit sectors in the provision of goods and services. The relationship between finance/applied economics and sustainable development will also be discussed. Students will learn concepts and theories foundational to public finance and learn to apply them in public administration and sustainable management.
Pre-requisites: none

Fourth Semester

SUS6175: Capital Markets (4 units)
Building upon the fundamentals of finance and economics, this course is an overview of capital markets, including the financial instruments and institutions that comprise the global financial system. This course will offer an in-depth study of the marketplaces that play central roles in the global - down to the local – economies. Topics include: financing enterprises through venture capital and private equity funding, initial public offerings (IPOs), fixed income securities offerings, commercial paper, and angel investing. Financial instruments in a global market will be examined through a review of spot exchange, currency forwards, hedging, options, swaps, as well as international bonds and equities. Fundraising in the non-profit sector will likewise be considered. Basics of macroeconomics will also be presented as a background to financial decision-making. Topics include monetary and fiscal policy, aggregate demand and supply, exchange rates, and inflation. When time permits, the course also surveys the legal aspects of organizing, financing and operating a business enterprise. The course focuses on contracts, government regulation, intellectual property rights, corporate governance and shareholder rights, as well as the national and international finance, and investment systems, including a sustainability critique and reorientation.
Pre-requisites: none

SUS 7070: Implementation of Sustainable Development Practices (3 units)
This course focuses on the implementation of sustainable development theories to public administration practice at the organizational level. It offers public administrators the opportunity to improve their sustainable management skills through an intensively praxis and service oriented design. The course explores economic and policy applications of sustainable development, human and social welfare goals for sustainability, measures of sustainable development outcomes, and citizen participation in decision making.
Pre-requisites: none

SUS 7080: Information Management, Technology & Policy (4 units)
This course focuses on information technology and related applications, ethics, and policy. The course discusses the importance of data security, information tools, citizen outreach through the use of technology, and related laws, policy, and rulemaking. The course covers theories of information technology, dissent in government information sharing, the changes in information management policy, the structure of information systems, and the potential for information technology to create more efficient and sustainable systems delivery and communications. The course also addresses information access, transparency, privacy, and equity issues, as well as implementation, evaluation, and planning processes.
Pre-requisites: none

SUS 7090: Integrative Capstone Plan (4 units)
This course aims to integrate and synthesize the material learned throughout the program in sustainable public administration. The objective of the course is for the student to demonstrate an understanding and mastery of the practical skills, knowledge and attributes needed to plan, establish and run a sustainable program, project or policy initiative in the public sector. Students will articulate a systemic understanding of issues as well as explore current and emerging trends in their chosen field/area of specialization.
Pre-requisites: none