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CAPSTONE PORTFOLIO
MICHAEL D. OILER
MASTER OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY
The materials contained herein were developed in pursuit of a Master of
Public Administration Degree at Bowling Green State University.
This portfolio seeks to demonstrate mastery of transferrable public
administration competencies which were developed through
rigorouscoursework, academic research, and internship experiences, and
demonstrates accomplishments achieved.
Program Duration:
August 2014 – May 2016

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Table of Contents
Page Number
Capstone Portfolio 1
Table of Contents 2
Biography 3
Resume 4
References 6
Final Reflection 7
Public Governance 8
Policy Process 17
Analyze, synthesize, think critically, solve problems, and make decisions 24
Public Service Perspective 31
Communicate and interact with a diverse and changing workforce and citizenry 38
APPENDIX A: Participative Leadership: Theory to Practice Project 46
APPENDIX B: Leadership Shadowing Project 61
APPENDIX C: DSA Assessment Committee Member 70
APPENDIX D: Plan for Intervention at BGSU 71
APPENDIX E: Bureaucratic Oversight Memorandum 95
APPENDIX F: Policy Analysis Memorandum 104
APPENDIX G: Employee Motivation Project and PowerPoint 116
APPENDIX H: Graduate Assistantship with the Office of Campus Activities 127
APPENDIX I: Governance Reflections Project 128
APPENDIX J: Governance Network Project 135
APPENDIX K: University Systems Group Project 157
APPENDIX L: Political Policy Theory Project 170
APPENDIX M: Research Design Proposal 186
APPENDIX N: Program Evaluation Research Project 207
APPENDIX O: Local Municipality Budget Memorandum 214
APPENDIX P: Non-Profit Budget Analysis 224
APPENDIX Q: Internship with the BGSU Office of Service Learning 237
APPENDIX R: BGSU Votes Press Release 238
APPENDIX S: City-University Relations Commission Member 239
APPENDIX T: Problem Definition Precis 240
APPENDIX U: Survey for Research Design Proposal 242
APPENDIX V: Presentation for Research Design Proposal 248

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Biography: Michael D. Oiler
Michael began the pursuit of his MPA before graduating from
BGSU with his Bachelor of Arts in political science and history in
May of 2014. His passion for public administration comes from his
focus on creating more accountability in all aspects of public
service, whether it be local, state, or national government, higher
education, or public utilities. This passion for accountability
combined with his pursuit of knowledge lead him to concentrate
his degree on issues relating to higher education and student affairs. Since the start of his degree
Michael has worked in various different offices and capacities across the BGSU campus and has
gained valuable knowledge and experience.
As a teaching assistant he learned the value of helping students one-on-one and how to
tailor knowledge to each student to teach them the content in a way they can better understand.
As an intern for the BGSU Votes program he learned the value of authentic citizen participation
in the democratic process and how and why students register and vote. As a graduate assistant
for the Office of Campus Activities Michael learned all about assessment, office performance,
working with parents and families, and how to discuss and solve difficult problems with various
university stakeholders. These and many more experiences have, over the past two years, helped
make Michael a more thoughtful, ethical, and “dangerous” administrator and leader. What is
meant by “dangerous” is that he is an administrator who does not accept the status quo, to him
phrases like “that’s just how it has always been done” are not acceptable when there are clearly
changes that need to be made and he is an organizational steward who is willing to step up and
speak out for what he believes is best for the organization, that is why he is a “dangerous”
administrator. However, he also understand the need to compromise, to lead not just down but up
and across, he values shared governance and promotes it whenever it is appropriate.
While he loves working in higher education, Michael also has interests in human
resources, non-profit management, assessment, policy analysis and evaluation, and much more.
Michael is excited to graduate but even more excited to get to work as a “dangerous”
administrator and change the world one small step at a time because as pointed out by Steve
Jobs, “the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

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Resume
Michael D. Oiler
136 Troup Ave Phone: 614-370-4296
Bowling Green, Ohio 43402 Email: moiler@bgsu.edu
Summary of Qualifications
 Excellent communication skills, including public speaking
 Strong organizational and problem solving skills
 Ability to lead and work within diverse groups
 Outstanding planning and data analysis skills
Professional Experience
Bowling Green State University:
Graduate Assistant for Parent and Family Programs August 2015-Present
Office of Campus Activities
 Assist with creation and implementation of assessment plans
 Maintain online web resources such as list servers and the website
 Event management for Parent and Family programs in the office
City-University Relations Commission Member August 2015-Present
City of Bowling Green Ohio/BGSU
 Work with the city of Bowling Green to advocate for issues of concern to
graduate students at BGSU
 Form a stronger relationship between the city and university through positive
work on programs such as “Adopt A Block”
 Served as secretary and took minutes, prepared the agenda, and helped run
meetings
Assessment Committee Member August 2015-Present
Division of Student Affairs
 Work with division leadership to create new key performance indicators (KPI) for
each area of the division
 Help align the goals of each unique area to the larger goals of the division and
university
 Assess the value of CampusLabs software to the division and create a
recommendation for continuation or cancellation of service
BGSU Votes, Internship May 2015-August 2015
Office of Service Learning
 Main organizer for BGSU Votes program, focusing on voter education and
registration

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 Created the paper and digital material used in the program including a press
release to Ohio legislators, voter information pamphlets, updating the website,
creating a tracking form and more
 Trained other students to register voters and educate people on their voting
rights
 Helped create assessment materials for the program and transition from their old
organizational format to a new one
Teaching Assistant January, 2015-Present
Political Science Department
 Assist with grading undergraduate work and organizing class activities
Education
Bowling Green State University
Master of Public Administration Degree 2014-2016
Specialization: Higher Education and Student Affairs
Cumulative GPA: 3.77
Bachelor of Arts Degree 2010-2014
Double Major: History and Political Science
GPA: Cumulative: 3.18 All Political Science: 3.8 All History: 3.5
Activities
National Fraternity, Officer and Member
Awarded Top Member and Top Scholar awards
Duties included:
 Organizing new member education
 Plan, organize and lead philanthropy events and fundraisers
 Present workshops on various professional development topics
Other Related Skills
Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and Publisher, IBM SPSS statistics
software, Qualtrics survey design software, CampusLabs, Adobe Experience Manager:
Content Management System, Compliance Assist, OrgSync, and Canvas by Instructure.

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References
Dr. Melissa Miller
Assistant Professor
Bowling Green State University
419-372-2924
melissm@bgsu.edu
Dr. Kenneth Borland
Professor
Bowling Green State University
419-372-9397
kborlan@bgsu.edu
Dr. Virginia Jane Rosser
Director of the Center for Community and Civic Engagement (formerly known as the Office of
Service Learning)
Bowling Green State University
419-372-9865
jrosser@bgsu.edu

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Final Reflection
When looking back at the two years spent on my MPA I find mostly positive experiences
with a few select areas I see as needing improvement. First I will cover the positive aspects of
the program and then suggest areas for improvement. One of the most valuable aspects of the
program is the ability to engage in hands-on, real world experiences and internships which add
far more value to future administrators than reading heavy volumes filled with theory, however
theory is not forgotten. There is also a strong focus on fundamental theories and those which are
most useful for practicing administrators, instead of reading endless pages of theory we are able
to read what is most valuable, compare and contrast them, and apply theory to real situations.
Another incredible opportunity afforded students in this program is the choice to pursue one of
two paths, either write a thesis/dissertation or create a capstone portfolio. One of the many
benefits of this choice is that students who wish to pursue their doctorate or teach can take the
thesis/dissertation path and students who want to go into practice right out of school can take the
capstone path, both paths are equally valuable and well programmed by the department. Finally,
the biggest strength I see with our program is that there is a genuine interest in involving students
in community based work so they can see how positive community and civic engagement leads
to not just a better operating city, but we are able to see how we as administrators can create
positive change and a sense of community, no matter where we work. However, there are also
some areas in need of improvement.
First, while there are a good selection of core classes and electives, there is a need to
increase the amount of different types of undergraduate classes which have graduate sections.
Many students have specific career goals which these classes would contribute greatly to, but
they are stifled by the fact that these classes have no graduate level sections and thus cannot
count towards their degree. An example of this would be students pursuing “green” jobs who
want to take chemistry or other STEM courses which have no graduate sections. Lastly, I would
suggest that the program seek to utilize some sort of online database (such as Canvas) and create
a page or folder for each student which allows them to upload all applicable files for their
portfolio under section headings. While it helped to suggest we each do this on our own I
personally had my laptop wiped clean and it was extremely difficult to get the portfolio together,
a system like this would allow students to better keep track of their files and keep them safe.

