Social Policy & Practice

SOCIAL POLICY & PRACTICE COORDINATE MAJOR

The multidisciplinary coordinate Major in Social Policy & Practice introduces students to problems, policies, and methods in the social policy and welfare field through four core courses and additional elective coursework in the social and behavioral sciences. The major is designed to encourage students to explore social policy interests prior to employment or graduate education. It also serves as an excellent pre-professional major for social work, the social sciences, education, law, public health, public policy, and related fields.

The program in Social Policy & Practice is designed to grant students a considerable degree of freedom in the choice of electives and to offer ample avenues for students interested in pursuing independent research and/or internship experiences. The program is particularly interested in encouraging the study of social problems related to living in an urban environment such as issues related to race, class, poverty, gender, social justice and the intersections among them.

Social Policy & Practice graduates often find that they have many career options because of their broad academic backgrounds and well-developed writing, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills that are highly valued by employers in a wide variety of settings. Students in the major are well prepared for entering the fields of social work, education, public policy, public health, law, medicine, business, and any other field that values a solid liberal arts education.

All SPP coordinate majors must major in one of the three majors: Sociology, Political Science, and Economics.

New curriculum changes to the Social Policy and Practice (SPP) program (effective August 1, 2010). See here for a list of requirements for those students who declared the SPP coordinate major before August 1, 2010.

Required Courses (9 hours):

• SOWK 2000 Introduction to Social Policy and Practice (Fred Buttell)
• POLA 3240-10. Public Policy (Celeste Lay)
• SOWK 4000 Community Organizing for Social Change: Theories and Methods

Elective Courses (21 hours): All SPP students are required to take 7 elective courses (21 hours) to be selected from a list of approved courses (see below). These courses will be policy-oriented courses in sociology, economics, political science, and other SLA disciplines and programs. No elective credit will be accepted for courses outside of Newcomb-Tulane College.

Students can only take three courses below 400-level for elective credit. All other elective courses must be at 400-level or above.

Please note that all students must have at least 18 separate courses in the primary major and the Social Policy and Practice coordinate major. That is, if you make a list of all the courses that are used to complete your primary major requirements, and another list of all the courses used to complete the Social Policy and Practice coordinate major requirements, and then count each course once, even if it appears on both lists, there should be at least 18 courses. If a third major is added, there must be a total of 27 separate courses for the three majors; for 4 majors, there must be at least 36 separate courses, etc.

List of Economics electives for the SPP major

• ECON 1010: Introduction to Microeconomics Principles
• ECON 3320: Urban Economics
• ECON 3810: Labor Economics
• ECON 3830: The Economics of Gender
• ECON 4980: Inequality and Poverty in Latin America

List of Political Science electives for SPP major

• POLA 3200: Congress
• POLA 3270: Court and Politics
• POLA 4250: Power & Poverty in America
• POLA 4260: Race, Sex, and Power
• POLA 4270: Constitutional Law
• POLC 4030: Comparative Political Economy of the Welfare State
• POLC 6100: Politics & Health
• POLC 6120: Comparative Social Policy
• POLI 4620: International Environmental Politics

List of Sociology electives for the SPP major

• SOCI 1030: Sociology of Family
• SOCI 1050: Introduction to Education & Society
• SOCI 1060: Urban Sociology
• SOCI 1090: Social Problems
• SOCI 2180: Wealth, Power, and Inequality
• SOCI 6200: Issues in Sociology of Family
• SOCI 6260: Gender, Work, & Family
• SOCI 6300: Urban Policy and Planning
• SOCI 6330: Sociology of Education
• SOCI 6890: Sociology of Organizations
• SOCI 6930: Social Movements in Latin America
• SOCI 6950: Political Sociology of Latin America

All the departments have approved their courses for listing as SPP electives. The above courses are offered on a regular and frequent basis at Tulane by regular faculty members. Please note that some of these courses have prerequisites. Students should consult the course catalog prior to registering to ensure that they have met any department-specific prerequisites.