Government Performance Project: About The Maxwell School

A project of Government Executive magazine and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Administration of Syracuse University, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs

* The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University is a comprehensive school dedicated to education for citizenship, professional training in public and international affairs, and teaching and scholarship across the full range of the social sciences at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. It has a full-time faculty numbering more than 140, virtually all of whom have Ph.Ds.

* Founded in 1924, the Maxwell School was the first university-based school of public affairs in the United States. It has remained a leader in the field throughout its history and has consistently been ranked first in the nation among some 250 graduate programs in public affairs by U.S. News and World Report.

* At the undergraduate level, the Maxwell School functions as the social science division of Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences. In this capacity its faculty members each teach 5,000-6,000 undergraduate students each year, including 1,400-1,500 social science majors in the disciplines of anthropology, economics, geography, history, political science and sociology and in the interdisciplinary programs of American studies, international relations and public affairs.

* At the graduate level, Maxwell has more than 700 students enrolled each year who are pursuing master's and doctoral degrees in the various social science disciplines as well as in public administration, international relations and an interdisciplinary social science program. The School also houses numerous multidisciplinary research and graduate training centers, including the Center for Environmental Policy and Administration, Center for Policy Research, the Global Affairs Institute, the Alan K. Campbell Public Affairs Institute, and the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts.

* More than 7,000 graduate alumni of the School hold positions of responsibility with subnational and national governments, in international organizations, on college and university faculties, and in nonprofit and private organizations in the United States and abroad. Some 500 of these alumni have held high-level positions in Washington, D.C., or abroad during the past decade, including secretary of Health and Human Services, deputy secretary of Defense, member of the Federal Trade Commission, secretary of the Navy, foreign minister of Jordan, director general of the International Organization for Migration, U.S. ambassador to Argentina and executive director of the African Development Bank.