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Public Governance
1b- Capacity to understand the governance structures of government, nonprofits, and for-profits.
Appendices: F and I
1d- Capacity to understand and apply administrative authority (top down/bottom up/lateral).
Appendices: I and B
1e- Capacity to apply knowledge of system dynamics and network structures in PA practice.
Appendices: J and K

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Public Governance – 1b
Capacity to understand the governance structures of government, nonprofits, and for-
profits.
When examining governance structures it is important to not only understand what they
are but how they affect stakeholders, future and past policies, various social sectors, how
changes can be made to these structures and what the effects of those changes would be, and how
the structures that are currently in place work or do not. It is crucial for public administrators to
understand this area of public governance as it is one of the core principles of living in a
democratic society. In a broad sense, governance can be defined as the way in which we choose
to govern ourselves, how we pass laws, keep order, etc and governance structures can be defined
as the specific way in which we carry out the governance of our society. While these definitions
are contextually national and large in scale, these governance structures can be seen at many
levels of government, in the non-profit and private industry, and across all sectors and types of
organizations, even student groups have governance structures. This interesting aspect of
governance structures has fascinated academics and many have written on various governance
structures within many different fields. In terms of public administration, much of the research
has come from higher education scholars and political scientists more so than other social
sciences. Scholars such as Birnbaum and Kaplan have written extensively on governance
structures in higher education and their research is applicable to most all of the public sector.
Birnbaum looked specifically at shared governance and how it has become less prominent in
higher education and suggests that public administrators should engage in more shared
governance as it helps promote stakeholder buy in and implement policies which can be better
tied to the mission and interests of an organization (Birnbaum, 2004). Kaplan however focused
more on governance structures in general and their significance. In one of his key works Kaplan
looks at whether governance structures actually mattered in terms of how decisions get made.
Among his many findings Kaplan concluded not only that governance structures do not seem to
matter in terms of how these decisions are made, but that where these structures matter is in
terms of how the policies are executed (Kaplan, 2004). While these scholars and others may
disagree about different aspects of governance and governance structures, there seems to be
agreement that these structures matter and public administrators need to understand these
structures in order to better achieve the missions and goals of the organizations they work for and
to help create a better society through the improvement of these structures and thus create an
improvement in the decisions being made by these structures. While at BGSU I have had many
opportunities to learn about governance structures and how they play a role in the execution of
public policy.
One of these opportunities came from my work on the policy analysis memo I completed
in POLS 6200: Public Administration and Public Policy. The goal of this assignment was to
examine a public policy by looking at a problem with the policy and determining the scope and
severity of the problem, assessing policy alternatives, and making recommendations for
changing the policy. The concept of governance is addressed in this project in terms of how it
helped create the new State Share of Instruction funding formula for Ohio higher education

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institutions. This project looked at where and how power influenced the decisions being made
around the SSI formula and made recommendations for policy changes which provided the most
amount of equity and political feasibility. The chief recommendation was for the State of Ohio to
increase tax revenues through the modification of the tax code to allow for a more progressive
tax which would increase revenues while not increasing the burden on low income families. This
paper also explored the consequences of the SSI funding decisions made within this governance
structure and the impacts they had on various social sectors, mainly students. While it was clear
that the funding formula favored certain institutions, it was also clear that this formula provided
less funds to access institutions which has a big impact on non-traditional student recruitment
and retention. The reason this affects these students more at small access intuitions is because
non-traditional students typically do not have the resources to attend larger universities so a
larger percentage of them go to these smaller schools and the decision to change much of the SSI
funding formula, from a course completion focus to a graduation focus, made it so that these
access institutions (with lower graduation rates due to higher rates of non-traditional and first-
generation students) received less state support and thus they have less funds available to
continue to enroll and give these students the resources they need to be successful. Another
project which gave me the opportunity to study governance structures was completed for HIED
7110: Governance and Organization of Higher Education.
For this assignment the class was tasked with attending a meeting of at least two different
governance organizations at a higher education institution of our choice and assess the
governance at the university based on these observations. I chose to go to a meeting of the
faculty senate and a meeting of the undergraduate student senate, both at BGSU. When
reviewing governance at BGSU I looked to social systems theories and other academic writings
such as Birnbaum and Kaplan to assess the governance structures at BGSU. What I found was
that while there is a formal system of shared governance it operates much in the way Kaplan
found, that governance structures didn’t impact the decisions being made as much as how these
decisions get implemented. What was interesting is that there was a large amount of agreement
on many academic issues but when it came time to discuss social or political issues both
governance organizations finally started to see some different opinions from members but the
discussion still lead to unified decisions which were representative of majorities in the
governance organizations. In addition to assessing governance at BGSU I also made some
recommendations to improve the governance agreements in each organization. I found that while
it was good BGSU was willing to listen to the concerns of various stakeholders, it was clear that
more needed to be done to give these stakeholders more power in these organizations. For
example, I suggest that the University should address the lack of shared governance by involving
more stakeholders in smaller, more numerous governance organizations which represent the
needs, values, etc. of the diverse types of stakeholders at BGSU. Taken together, I believe these
experiences and academic work have allowed me to not only understand and illustrate how
governance dynamics play a role in the execution of public policies in specific contexts across
social sectors, but this work has given me the ability to evaluate these structures and make
recommendations for new governance arrangements.

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Public Governance – 1d
Capacity to understand and apply administrative authority (Top down/bottom up/lateral)
An important aspect of public administration practice is the capacity to understand and
apply administrative authority in certain contexts in order to complete the mission of an
organization. Administrative authority comes in two forms, formal and informal authority.
Formal administrative authority is that which is given to the administrator as part of their
position, they have the ability to apply certain amounts of authority based solely on their
position. Informal administrative authority is that which an administrator can apply as a leader
that is not necessarily spelled out in their position or lines of authority. While formal authority is
more likely to manifest itself in a top down or lateral form, informal authority can be applied top
down, bottom up, or lateral. Peter Northouse and John Maxwell are two scholarly authorities on
leadership and both have informative views on how leadership can manifest itself as part of
administrative authority. As Northouse points out there is a difference between authority and
leadership, authority comes from the organization while leadership comes from the individual.
Part of administrative authority is not only understanding the different types of authority but also
that without understanding the role of leadership in administrative authority administrators are
doing a disservice to themselves and their organization. Northouse also points out that while
different types of leadership and administrative authority should be applied in certain context and
situations, he also offers the theory that in general, authority is not useful unless it is
accompanied by the appropriate type of leadership because if administrators simply use top
down authority and the power of their positions to place demands on their workers without
providing appropriate leadership then employees and other stakeholders in the organization may
find it harder to buy in to the mission they are trying to accomplish (Northouse, 2010). John
Maxwell expands on Northouse by looking at ways leadership can be applied in various
situations. According to Maxwell a good leader is one who can lead from the top down, from the
bottom up, and across the organization, or latterly. Maxwell is particularly good at giving the
reader examples of how this leadership plays out in the practical world so that there is a better
understanding of how to lead down, up, and across in certain contexts. Maxwell highlights the
importance of understanding how to apply leadership as a part of administrative authority and
echoes Northouse’s sentiment that authority must be carried out with proper leadership otherwise
it will be harder for an organization to complete their mission (Maxwell, 2006). While at BGSU I
have had many opportunities to experience the various aspects of administrative authority. The
most important first-hand experience I have had with administrative authority was working on
my governance reflection paper for HIED 7110: Governance and Organization of Higher
Education. For this assignment the class was tasked with observing two governance
organizations such as the faculty senate, undergraduate student government, board of trustees,
etc. at a university of our choice, I chose to observe the undergraduate student government and
faculty senate at BGSU.
While observing governance decisions being made at the faculty senate it became clear
how administrative authority was applied at BGSU. Much of the discussions centered around the
possible implementation of a new policy on campus. Presentations were given by the Provost

