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Letter from the Dean
September 2007
For more than 60 years, Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs has been educating professionals who make a difference in the world. Through rigorous social science research and hands-on practice, SIPA’s graduates and faculty work to improve social services, advocate for human rights, strengthen markets, protect the environment, and secure peace, in their home communities and around the world. SIPA students are an extraordinary group from a variety of backgrounds, who are united by their energy, enthusiasm, and dedication to making a difference in the world. Today half of SIPA’s student body is international, coming from nearly 100 countries.
The School draws its strengths from the resources of New York City and Columbia University, and yet has a global reach, with graduates in more than 150 countries. SIPA has long benefited from close interaction with the institutions of New York City, from the city government to the United Nations, to the many private and nonprofit sector employers nearby. In recent years the School has deepened its commitment to globally-oriented graduate education by establishing partnerships for dual degrees, executive education, faculty exchange, and joint curriculum development with some of the leading public policy schools around the globe, including the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Beijing University, and the Centro de Investigación and Docencia Económica (CIDE) in Mexico City, among others. These partnerships ensure that our faculty and students remain at the forefront of public policy research and practice in a global context.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the creation of the MPA program, and I would like to use this occasion to celebrate the history of the program and the accomplishments of its alumni, including alumni associated with all of the variations on the MPA degree that have developed over the years: the MPA program itself as well as the Program in Economic Policy Management, the Executive MPA, and the MPA in Environmental Science and Policy. The celebration will take place on February 16, 2008. All of SIPA’s alumni, including our many MIA graduates, will be invited to join us for the festivities. I look forward to seeing you there.
Sincerely,
John H. Coatsworth
Dean