MPP Student resource center

Luskin Public Policy Department 

Behavioral Expectations and Community Values

Every member of our Department - including students, faculty, and staff - deserves respect and to know that they are valued regardless of their identity and characteristics.

The Public Policy Department has created this set of Behavioral Expectations and Community Values with the twin goals of building an inclusive, mutually respectful environment and advancing social justice through our work as policymakers and educators. As future and current leaders in public policy, it is incumbent upon each of us to confront both structural and interpersonal inequities in order to forge a more just society.

This document communicates the values we strive to embody and the behavioral expectations required from all members of our community—students, faculty, and staff—essential to maintain conditions of mutual respect and recognition necessary for a positive learning, teaching, and working environment.

We must be willing to interrogate our own biases and take collective responsibility for repairing relationships when others have been harmed. Comments or behaviors that arise from ignorance or lack of reflection still cause harm to victims of microaggressions and the larger community. Building an environment that advances social justice also requires that we extend grace to others and recognize that we are all in different places in our growth as individuals.

Public policies characteristically reflect and reinforce relationships of power, oppression, and inequity within our societies. Reshaping policies in ways that reduce inequities and oppression, and advance social justice, requires an elevated awareness of and understanding of the varied experiences of the individuals and communities that experience those injustices.

Inclusivity, social justice, and anti-racism are not just abstract concepts but must be consciously, and reflectively embodied in our communal life and individual behavior. All members of our community are therefore expected to:

● Refrain from stereotyping or discriminating against any member of our community on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender identification, gender expression, sexuality, religion, age, economic status, immigration status, disability status, political orientation, or other dimension of social identity.

● Acknowledge your mistakes and take responsibility for addressing harms you have caused. Understand that harms to individuals and to our collective community can occur through many forums: in person, online, via phone or text.

● Strive to relate to and work effectively with others who differ from yourself, regardless of the person’s age, class, color, culture, race or ethnicity, family structure, beliefs, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, ability, political orientation, and/or value system.

● Maintain freedom of expression and dialogue, in a respectful and civil manner, on the spectrum of views held by the diverse members of our community.

● Approach differences with an attitude of humility and respect, acknowledging the importance of cultural differences in shaping life experiences; show respect for individual, cultural, and other identity-based differences while valuing and acknowledging unique skills and experiences.

● Commit to engage with the complex issues of racism, diversity and social justice within the department and university and in the broader public policy field.

● Critically examine your own relationship to your privileged statuses and how these privileges influence your understanding of the impacts of public policies on different communities.

● Facilitate the inclusion of all individuals in department life including classroom discussion, departmental activities, and student organizations.

● Work toward greater understanding of how statements and behaviors are understood differently due to the diverse experiences of individuals and social groups.

● Practice allyship when you witness stereotyping or microaggressions. Center and support the victims of microaggressions.

When behavior inconsistent with these guidelines occurs, options include bringing that behavior to the attention of the following individuals within the Department and Luskin School, and offices at UCLA, as appropriate depending on the nature and context of the behavior. If one is unsure about whom to contact for a particular situation, these individuals and offices can also provide guidance about who within the Department, Luskin School, and University is best positioned to address a specific concern.

• In a course setting, the faculty member or teaching assistant

• Public Policy Director of Recruitment and Student Success (Anna Lim, anna@luskin.ucla.edu)

• Public Policy Department Manager (Stacey Hirose, stacey@luskin.ucla.edu)

• Public Policy Department Vice Chair (Professor Darin Christensen, darinc@luskin.ucla.edu)

• Public Policy Department Chair (Professor Robert Fairlie, rfairlie@ucla.edu)

• Luskin School Student Support Coordinator (Nael Rogers, naelrogers@luskin.ucla.edu)

• Luskin School Equity Advisor (Professor Amada Armenta, armenta@ucla.edu)

• Luskin School Dean (Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, dean@luskin.ucla.edu)

• UCLA Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (https://equity.ucla.edu/)

• UCLA Title IX Office (https://sexualharassment.ucla.edu/)

• UCLA Dean of Students Office (https://deanofstudents.ucla.edu)

Public Policy Curriculum and Courses

Principles of Pedagogy 

The Master of Public Policy (MPP) program is a full-time, in-person program. Because of the conceptual and analytical demands of graduate education, our curriculum assumes that students are physically present in class sessions in order to more fluidly engage with instructors and their peers through questions and discourse. All students are expected to attend class sessions unless events beyond the student’s control, such as illness or family emergencies, require them to miss specific sessions. To achieve our overall pedagogic objectives, the Department strongly discourages the use of live-streaming or posting of video recordings of in-class lectures that would substitute for in-person attendance. All instructors collaborate with the UCLA Center for Accessible Education (CAE) to implement formally specified accommodations for particular student disabilities.

Within that overall framework, and reflecting the principles of academic freedom, all courses—including in the required core curriculum—are designed and delivered by the faculty based on how their individual expertise and experiences inform the learning objectives they set and the manner in which to achieve those objectives. Among other things, it is up to individual faculty to decide how to employ course webpages and, recognizing the varied technological capacities of classrooms at UCLA, whether or not to capture audio or video recordings of their class sessions under certain circumstances as a supplement to, not substitute for, in-person instruction. Those decisions, however, are to be made cognizant of their potential impact on other courses and instructors, as well as the departmental staff advising students.

UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs | https://luskin.ucla.edu/ | 3250 Public Affairs Building - Box 951656 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1656