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and CFO who both promulgated the university leadership’s stance on the policy and provided
hard data and analysis to back up their position. Overall what this meeting exemplified was that
although university leadership could have chosen to overlook faculty input, they actually valued
the opinions and senate vote on the issue when choosing whether to implement the policy.
Similar observations were made at the undergraduate student senate. In the USG meeting there
was much discussion on transportation and a presentation was made by the director of parking
and shuttle services. Again, there was a strong presence of positive governance which took into
account the views of students as important to the implementation of new policies. Overall what
these governance observations say about administrative authority at BGSU is that even though
they have traditional administrative structure where the board of trustees and university
leadership have strong power over the creation and implementation of decisions, the multiple
governance organizations and willingness of university leadership to listen to the discussions and
decisions of these organizations shows that BGSU makes a conscious effort to apply authority in
a top down, bottom up, and lateral form. Even though the university could choose to use a
strictly top down method of applying their authority, they choose to encourage and engage in
bottom up and lateral application of authority because it can help create more buy in for
stakeholders and helps the university complete its mission as best it can, however there is always
room for improvement. I noted in my analysis that although there is a strong presence of
governance structures, often the problem is that if university leadership has a policy they are in
strong favor of pushing through but other governance organizations are strongly against, then the
university leadership will be more likely to apply their authority from the top down and
implement the policy regardless of opposition. While this is uncommon it has happened and is
one way in which authority can be applied in a more direct way at the university. Another
example of how administrative authority persists in various ways at BGSU comes from my
leadership shadowing project I completed for CSP 6400: Organizational Leadership,
Management, and Administration.
The goal of the project was to shadow a university leader to see what they do, how they
apply their leadership, and offer an in depth analysis of their type of leadership and the ways in
which they interact with other university stakeholders. Through my observations the most
important aspect of administrative authority I learned was that at BGSU administrators are able
to apply their authority in many different ways which helps them complete their mission. I
shadowed Associate Dean of students Chris Bullins and through his decisions and meetings I
was able to ascertain just how he applied his own form of authority and how the authority of
other stakeholders applied to him and his office. One of the best examples of this came from the
Student Affairs Committee meeting. In the meeting various issues were discussed by student
affairs leaders but most prominently was the retirement of the Vice-President for Student Affairs.
This retirement not only changed the formal lines of authority at the university but it also
affected each area of the division differently because with a new VPSA came new objectives and
goals for the division. While the interim VPSA vouched to focus on continuing the work of the
previous VPSA, there were clearly changes that would be happening as people move up and
around the organization. Bullins understood this very well so after the meeting he called together
the entire office to talk about the retirement and how that would affect the work of the office.
While the authority of the VPSA did not change, the interim VPSA came from a strong

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background in access, diversity, and inclusion, because of this Bullins knew that there would be
a stronger focus on assessing these areas in each part of the division, which was part of the
explanation given to the office. We as an office saw these changes in the changing assessment
measures as they now included more criteria to assess diversity and inclusion. This was just once
instance of how administrative authority persisted but also changed in both top down and lateral
ways. In my final analysis of the shadowing project I found that while authority was still
traditionally applied in a top down way, there was also much input made from the bottom up and
laterally which affected how decisions were made and Bullins had a very strong grasp of what
these relationships and power looked like and how to interact with them to achieve the mission
of the office, division, and university. Overall these experiences have allowed me to see not only
how different types of administrative authority can be applied in certain contexts, but it also
allowed me the opportunity to offer critiques of how and when this authority is applied.

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Public Governance – 1e
Capacity to apply knowledge of systemdynamics and network structures in PA practice
One of the most important aspects of being a cognizant public administrator is having the
ability to understand and apply system dynamics and network structures to existing
cases/contexts to find working solutions to pressing problems. Many scholars have written on
system dynamics and network structures. Much of the discussion centers on how systems work
and how network structures affect how policies are created, implemented, and changed over
time. One of the biggest issues facing administrators is how to balance politics with achieving
the mission of their organization. Two leading scholars in this area, Kenneth Meier and John
Bohte, assert and provide examples that although bureaucracy can be separated from politics
administrators themselves have their own form of political authority that can be exercised both
consciously and unconsciously. While they point out that some agencies take an active political
role for various reasons, many other try to avoid politics but they themselves as part of the larger
federal system are inevitably tied to the political process, which is why the authors call
bureaucracy the fourth branch of government. The authors also bring up important points about
bureaucratic power, they show that agencies gain more power through the political process and
this is not necessarily a negative outcome as it can help the agency better complete their mission.
Thus they concluded through research that bureaucratic power is a function of the characteristics
of each agency and the environment in which they operate (Meier and Bohte, 2007). This is
important in understanding system dynamics because the bureaucracy in which administrators
work is a political system and the work of scholars in this area can help administrators
understand how to better work within the political system to better complete the mission of their
organization. This leads into another discussion about networks which has increasingly been
engaged by scholars, how these various structures and networks affect how services are
delivered. While the true purpose of government continues to be contested, it is clear that there
are outcomes which agencies are expected to achieve and current research has been focusing
more on ways in which to improve the way these outcomes and services are achieved and
provided, with a focus on efficacy.
In their discussion of the hollow state Milward and Provan look at what elements in
governance structures work well to create positive and effective governance. Among their
various findings they conclude that agencies will be more likely to have effective governance
when there are, clear principal-agent relationships, principles who provide services as they can
more effectively manage providers, contracts that are not frequently bid upon, resources that are
distributed fairly, and stable programs that do not frequently change (Milward and Provan,
2000). This analysis of governance is important for analyzing network structures because it
provides administrators with circumstances which they could implement to create a more
effective agency. While at BGSU I have had several opportunities to analyze complex public
administration issues using system dynamics and network frameworks. My first analysis was
completed in a governance network paper for POLS 6210: Public Administration Theory and
Behavior.

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The goal of the project was to pick a public governance network and conduct an in depth
analysis through the lens of system dynamics and network structures by looking at the network’s
place in the policy stream, the sectors and levels of government in the network, the actors, roles,
and motivations in the network, the outputs produced by the network, how performance is
measured and what kind of data is collected in the network, the public policy and action tools in
the network, and an analysis of the accountability systems in the network. I chose to analyze the
Ohio higher education network and focused much of my analysis on accountability in the system
as that has been increasingly important for higher education institutions and states that fund
them. According to my analysis the Ohio higher education network works within an
administrative accountability framework, however there are also levels of bureaucratic
accountability in the network. One of the problems discovered about this system is that the
accountability measures in place, although effective for bureaucrats, does not provide a high
level of accountability to other stakeholders such as the public, the media, and many others who
are affected by the decisions made within this network. This analysis brought forth the problems
and benefits associated with performance based funding measures as it showed how the structure
of the Ohio higher education network is conducive to creating an environment in which these
types of measures are more likely to be implemented. This is important because it helped me as a
young administrator see just how the structure of a network can affect not only how and why
decisions are made but the effects caused by these decisions as well. In addition to my work on
this paper I was also able to engage in network and systems analysis for my group project on
university systems for HIED 7110: Governance and Organization of Higher Education.
For this assignment my group member and I were assigned with comparing the state of
Ohio university system and the state of Wisconsin university system. Our goal was to look at
these two public university systems and compare them in terms of their governance agreements
and organizational arrangements. Our main purpose was to find out how the governance
agreements and organizational structures affected on campus governance and leadership and
suggest ways to change the governance agreements and organizational arrangements to enhance
educational and institutional accomplishment and improvement. The majority of the analysis
focused on ways in which various administrative areas differed in each system in terms of the
context, culture, and structure and how to improve management strategies in each system. For
our project these areas included accountability, authority, climate/environment, finance, policy,
budget management, enrollment management, personnel management, and teaching/learning
management. Ultimately what we found was that while Ohio and Wisconsin have similar
university systems it is the variance in governance structures and state support that truly separate
them. One of the biggest issues which has caused significant change in both systems has been the
mounting decline in state support for higher education caused by budget shortfalls, lowered tax
rates, and shifting budget priorities in state capitals, we found these changes to most significantly
impact universities in terms of their faculty. In our analysis we found that both systems have
seen a large decrease in tenure track positions and an increase in adjunct positions. In order to
help combat some of the governance and organizational problems in the Ohio university system
our group created several suggestions. These suggestions included more learner centered
assessment, increased focus on employee motivation, and the most important suggestion was for
enrollment managers at institutions to focus on the correlates to student persistence whatever

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they may be, student interest, academic program demand, and the institutional, academic, and
social factors that affect retention rates. By focusing on these improvements our group suggested
that the Ohio university system would be able to greatly improve itself in the areas of enrollment,
personnel, and teaching/learning management. Taken together my experiences at BGSU have
given me the ability to not only undertake analysis of complex public administration issues using
the lenses of system dynamics and networks, but they have also given me the ability to apply
these frameworks in order to create working solutions for real problems.

