Washington Campus is a public policy education program that takes place in Washington D.C. The official McCombs take on the program is available here. Participants in the program receive three credit hours of “waived elective credit.” This program is an excellent follow-up to the Business, Government and Public Policy course regularly offered at McCombs by Professor Spence.
- Getting into the Program. You must apply to participate. There are certain pre-requisites for participation (notably, completion of 30 MBA credit hours and a 3.0 GPA). Chris Johnson, an academic advisor in the MBA program office, facilitates the application process. There are more applicants than spots available and selections are made based on grades and extracurricular involvement at McCombs (a system that I believe is biased against JD/MBAs who are less likely to be involved in a large number of McCombs extracurricular activities due to simultaneous commitments at the law school).
- Deliverables. A final exam was administered on the last day of the program and a group project was due two weeks after the program’s conclusion. Project teams were assigned and teams were comprised of members from various MBA programs. As a result, the completion of the team project required some conference calls and many e-mails. You will be able to perform well enough on the final exam and project to receive the waived credit from McCombs without an extraordinary effort.
- Reading Assignments. The Washington Campus assigned readings in advance of the session and participants were expected to complete the readings (which included some Federalist papers along with more recent writings) prior to the start of the session. The reading load was not significant, but I found it difficult to devote time to the readings over the holidays.
- The Professor. Doug Schuler, a MBA professor at Rice University. He was a fun and knowledgeable guy, but there are no guarantees that you’ll see Professor Schuler at a future session. I got the impression that each session is led by a different faculty director.
For those who are interested, the list of speakers that presented at my session follows. Future sessions will not have an identical set of speakers, but I think this information provides a general idea of what a participant should expect:
- The Honorable Diane Auer Jones – President and CEO, the Washington Campus
- Douglas F. Bennett – Vice President, Federal Affairs, Liberty Mutual Group
- Shannon Brownlee – Schwartz Senior Fellow, New America Foundation
- The Honorable Angela “Bay” Buchanan – President, The American Cause
- Dan Byers – Professional Staff, Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation, House Science and Technology Committee
- Ronald D. Evling – Senior Washington Editor, National Public Radio News
- Dr. Winthrop Hambley – Senior Advisor, The Federal Reserve Board
- The Honorable Sidney L. Jones – Director, Sit Mutual Fund Group and Senior Advisor, Lawrence & Company (former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy)
- Marc E. Lackritz, Esq. – Founder and Chairman of the Center for Finance and Public Policy, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University
- William Lane – Washington Director, Government Affairs, Caterpillar
- Jim Lyon – Senior VP, Conservation Advocacy and Policy Program, National Wildlife Federation
- Catherine (”Kiki”) A. McLean – Global Head of Public Affairs and Managing Director, Porter Novelli
- Ilona Nickels – Congressional Lecturer
- John J. Novak – Executive Director, Federal and Industry Activities, Environment and Generation Sectors, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
- Congressman Charlie Stenholm – Senior Policy Advisor, OFW Law
- Bruce Stokes – International Economics Columnist, The National Journal
- Dr. Joel Swerlow – Professor of Economics and Public Policy, The Archer Center, University of Texas
As you might guess from the long list of speakers, this program is mostly about being an attentive listener. Arrive in D.C. well rested or you might spend most of the program caffeinating in a futile attempt to keep your eyes propped open.
Do not expect to tour D.C. extensively unless you arrive early or stay in town a few days after the program’s conclusion. (We did, however, take a short trip to the Federal Reserve and the Capitol Building.)
Do expect the Washington Campus folks to be a bit disorganized when it comes to providing logistical details in advance of your program.
Read the full article: Final Thoughts: Washington Campus