Which students are part of the new school?

Undergraduates who are majoring in policy analysis and management (PAM) and health care policy (HCP), including recently admitted or transfer students, are enrolled in the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy. Students are admitted to the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy through the College of Human Ecology (CHE), and those who are New York state residents continue to pay the contract college tuition rate for in-state residents.

Graduate students currently enrolled or recently admitted to master’s programs in the Sloan Program in Health Administration (Sloan) and the MPA Program are also part of the Cornell Brooks School. Current policy analysis and management PhD students continue in their existing program.

If I am an existing PAM or HCP major, do my degree requirements change?

All current students continue with their existing major programs, with degree requirements as they stood when they were admitted to the PAM and HCP majors. PAM and HCP students admitted through CHE will remain affiliated with the college and must complete all requirements for their degrees, including CHE’s specification for “outside the major” credits.

What other new or enhanced degree programs or academic majors or minors are under consideration?

The school plans to offer a new undergraduate major in public policy, which will eventually replace the existing PAM major. The degree, which will take significant time to be developed and implemented, is expected to focus on policy analysis, institutional analysis, race, racism and public policy, and analytical and critical thinking skills. The faculty are also committed to creating a new master’s in public policy degree, which would be the first of its kind in New York state.

Over time, the school’s faculty will lead a curricular self-study of the existing MPA Program degree, seeking to preserve its distinct strengths while also refreshing the curriculum to align with its new academic home. The existing Sloan Program in Health Administration MHA degree will expand its menu of policy courses and create new opportunities for its students to connect with other policy-focused faculty and students at Cornell.

The graduate field of PAM — in consultation with Brooks School faculty, students and stakeholders — will discuss how to update the current PAM PhD degree into a new public policy doctoral program, with the goal being to retain the program’s current strengths while incorporating new areas of emphasis from the expanded focus of the Cornell Brooks School.

Will students from other college and schools be able to participate in the new school?

Presently, the school is limited to existing PAM and HCP undergraduates and MPA Program and Sloan graduate students enrolled in the College of Human Ecology. Once the new public policy major is implemented, it is expected to be open to students in CHE and the College of Arts and Sciences. As with any new major, existing Cornell students may apply to the new program via established change of major or internal transfer processes.

Do degrees earned by alumni in the majors or programs offered by the school change?

No. Undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees held by alumni do not change, and these graduates remain alumni of the College of Human Ecology and, where applicable, the MPA Program and Sloan programs. CHE, the MPA Program and Sloan alumni from related policy programs are welcome as part of the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy alumni base, which affords them a range of new connections to the public policy community at Cornell.

What other academic entities are joining the new school?

In addition to being home to the MPA Program and the Sloan Program in Health Administration, the Cornell Brooks School includes the Cornell in Washington program, the Capital Semester program based in Albany, and the Institute of Politics and Global Affairs based in New York City. Furthermore, the school intends to have numerous connections to policy-focused faculty at Cornell Tech and Weill Cornell Medicine and will deepen ties to policy communities in Albany, New York City, Washington, D.C. and other locations worldwide.