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Policy Process
2a- Capacity to understand political theory and practice
Appendices: A and L
2c- Capacity to understand how problem identification impacts public administration
Appendices: F and T
2e- Capacity to directly or indirectly undertake policy analysis/evaluation
Appendices: E and F

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Policy Process- 2a
Capacity to understand political theory and practice.
One of the most essential competencies any public administrator needs is the ability to
understand political theory and practice. By reading, understanding, and applying theory public
administrators are better able to understand not just how and why politics work but they can then
use that knowledge to describe and evaluate observed phenomena and utilize that analysis to
seek solutions to social problems. Part of any public administrator’s job is to seek solutions to
various problems and even if one never creates a policy or solves a social problem, this same
form of scientific inquiry and application of theory to practice can and should be applied to solve
various problems within each and every organization a public administrator could work in. The
reason application of theory has become more prominent is because theory itself cannot solve
problems and it is much more difficult to solve problems when one does not know about the
history of how a problem started or persists. By applying theory to practice public administrators
are able to better overcome these challenges and create significant solutions to problems. While
at BGSU I have had numerous opportunities to utilize political theory to describe and evaluate
observed phenomena and use that analysis to seek solutions. One of these opportunities came in
my theory to practice project, completed for College Student Personnel 6400: Organizational
Leadership, Management, and Administration.
For this assignment the class was tasked with picking a leadership theory and applying it
to a given case. I explored not only the academic history of participatory leadership and what it
means in the modern day context, but I was also able to apply it to a hypothetical case which I
solved using participatory leadership and then exploring other ways the problem could have been
solved. The case involved an undergraduate student leader in their fraternity who had to make a
decision about how to educate their new members. This student was presented with various
opinions about what to do from their fellow fraternity brothers and then had to make a decision
on how to solve the issue, while the student did not use participatory leadership, I then used the
case to show how they could have used participatory leadership to solve the case. Even though
this case did not tackle a real problem it helped me understand how to apply theory and past
observations to describe and evaluate the hypothetically observed phenomena to seek alternative
solutions to the problem. I was given a similar opportunity to apply theory to practice in my
policy theory paper for POLS 6200: Public Administration and Public Policy.
For this assignment the class was tasked with applying a policy theory to a particular
public policy problem and come up with solutions based on the analysis of the problem using the
chosen theory. For my work I chose to apply the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) in
explaining changes in state funding of higher education in Ohio. I began my analysis by looking
at the problems caused by a lack of state funding for higher education and the effects of the
change in the State Share of Instruction (SSI) formula change on institutions of higher education
in Ohio. After thoroughly reviewing the problem and all of the observed phenomena around the
problem in various parts of society, such as the media, stakeholders, administration, political
figures, and more, I moved on to an analysis of research on the ACF. I then applied the ACF to
the problem in terms of the role of interest groups in Ohio as a competitive coalition made up of
divided interests that are able to defer funding from higher education. In addition I applied the
ACF to explain why some beliefs in the policy subsystem may have more of an influence than
others. I also found research showing that although coalition beliefs are important, sometimes

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they can be paradoxical and have conflicting influences on policy outcomes. Overall when
looking at the ACF in Ohio there was clearly a coalition between the legislators and Governor
Kasich which allowed them to form a unified stance on higher education. Another coalition was
formed by the public universities in Ohio which banded together to try and protect themselves
from further cuts. The third coalition is made up of several competing groups including various
interest groups, the media, and the tax payers. After looking at all of this data and going into an
in depth analysis I gave suggestions as to how this policy came about and suggested more
research be done in the field. Overall I feel these experiences have helped me better understand
how to employ political theory to describe observed phenomena and employ the analysis to seek
solutions to pressing social problems.

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Policy Process- 2c
Capacity to understand how problem identification impacts public administration.
The capacity to understand how problem identification impacts public administration is
crucial for future administrators because if one cannot understand how a problem is defined
within specifics contexts then one will have a difficult time finding a valuable solution to the
problem. Another important aspect of understanding problem identification is being able to
examine the relationship between how the problem is defined and how solutions can be created.
In addition, truly “dangerous” administrators should be able to understand how conflicts over
problem definitions contribute to pressing policy problems. Understanding these relationships
are also important because being able to competently assess these relationships leads to solutions
to problems which have a greater level of accountability and thus have more stakeholder buy-in.
It is also important for administrators to understand these concepts because more and more
stakeholders in the community are demanding ever more efficient and effective government. By
showing them that your organization took all possible steps to ensure that the best possible
decision is made you give more legitimacy to your decisions and thus your organization. While
at BGSU I have had a couple of opportunities to study problem identification within contexts,
analyze the relationships between problem identification and solutions, and demonstrate how
competing definitions cause more policy problems. The most significant opportunity I was given
which helped my understanding of these relationships came from work on my policy analysis
memorandum I wrote for POLS 6200: Public Administration and Public Policy.
The purpose of the assignment was to identify a policy problem and engage in real policy
analysis on a policy area of interest, mine was the Ohio higher education system, which I
analyzed using two main criteria; equity and administrative feasibility. I then delved into
extensive research around the policy area and discovered that the problem can be defined as an
increased cost of higher education in Ohio that has been caused by an increase in tuition, which
was brought about by declining state support, threatened donations to universities, and the
change in SSI funding structure. I also looked at different ways in which this problem has been
defined, universities define it as a lack of donations and federal aid, professors define it as a lack
of state funding and support, legislators define the problem as greedy, bloated universities over
charging their students, and many constituents such as students, parents, and tax payers see the
problem as bloated tuition and a lack of financial aid. By looking at the various definitions of the
problem within the context of the policy area I was able to come up with my aforementioned
definition of the problem based on these various definitions and research; I then went into detail
about policy alternatives which address the root causes of the problem as I defined it. I offer four
policy alternatives and compare and contrast them using the criteria of administrative feasibility
and equity. Ultimately I suggest the legislature of the State of Ohio restructure its tax code to fit
a more progressive tax, which will increase tax revenue, increasing the amount of appropriations
for higher education, which would lower the financial burden placed on students. In addition to
this project I also had the opportunity to explore more in depth research on problem definition
through my problem analysis precis written for POLS 6200: Public Administration and Public
Policy.
The purpose of this assignment was to read four chapters from prominent political
science scholars and assess how they have contributed to our understanding of the concept of
problem definition. The most important aspects from the readings for me were the foci on

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competing problem definitions over time and how policy solutions can be crafted to fit
unconventional problems. In addition I found the discussion on symbols in problems and how
they are defined as very useful for future practice as it gave me a better sense of how to spot
Synecdoche arguments made to define problems. In addition, the reading on causes helped me
better understand how causes are analyzed by looking at four causal theory typologies, and
casual strategies used in problem definition. Overall these readings helped me become a better
administrator by helping me better understand more intricate concepts involved in defining
policy problems. When looking at both assignments and my experiences at BGSU I am confident
that they have given me the ability to demonstrate how a problem is defined within specific
policy contexts, analyze the relationships between problem definitions and solutions, and show
how competing definitions of problems can cause more policy problems.

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Policy Process-2e
Capacity to directly or indirectly undertake policy analysis/evaluation
One important aspect of being a public administrator is having the capacity to undertake
policy analysis. While how policy analysis has changed over the years and methods are still
debated, the purpose of policy analysis is generally agreed upon, that it is there to help
administrators and the public in generally figure out what to do with any given policy or lack
thereof. According to Smith and Larimer policy analysis centers on answering a basic question:
“What should we do?” (Smith and Larimer, 2013). They argue that the purpose of policy
analysis has been split between two camps, the positivists and post-positivists who disagree on
the theoretical underpinnings of evaluation and purpose of policy analysis. Positivists see the
world as rational, that people act rationally and by interpreting these behaviors it is possible to
determine reasons behind policy choices. Post-positivists see people as independent actors with
varying sets of values which cannot be ranked, they see positivists as producing information that
politicians ignore and they claim that in depth analysis of each situation will yield more results
because they are proponents of relativism (Smith and Larimer, 2013). While Smith and Larimer
focus on more of the theoretical discussions that center on policy analysis, Kraft and Furlong
focus on the various steps in the analysis process and the various approaches, purposes and the
nature of policy analysis to provide a bigger picture of this specific area of public administration.
Kraft and Furlong also strongly focus on the influence of organizations like think tanks and how
they influence different levels of the analysis process. The process starts with defining and
analyzing the problem, constructing policy alternatives, developing evaluative criteria, assessing
alternatives, and ends with drawing conclusions. Kraft and Furlong point out that administrators
have many choices to make when doing any kind of analysis and the choices they make about
their approaches to evaluation can drastically change not just how the evaluation is conducted
but how that analysis is used (Kraft and Furlong, 2012). Again, as with Smith and Larimer there
is an emphasis on the conflict between positivists and post-positivists and the most useful
knowledge administrators can gain from the work of these authors is that when an administrator
has to make a decision about policy analysis they should be thinking not just about how to carry
out the analysis but also how the evaluation will be used. The political climate is ever changing
and the techniques used to perform evaluations are changing, therefore it is the responsibility of
public administrators to use the most up to date analytical techniques to gain valuable new
insights into the item being evaluated and thus provide direction and suggestions for how to take
action on any given problem based on this analysis. While at BGSU I have had the opportunity
to employ various analytical techniques, ascertain new insights and findings from my analyses,
and provide suggestions for ways to take action on policy. My first policy analysis was written as
a legislative oversight memorandum for POLS 6210: Public Administration Theory and
Behavior.
For the memo I chose to play the role of a DEA policy analyst and present an analysis of
the possible passage of a senate bill associated with drug reform. As the policy analyst for the
DEA I looked at background on the policy issue surrounding medical marijuana, provided an
analysis of the policy issue, and identified various risks to the DEA if the bill passed or did not.
My analysis centered on Senate Bill S.2437 which states that it “prohibits the use of funds to
prevent certain States from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use,
distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana” (113th United States Congress,
2014). Essentially this bill, which was passed by congress in December 2014, prevents the DEA

