Community and Economic Development

3 credit course. Offered Spring, Summer, and Fall. Understanding theories, concepts, and frameworks of community and economic development and community decision-making models in application to community development practice and issues.

3 credit course. Offered Spring and Summer. This course introduces students to the four basic elements of leadership: personal, interpersonal, group/organization, and community.

3 credit course. Offered Spring and Fall. This course provides a multidimensional overview of three key aspects of community and economic development. Population—the people. Land use—the place. Municipal finance—the things they do there.

3 credit course. This course is an overview of the field of planning. It examines the history of planning and the theories behind it, and the corresponding roles that planners can play in their communities. It establishes the legal framework for planning as a profession and examines landmark legal cases involving planning and its tools. It then looks at the different types and levels of planning and examines the process of planning, what data needs to be collected, how a comprehensive plan is made and implemented, and who planners must interact with, in the course of doing their job. Finally, the course reviews the current issues in planning, such as smart growth, new urbanism, and sustainability. Throughout, the course attempts to emphasize both the positive and negative impacts of planning.

3 credit course. Offered Spring. Understanding principles and strategies of regional growth and development, focusing on challenges to theory, policy, and practice, emphasizing change in metropolitan, micropolitan, and rural areas. Prerequisites: CEDEV 430 and 500 or permission from the instructor.

3 credit course. Offered Summer. This is an optional course for the Master of Professional Studies in Community and Economic Development. It provides a foundation in the connections between communities and their local environments, the institutional barriers and boundaries that guide these relationships, and how both work together in impacting the long-term community and economic development trajectories across multiple scales.

3 credit course. Offered Spring and Fall. Typical topics include several methods and techniques in these areas: general community assessment techniques, specialized techniques for community and economic development, and leadership and process skills.

3 credit course. Offered Spring, Summer, and Fall. This course provides essential information for the process of writing and developing a framework for students to apply, integrate, and practice the theories, concepts, and methods from the CEDEV curriculum in developing the topic, outline, and literature review for their required master's paper.

1, 2, 3, or 6 credit course. Offered Spring, Summer, and Fall. Creative projects, including non-thesis research, that are supervised on an individual basis and which fall outside the scope of formal courses.

3 credit course. This course examines the relationship between entrepreneurs, small businesses, and local economic development. The course examines the multiple definitions of "entrepreneurship," and how these individuals affect—and are affected by—the social and economic dynamics of their community.

3 credit course. This course provides an overview of modern approaches to developing places and regions, including policy options and limitations. Fundamental reasons for the worldwide decline of some rural areas and the growth of cities are also explored.

3 credit course. This course will provide students with the knowledge needed to form innovative ideas that address social, environmental, and economic problems, put those ideas into a physical plan, get them funded, and launch them. Along the way, students will develop their own ideas for improving the world, and work them forward with fellow innovators. All the while, students will learn the techniques of social entrepreneurship and collaborative innovation, and how to apply them to everyday life.

3 credit course. Offered Spring. This course offers theoretical and practice background that provides the capacity to analyze and scrutinize some of the most chronic developmental problems of the twenty-first century and to provide participants with the practical skills to provide resolution along a wide spectrum of critical policy areas.