23. 23
from using funds to go after any entity legally involved in the medical marijuana industry in
states where it is legal. This presents a number of problems for the DEA and I discuss them in
my analysis of the policy issue. The analysis centered around two key problems, the conflicting
evidence about medical marijuana between the DEA and congress, and the political climate and
how it may influence the bill and its passage. While I went on to identify risks I also gave
suggestions as to how the DEA should handle their committee meeting in order to gain the most
from it. In giving out suggestions I analyzed the political climate, policy history, current
interpretations of other policies similar to the one under scrutiny, and made suggestions for what
to do whether the bill passed or not. I also suggested how to handle that kind of uncertainty in the
committee meeting by making strong arguments on various issues around the implications of
medical marijuana use so as to make sure the DEA administrator was prepared for her meeting.
While this analysis centered on preparing an administrator for a meeting, the policy analysis
memorandum I wrote for POLS 6200: Public Administration and Public Policy focused on
analyzing and defining a policy problem.
The purpose of the assignment was to engage in real policy analysis on a policy area of
interest, mine was the Ohio higher education system, which I analyzed using two main criteria;
equity and administrative feasibility. I analyzed the scope and severity of the problem, which is
that the financial burden for higher education has been increasingly placed on students. Once I
analyzed the scope and severity or the problem I discuss and define the issue further citing lack
of state financial support, threatened donations, increasing tuition, and the change in Ohio’s State
Share of Instruction (SSI) funding formula. In this section is also a detailed discussion of the
stakeholders and actors in the Ohio HIED system to further define the relationships that exist and
how they impact the formation of policy, and what should be done about the problem. After this
there is a discussion about policy alternatives where I offer informed opinions on different ways
for stakeholders including legislators to take action to help fix the three main causes of the
problem; changes in the SSI formula, increasing tuition, and the lack of state support as there is
not much that could be done in the policy area to help fix the issue of threatened donations. By
choosing to determine policy alternatives that directly tackle the main causes of the problem I
suggest that these alternatives are superior to current policies as current policies do not address
the causes of this problem but rather contribute to it or simply help fix the symptoms of the
problem by rearranging how they distribute their dwindling resources. I then went into a detailed
discussion analyzing the differences between the three unique policy alternatives suggested and
then make a list of policy recommendations. While there is evidence to support my
recommendations I also made sure to discuss issues that had not been previously, to my
knowledge, researched. My suggestion was ultimately to reform the tax code so that more money
would be put into higher education. However, I also note the limits of my analysis which is most
notably that I do not include an analysis of revenue generating policies that universities or policy
makers could look in to as my concern was with three very specific causes of a bigger problem.
Together I believe my experiences and work at BGSU in the area of policy analysis sufficiently
shows my ability to employ analytical techniques which will allow me to conduct a thorough
policy analysis that provides new insights and suggests actions policy makers can take to fix the
problem at hand. This skill is invaluable in public administrators today and it will continue to
play an even more important role in how policy makers take action in the future.

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Analyze, synthesize, think critically, solve problems, and
make decisions
3a- Capacity to directly or indirectly employ quantitative and qualitative research methods
Appendices: M, N, and U
3b- Capacity to directly or indirectly employ quantitative and qualitative research methods
Appendices: D and H
3e- Capacity to understand and apply sound financial planning and fiscal management practices
Appendices: O and P

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Analyze, synthesize, think critically, solve problems, and make decisions-3a
Capacity to directly or indirectly employ quantitative and qualitative research methods.
One of the core competencies any public administrator should have is the ability to
analyze observed phenomena using qualitative and quantitative methodology. This competency
is essential to public administrators and researchers because quantitative and qualitative
methodologies provide a scientific way to assess social phenomena which can be hard to predict.
This type of analysis is a more in depth form of inquiry than simply researching phenomena,
these methodologies involve using certain criteria to assess various aspects of the phenomena
and a good analysis will include recommendations about what to do with the information and
what kind of future research could be done in the policy area. In an environment of ever
increasing demands for public accountability and efficacy it is important for public
administrators to be able to undertake various types of analyses so that they can better inform
their decisions and increase their accountability. My most valuable opportunity to engage in
analysis of an observed phenomena using qualitative and quantitative measures came from work
on my research proposal for POLS 6750: Research Methods.
For this assignment the class was tasked with identifying a policy problem and designing
a research project that addresses a central or set of central questions regarding the policy
problem. For my project I chose to look at an emerging national, state, and local policy problem,
the regulation of the recreational marijuana industry. The central question my research aimed to
address was how will Alaska and Oregon regulate this new marijuana industry? My overarching
hypothesis stated that the recreational marijuana industries in Alaska and Oregon will be
regulated in ways similar to that of alcohol. In answering my research question and testing my
hypothesis three major questions emerged that were essential, what entity will regulate the
marijuana industry? what do the initiatives explicitly state about industry regulation? and what
are the key regulatory goals of each initiative? These questions and extensive research lead me to
three key hypotheses. The first hypothesis is if legislators and liquor control board members in
Alaska and Oregon favor liquor industry regulation regarding licensing and quality assurance
procedures then they will include detailed licensing and quality assurance procedures for retailers
of marijuana in their regulatory framework. The second hypothesis is if legislators and liquor
control board members in Alaska and Oregon favor liquor industry regulation regarding
packaging, labeling, and advertising then they will include detailed rules for the packaging,
labeling, and advertising of marijuana in their regulatory framework. The third hypothesis is if
legislators and liquor control board members in Alaska and Oregon favor detailed liquor industry
rules regarding enforcement of liquor laws and the punishments for violations of said laws then
they will include detailed rules regarding the enforcement of recreational marijuana laws and the
punishments for violations of said laws in their regulatory framework. In order to test my
hypotheses I suggested a survey that will be administered by email to a randomly selected
sample of legislators and liquor control board members from Alaska and Oregon. Once I
described the study and all of its aspects in detail I then operationalize all of my questions that
will be asked in the survey. I then explain which empirical tests I would use to run the results of
the data based on the types of variables I was using. For this assignment I even created a sample
of the survey which would be sent to legislators. After a detailed comparison of the strengths and
weaknesses of my research design I end with suggestions for future research and reiterate why
my research would have been important. At the time I created the survey both Oregon and
Alaska had already voted to legalize marijuana and were months from drafting the regulations

26. 26
before the laws went into effect. In an ideal situation I would have been able to actually get my
proposal refined, approved, and sent out. To me the most important research that could have
been gained from my analysis is seeing how legislators make decisions, especially regarding
marijuana regulation. I was afforded another opportunity to assess observed phenomena using
qualitative and/or qualitative methodologies for my program evaluation research report for POLS
6230: Program Evaluation.
For this assignment the class was tasked with researching and assessing a professionally
developed program evaluation. For my report I chose to look at the Marquette University
Institutional Assessment Report. Institution wide assessment reports of this type are common in
higher education and are meant to evaluate to effectiveness of programs in achieving university
goals, objectives, and/or learning outcomes. Marquette focused their assessment on indicators of
increasing student learning and growth and how they could use this data to inform decisions
about content, delivery, and pedagogy for their programs and courses both academic and co-
curricular. I began the assessment by analyzing each of the four parts of the Marquette report,
program assessment, university core of common studies learning outcomes, institutional
undergraduate learning outcomes, and data indicators of student success. After looking at each
part of the report and critiquing the data I looked more at their whole assessment practice to see
what kinds of processes they use. I found that while most of their data was gathered directly
many of their measures were indirect and vague; I then gave suggestions on how Marquette
could improve their assessment practices. To conclude my report I critiqued the purpose and
nature of their assessment report and processes and the data can best be used by Marquette.
Taken together these two assignments and various other experiences during my time at BGSU
demonstrate my ability to provide an original analysis of observed phenomena using quantitative
and/or qualitative methodologies in a commissioned analysis.

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Analyze, synthesize, think critically, solve problems and make decisions-3b
Capacity to directly or indirectly undertake program evaluation/action research
One of the most important aspects of public administration is being able to undertake
proper program evaluation in order to improve the services organizations provide to their clients.
The purpose of evaluations should be improvement and while there may be some disagreement
among scholars as to the definition and purpose of program evaluation, there seems to be
agreement among public administrators that program evaluation as an act is important for
organizations. Fitzpatrick, Sanders, and Worthen point out that evaluation is important because it
gives administrators the ability to question and consider their goals and methods in the
organization, it also important in pragmatic terms, ethical terms, social and business terms,
intellectual terms and personal terms. In addition, the authors point out that evaluation creates a
culture of learning that helps organizations improve their “ways of thinking and developing,
implementing, and changing programs and policies” (Fitzpatrick, Sanders, and Worthen, 32-34).
This emphasis on the importance of evaluation helps demonstrate the value of program
evaluation and the need for new administrators to understand and engage in meaningful
evaluation. While at BGSU I was able to engage in meaningful evaluation in both theoretical and
literal situations.
As part of my assistantship with the Office of Campus Activities I am a member of the
Division of Student Affairs Assessment Committee and I directly assist the Associate Dean of
Students in setting the goals, possible outcomes, and structure of the evaluations which will be
used to assess the different areas of the office. The DSA Assessment Committee is made up of
directors from the various areas within the DSA. The committee was tasked with determining
what key performance indicators (KPIs) each area of the division will report to the division
leadership in order to “tell our story” and show the value of the programs within the division.
The Vice President of Student Affairs (VPSA) made it clear that the committee was also tasked
with aligning these KPIs with the larger mission of the division, the university, and the strategic
goals of the university. By aligning the KPIs with the values, vision, mission, and goals of the
division and university each area is able to show their performance, justify their spending, and
continue to improve the services provided to students. While working in this capacity I was able
to create KPIs for our office by working with the Associate Dean to figure out what performance
measures to use for Fraternity and Sorority Life, Student Organizations and Major Events, the
Finance department, and the Spirit/Cheer area. For each area in our office we created a matric of
the performance measures we choose to use, why we chose to use them, and how we would use
this data. Once we created our parameters I gathered the data, created charts and graphs to help
visualize the data, put the data on our CampusLabs database, and helped Chris report the
findings to the committee. CampusLabs is a new software to the university and I was also tasked
with evaluating the value of this software program to the division and I chose to compare it with
Qualtrics as it is a similar software. I created parameters and determined that while Qualtrics was
worth using, CampusLabs had unique features that would provide a benefit to the division. The
creation of the KPIs and evaluation of CampusLabs are very important to the university and I
was glad to have the opportunity to engage in successful program evaluation that will be used for
further evaluation by university leaders. While I have been able to engage in evaluation in a real
setting I was also able to explore program evaluation by creating my own intervention plan with
an entire assessment component for my CSP 6040: Educational Outcomes of American Colleges
and Universities class.

28. 28
The purpose of the intervention plan was to pick or create a university with a mission,
values, and vision statement then create a learning, growth, and development statement, describe
the environments at the university, then create a specific desired learning outcome. I chose to
write an intervention at BGSU and my learning outcome was focused around student
understanding and engagement in group dynamics and diversity. The outcome was crafted to
target a specific subpopulation to help them improve their understanding of group dynamics and
diversity while justifying the outcome with evidence. I then created a macro level policy and two
micro level policies to accomplish this outcome that will be administered by university
administrators and the Office of Service Learning within the university. When creating the
assessment plan for my programs my focus was on data collection, measurement, analysis, and
evaluation. My assessment of the programs were performance based and centered on how well
the learning outcome was accomplished and changes to the programs will be made based on pre
and post test assessment of the learning outcome which comes from students who fill out surveys
upon entering college and graduating. The most valuable part of creating an assessment
component for this intervention plan is that I was able to justify it with research on my learning
outcome and how it can be measured, justified, and used as an assessment tool. While I was not
able to implement my programs and assessment plan the activity of writing the intervention plan
proved to be useful in helping to understand how theories behind interventions, student
populations, and university units interact and how these will influence your plans and how to
create a proper assessment plan which is focused on improvement, because assessment and/or
evaluation should be focused on improvement, not just assessing for the sake of assessment.
Together these experiences have provided me with the ability to demonstrate the successful
execution of a program evaluation and how theory links to practice within this area which has
helped prepare me for entering into public administration and implementing successful and
meaningful evaluation and/or assessment.

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Analyze, synthesize, think critically, solve problems, and make decisions- 3e
Capacity to understand and apply sound financial planning and fiscal management
practices.
A key competency for any public administrator is the ability to identify and analyze
financial management systems, needs, and emerging opportunities within a specific organization
and truly “dangerous” administrators can provide new insights into the financial management
practices and suggest alternative designs and management styles. These skills are important for
public administrators because dwindling tax revenues and the recovery of our economy have
pushed public officials to make more financially sound decisions. This increase in accountability,
while troublesome for many elected officials, has been beneficial for organizations because it
shows them new ways to more effectively manage their budgets to more efficiently complete
their mission, goal, and/or objective. These skills are also important because they are useful no
matter what organization an administrator chooses to work in as they will likely have to work
with a budget in some form. In addition, increased knowledge in this competency has personal
benefits for administrators as it can help them put their own personal budgets in perspective and
more responsibly spend their money. During my time at BGSU one of the opportunities I was
given to identify and analyze financial management systems, needs, and emerging opportunities
within a specific organization came from work on my local municipality budget memorandum
for POLS 6280: Public Budgeting and Fiscal Policy.
The goal for this assignment was to create a memo addressed to the governing board of a
locality analyzing their budget in terms of the key programs that it funds, justifications for
expenditure increases and decreases, and a summary of recommendations regarding the budget
for the governing board to review. For my memo I chose to analyze the BGSU budget and act as
the Office of Finance and Administration in terms of giving recommendations to the Board of
Trustees. I began with a background on BGSU as an institution and the environment inside and
outside of the university. To inform my analysis of the budget I used research regarding current
fiscal management practices and problems at other universities. I determined that the four biggest
problems centered on the increased use of adjunct faculty, increasing cost of athletics, rising
administrative and non-essential costs, and a lack of revenues. Based on these problems I gave
recommendations to the board to address the four main issues. This assignment provided the
background research and basis for a valuable project in the same class which greatly helped me
better my understanding of fiscal management practices, my non-profit budget analysis.
The purpose of this assignment was to choose a non-profit organization and provide a
detailed analysis of their budget including, assessment of their fiscal management practices,
revenues, expenditures, the political setting and policy issues at stake, a detailed look at the
governing board, the organization’s fiscal condition, conduct an interview with a financial
manager at the organization, and give suggestions for changes and alternative arrangements. I
chose to expand on my analysis of the BGSU budget and went into more detail regarding ways
in which the university could reduce expenditures and increase revenues. My main point of
contention with the budget was in regards to the large expenditure and small return on
investment occurring in the intercollegiate athletic budget. To address this problem I suggested
reducing athletics by 50% and ideally eliminating all unnecessary expenditures. In addition to
informing my recommendation with research I also informed them from my interview with the

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comptroller in the Office of Campus Activities. According to her the most difficult part of
changing and working with the budget is being able to understand how each office and its budget
fits into the larger university budget. Overall these two assignments and my experiences at
BGSU have increased my capacity to identify and analyze fiscal management systems, needs,
and emerging opportunities within an organization and provide new insights into fiscal
challenges facing an organization and suggest alternative design and budget scenarios.

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Public Service Perspective
4a- Capacity to understand the value of authentic citizen participation and engagement in PA
practice
Appendices: Q, R, and S
4b- Capacity to understand the value of social and economic equity in PA practice
Appendices: F and Q
4d- Capacity to understand and eventually demonstrate the value of leadership to PA practice
Appendices: A and B

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Public Service Perspective-4a
Capacity to understand the value of authentic citizen participation and engagement in PA
practice.
Public administrators, whatever organization they work in, are constantly engaging with
citizens and are themselves a part of the democratic process. As such, it is important for public
administrators to be able to demonstrate how citizen participation can be done in an authentic
way that improves democratic accountability and truly “dangerous” administrators can
demonstrate how they have facilitated authentic citizen participation and/or played an active role
as an engaged citizen. These competencies are important for public administrators because it is
crucial for all members of a democratic society to be able to engage in the democratic process in
an authentic way so that the democratic process can continue. In addition, these competencies
allow citizens to elect officials who will better represent their values and thus make more
democratic decisions. Another benefit of understanding these competencies is that it creates a
higher level of accountability for organizations and increase citizen trust and belief in
organizations and government entities. While at BGSU I have had numerous opportunities to
play a role in facilitating authentic citizen participation and play an active role as a citizen. One
of these opportunities came from my internship with the BGSU Votes program in the Office of
Service Learning at BGSU.
While working with BGSU Votes most of my responsibilities included working with the
League of Women Voters, Campus Election Engagement Project, and the students from the
Andrew Goodman Foundation to register students to vote and handout information. However, I
was also tasked with completing a press release about our program which was sent to all elected
officials who were voted in by constituents in Bowling Green. In addition, I created a policy
handbook for organizations which explained which parts of university policies applied to them in
regards to organizing get out the vote initiatives and other democratic related activities. Some of
my more mundane responsibilities included updating our website, completing tracking forms for
people we registered to vote to keep them informed, and handling questions about our program.
All of my activities in the program have helped demonstrate how I have facilitated authentic
citizen participation in the democratic process in an administrative capacity. In addition, I had
the opportunity to play an active role as an engaged citizen while serving as a member of the
City-University Relations Commission (CURC).
In serving as one of the Graduate Student Senate (GSS) representatives I had many
opportunities to be an engaged citizen by promoting positive relationships between the city and
university communities and addressing pressing problems between these constituencies. The
most impactful part of this experience was being able to work with a diverse group of
community members to find solutions to problems such as lack of recycling, excess refuse, and a
lack of green initiatives. To address these problems the commission collaborated on solutions
such as, a business oriented recycling initiative to reduce refuse along streets with heavy trash
flow by switching the types of food containers businesses use for takeout, the Adopt-A-Block
program to clean up trash along city blocks near the university, and working with Dr. Holly
Myers to implement a new Green Business Certification sometime next year. This experience

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allowed me to not only play an active role as an engaged citizen but help represent the views of
other concerned citizens and help them participate in the democratic process. Taken together
these two experiences and others have helped me facilitate authentic citizen participation of
citizens and become a more active and engaged citizen myself.

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Public Service Perspective-4b
Capacity to understand the value of social and economic equity in PA practice.
One of the core tenants of a democratic society is the ideal of promulgating and working
towards an equitable society for all citizens. The capacity to describe and analyze social and
economic equity/inequity within certain contexts and offering suggestions to improve inequitable
situations is an essential part of being a responsible public administrator. This competency is
important because administrators cannot implement useful policies which address pressing social
and economic problems without understanding how equality and inequality play a role in the
creation, implementation, and effects of said policies. Even more important is for administrators
to understand why these problems exist and how to address them so that they will not persist in
the future. As our country recovers from a recession and our political climate continues to be
divided it is more important than ever to understand the role of equality and inequality in social
and economic problems. While at BGSU I have had several opportunities to analyze social and
economic inequality within specific contexts and suggest ways to improve inequitable situations.
One of these opportunities came from the work on my policy analysis memorandum for POLS
6200: Public Administration and Public Policy.
The purpose of this assignment was to examine a public policy by looking at a problem
with the policy and determining the scope and severity of the problem, assessing policy
alternatives, and making recommendations for changing the policy. My assignment looked at the
problem of the rising cost of higher education being placed on students. In addressing this
problem and analyzing the SSI formula policy and other related policies, I suggested four
different policy alternatives. Then, I compared and contrasted the alternatives in terms of equity
and political feasibility. When discussing equity I looked at not just economic equity in terms of
the cost of education, but also in terms of social equity in terms of how increased college costs
have created more inequality by creating barriers to access for traditionally underserved
populations. While most of the discussion centered on economic inequality it also pointed out
how economic inequality influences and prolongs social inequality in the context of access to
higher education. When looking at the alternatives I decided to suggest implementing the policy
change which was most financially equitable as the most socially equitable solution was less
politically feasible than the financially equitable option. While at BGSU I also have had the
opportunity to play a role in facilitating the improvement of an inequitable situation while
serving as an intern for the BGSU Votes Program in the Office of Service Learning.
The inequity I am referencing refers to the inequity of the availability to voting
information and promotion of voting rights to students. More and more states are attempting to
pass ID voting laws, prevent early voting and absentee voting, and disallowing 17 year old
citizens the right to register to vote prior to turning 18 even though they will be 18 before the
election and these actions are creating more inequality towards young and disadvantaged voters.
In the United States we as citizens have a right to vote regardless of our wealth, race, education,
etc. but more and more candidates and states are creating inequality for younger voters because
they see them as a threat. It is for those reasons that I was proud to work with the BGSU Votes
program to go student to student and parent to parent in order to promote voting rights and

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register students to vote. By training other students to vote I was indirectly helping them fight
inequality in voter registration and the promulgation of voting rights. Perhaps the most rewarding
part of the internship in terms of fighting inequality came in the form of petitioning students,
faculty, staff, and citizens of Bowling Green to get involved in honest and engaged discussions
about pressing social and economic inequality issues. Overall these two experiences and others
during my time at BGSU have increased my capacity to analyze social and economic
equality/inequality issues within certain contexts, offer suggestions for improving those
inequalities, and playing a direct and indirect role in improving inequitable situations.

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Public Service Perspective-4d
Capacity to understand and eventually demonstrate the value of leadership to PA Practice
One of the most important aspects of leadership is being able to define it, while this can
vary Peter Northouse, a known scholar on leadership, asserts that one of the most important parts
in understand leadership is understand the difference between leadership as a trait and as a
process, the difference between emergent and appointed leadership, and the differences between
power, coercion, management, and leadership. Northouse argues that leadership is not coercion,
power, or coercion and that someone does not have to be appointed to a position in order to be a
leader, they can emerge as leaders through their actions and leadership is not always a trait, in
fact, it is usually a process where stakeholders engage in leadership through their actions not just
their traits (Northouse, 4-11). Northouse’s work on leadership is important because it informs
administrators about the differences between leadership and management and goes in depth into
the differences between different approaches to leadership which helps administrators understand
different ways to approach problems and lead in given situations. Another source of extensive
knowledge on leadership comes from John Maxwell. Maxwell tackles myths about leadership
and explains how administrators can overcome these myths and challenges to become leaders in
their organizations. The first and perhaps most abundant myth is that one cannot lead if they are
not on top. Maxwell rejects this and states that not only can people lead from the bottom up, but
they can also lead across, as in they can be leaders to other parts of their organization they may
not usually interact or do business with. By leading up Maxwell asserts that administrators can
improve their leadership by working on their disposition rather than their position in the
organization, it creates genuine leadership and helps create more buy in for members of the
organization (Maxwell, 4-7). All of the work from Northouse, Maxwell, and other scholars is
important to PA professionals because all organizations they work for require them to be leaders
and being able to develop leadership in each and every professional will serve to better the
profession and assure that the public is being served by genuine leaders.
One of the approaches to leadership explored in my own experience has been
participatory leadership. Blacks Law Dictionary defines participatory leadership as “a leadership
style in which the leader himself takes part in solving the problems of the team, building
connections and helping anyway he/she can, while still retaining the authority of decision
making” (Blacks Law Dictionary). One of the advantages to this style of leadership is that it
allows administrators who have the authority over a decision to allow stakeholder involvement in
the decision making process while still retaining their authority over the final decision, solving
the problem of argumentation and coming to a consensus in group decision making. In my theory
to practice project for College Student Personnel (CSP) 6400: Organizational Leadership,
Management, and Administration I explored not only the academic history of participatory
leadership and what it means in the modern day context, but I was also able to apply it to a
hypothetical case which I solved using participatory leadership and then exploring other ways
the problem could have been solved. The case involved an undergraduate student leader in their
fraternity who had to make a decision about how to educate their new members. This student
was presented with various opinions about what to do from their fellow fraternity brothers and

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then had to make a decision on how to solve the issue, while the student did not use participatory
leadership, I then used the case to show how they could have used participatory leadership to
solve the case. In the case the student makes their decision by doing their own research, making
their case in front of everyone and then having it approved. While this can be easy for people in
positions of power this is not an effective leadership strategy. I argue that if the student would
have listened to their fellow fraternity members’ opinions, taken them into account, and involved
them in the formation of their plan then perhaps there might have been more buy in from the
other stakeholders and the outcome might have been different as well. However, there is a
difference between understanding and applying theory to cases and actually applying it in the
real world.
I was given the opportunity to apply these theories and analyze real professionals and
their leadership styles in my CSP 6400 leadership shadowing project. For my project I shadowed
Associate Dean of Students Chris Bullins in the Office of Campus Activities at Bowling Green
State University. I observed Bullins in meetings, setting up events, and interacting with various
stakeholders at the university. While I observed his interactions I was assessing what type of
leader he was; going through his attributes, interactions, decisions, and the way he saw himself
as a leader. By assessing Bullins’ leadership I was able to gain a better understanding of not just
who Bullins is as a leader but how I can interact with people in different ways to become the
leader I want to be. If there is one important insight to gain from this experience it is that great
leaders communicate with their various stakeholders, take input from everyone, and lead in all
directions; up, down, and across. By going through the experience of this project I was able to
understand how to apply theory to real life situations, experience the leadership of other
professionals, and learn about what kind of leader I intend to be.

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Communicate and interact with a diverse and changing
workforce and citizenry
5a- Capacity to undertake high quality oral and written communication
Appendices: D, G, M, U, and V
5d- Capacity to understand the value of and carry out coalition and team building
Appendices: C and S
5e- Capacity to understand and carry out effective human resource management
Appendices: G and H

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Communicate and interact with a diverse and changing workforce and citizenry-5a
Capacity to undertake high quality oral and written communication
Arguably two of the most essential skills for public administrators are the abilities to
undertake high quality oral and written communication. These abilities are essential because if
one cannot properly express their ideas using oral and written communication then it is hard to
accomplish your mission, make suggestions for policy changes, complete basic business
functions, and more. One of the most important aspects of being able to communicate orally and
in writing is being able to tailor your message to your audience so they can better understand
your point. Related to that aspect is also the necessity to make sure as an administrator you are
also not conveying a message you didn’t intend to promulgate, this can often be a problem if one
lacks high quality oral and written communication skills. When assessing my own oral and
written communication skills I choose to look at presentations and technical papers/projects as
they are two mediums which I frequently utilize to convey my message. While at BGSU I have
had ample opportunity to hone in my communication skills and I believe the paper, presentation,
and survey for my research design proposal exemplify high quality verbal and written
communication.
I suggest looking at these documents as examples of my communication skills because
they are a combination of three different mediums, which are examples of high quality written
and oral communication skills. Specifically, the written paper and survey for my research design
proposal are outstanding for their ability to communicate complex, technical concepts to the
intended audience, in this case the audience is made of fellow political scientist, social scientists,
academics, and anyone with technical knowledge of statistics. This proposal delves into specific
empirical tests and data driven analysis which was written at a professional, academic level in
order to communicate the purpose and design of my proposed research project. The presentation,
while lacking visuals, is an example of exemplary oral communication skills because it shows
my ability to give a presentation without using the PowerPoint as a crutch and/or reading directly
from the screen. As a former Speech and Debate student I understand the necessity to be able to
“speak from the cuff” and the simple slides for my research design proposal are evidence of this.
Another example of my ability to write for a technical audience comes from the work on my
intervention plan for BGSU.
In the case of my intervention plan the intended audience includes academics, higher
education administrators, college student personnel students, and professional higher education
researchers. For this project I utilized my technical knowledge of higher education and student
affairs to present a detailed plan to implement an intervention at BSGU to help First Generation
College students demonstrate a commitment to placing high value on diversity and an ability to
work in diverse groups. Much of the substance of the intervention plan uses a vast amount of
research and theory to inform the suggested interventions however it is also written so that most
people with a high school or college degree could generally understand what type of plan I am
proposing. Another interesting aspect of my intervention plan is that it is a unique plan which
has, to my knowledge, never before been implemented, although similar programs have been
used in a limited capacity. While the two aforementioned projects sufficiently demonstrate my

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ability to produce high quality written communication, my work on motivating employees in the
public sector versus private sector exemplifies high quality oral communication.
This was one of the most challenging assignments during my time at BGSU as it required
a 45 minute presentation with a question and answer session. When looking at the presentation it
is clear that even though there are some slides with vast amounts of information it is necessary
and one can see how my presentation flows and makes sense when looking through the slides.
To me the most valuable aspect of this assignment was being able to take pure research and turn
it into a presentation without writing a paper first; this posed a new challenge but was nothing I
could not overcome. I also believe the inclusion of audience participation activities help keep
people engaged and interested in my presentation, which is essential if I am to get my point
across in a succinct way. By looking at these three assignments, and the plethora of others
available in the appendices, I believe I have demonstrated my ability to consistently express my
ideas verbally and in writing in a professional manner that communicate my messages to distinct,
intended audiences.

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Communicate and interact with a diverse and changing workforce and citizenry-5d
Capacity to understand the value of and carry out coalition and team building.
From the time we are children we are told to play nice with others and this is the natural
progression of that way of thinking into the professional field of public administration. However
coalition and team building means much more than just working with a group of people, it means
being able to effectively and efficiently work with people in ways that matter. To form a
coalition is to form a stronger work unit, one that is focused on building a team from various
parts of an organization to work towards a common goal. Team and coalition building are
important to public administrators because they are effective ways of completing goals and leads
to more accountability within the organization. In addition, these techniques are useful in
understanding how organizations and groups within organizations govern themselves, create
policies, and work towards goals. Being able to build teams and coalitions is also important in
terms of developing administrators as leaders. Good leaders are able to lead up, down, and across
and team and coalition building help administrators learn how to lead across and often up.
During my time at BGSU I have had several opportunities to participate in a team and coalition
environment and reflect on my experiences using concepts related to coalition and team building.
One opportunity I was given came during my work as a member on the Division of Student
Affairs Assessment Committee.
The assessment committee is a coalition made up of various representatives from the
different units within the Division of Student Affairs. The assessment committee can be defined
as a coalition because it has characteristics which demonstrate that it functions as a coalition, for
instance the assessment committee has, an external focus (assessment report for senior level
administrators), independence from formal university structure (BGSU is top-down and
members included graduate assistants all the way up to directors and assistant/associate deans),
been formed for a specific purpose (the purpose is to report to senior level administrators the
progress of the DSA towards their learning outcomes and the university’s), and a group of
interacting individuals (we all worked together to come up with solutions to problems we faced
to complete our common goal). Taken together, these and other aspects of the assessment
committee show how it is a coalition. This coalition is important to the university because they
form the basis for senior level administration’s perceptions of the progress of the division
towards completion of their learning outcomes and how closely they are tied to university wide
goals and outcomes. While our coalition was more passive as we were not making any policy
decisions, it was also essential to keeping the division up to date on their formative assessments.
When looking at my experience it taught me that working with diverse groups with sometimes
competing interests can create an environment where coalitions can be stifled because of
differences. However, it also show me how diversity in interests and specialties can help the
group better prepare a report because each member brings in their own views, perspectives, and
perceptions which inform how the discuss solutions to the problems at hand. In addition to my
work on the assessment committee, my work on the City-University Relations Commission was
valuable to me in terms of allowing me the opportunity to participate in a coalition building and
discuss the experience.

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Like the assessment committee, the CURC is a coalition as it has, an external focus,
independence from formal structure, been formed for a specific purpose and has a group of
interacting individuals. What makes this coalition unique from the assessment committee, among
other aspects, is the varied types of members who serve. There are four appointments made by
the BGSU Undergraduate Student Government and Graduate Student Senate; three Bowling
Green residents to be appointed by the Mayor, and five ex officio appointments who sit on the
council. This coalition is also unique in that its purpose is exclusively to promote positive
relationships between the university and city communities and work to solve problems between
the constituencies. From my experience I would describe this coalition as strong in certain
aspects and weak in others. It’s strong in that the commission has the power to implement new
programs with the help of volunteers and organizations in both communities. However, it is also
weak in that there is no budget and the commission has no authority to implement new policy.
Overall I believe these two experiences combined with several others have improved my ability
to successfully participate in team and coalition building and adequately describe my experiences
using concepts surrounding team and coalition building.

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Communicate and interact with a diverse and changing workforce and citizenry-5e
Capacity to understand and carry out effective human resource management
Human resource management is a topic that continues to be of concern to both the private
and public sector but seems much more important for public administrators as the degree of
accountability required continues to grow due to slowing revenues, budget cuts, an increasingly
divided government, and many other factors. However, these negative causes for increased
accountability have actually led to an increase in the need to study and improve human resource
practices in public administration. Many scholars are starting to write more on HR management
however it is still a newer area of research as it continues to develop in our changing world.
While HR management was traditionally related to the private sector, it is becoming more
important as the level of accountability public organizations have to their constituents has risen
steadily after the recent recession. One key figure in HR management is Dave Ulrich who has
been writing about the subject since the 1990s. Ulrich’s focus has been on how to better improve
HR management for private businesses however his work has also impacted how public
administrators work with people. Ulrich asserts that when organizations align their internal
actions with outside expectation then they will be more successful, this is the basis for his
research and he goes on to show that there are six crucial domains which house HR
competencies research has shown to be necessary for effective HR management; these include
the strategic positioner, credible activist, capability builder, change champion, HR innovator and
integrator, and the technology proponent. Ulrich goes one to exemplify how each of these
domains form the various competencies that HR managers can use in given situations to help
become more effective. Ultimately Ulrich asserts that by becoming sufficient in these
competencies and making an effort to align internal actions with external expectations, HR
managers will be able to more effectively accomplish the mission of their organization and better
manage the people working within (Ulrich, Younger, Brockbank, and M. Ulrich, 2012).
Embedded within Ulrich’s book are works from many other scholars on the subject and what the
publication stressed more than anything is that no matter what situation a manager is in, it is
important to understand, the context in which they are operating, the stakeholders, the
organizational structure, the task to be completed, the mission of the organization, and the people
in the organization that will be carrying out the task. In my time at BGSU I have worked on
various aspects of HR management however my most comprehensive work on the subject was
my final project for POLS 6260: Public Management Personnel Management and Leadership.
For this project the class was tasked with researching and developing a presentation on an
area of interest to them in HR management and then use their research on the subject area to
tackle a real problem in a real organization. For my project I chose to look at the motivation of
employees at BGSU. My project began with extensive research on motivation as an asset for HR
managers and then went into a narrower field, looking at how specifically to motivate employees
in given situations. I quickly noticed that much of the literature revolves around the differences
between motivating employees in a public versus private organization. This research led me to
the conclusion that while public and private employees are motivated differently in certain ways,
for instance public employees tend to be motivated more by the value of their work to the