In July 2011, the UCDC Academic Advisory Committee (AAC) asked UCDC to examine potential options for streamlining and/or simplifying the listing of courses and reporting of student participation and grades. In conjunction, with the UCI Registrar’s Office a series of UCDC course placeholders were developed known as the UCDC 180 and 190 series. The UCDC 180 series was set aside for core research seminars. The UCDC 190 series was reserved for elective courses. These courses were used as the basis for a slate of systemwide courses for UCDC that were reviewed and adopted by the University of California Academic Senate’s University Committee on Educational Policy (UCEP) at its June ‘12 meeting (see document). Following UCEP's action it was determined that additional steps were required before systemwide UCDC courses could be fully implemented. This includes getting the courses listed in each campus catalog and securing appropriate major, honors and/or other credit for the courses on each campus. The chart below shows the range of UCDC 180 courses and their proposed identifiers.
| Designation | Course Title | Syllabus |
|---|---|---|
| UCDC181 | Washington Focus |  |
| UCDC182 | Unthemed Research Seminar | |
| UCDC183A | Congress | |
| UCDC183B | Presidency/Executive Branch | |
| UCDC183C | Environmental Policy | |
| UCDC183D | International Policy | |
| UCDC183E | Washington Media | |
| UCDC183F | Arts Focus | |
| UCDC183G | Health Policy | |
| UCDC183H | US Supreme Court | |
| UCDC183I | Bureaucracy | |
| UCDC189 | UCLA General Seminar (UCLA Students Only) | |
| Designation | Course Title |
| UCDC181 | Washington Focus Knowing Washington. What do you know about Washington, DC? What do people in Washington DC – residents, political actors, visitors – know? This course will explore our city through various reflections of these two questions, bringing them together while separating the imaginary city that various communities know about from the very real circuits of information that make Washington the vital national and global nexus that it is. Our analysis will include readings, films, online material, and visits to key sites where knowledge of different kinds about the city is mediated to various audiences. By thinking hard about who is communicating what to whom in various Washington DC circuits, the course will provide you with a richer understanding of what goes on in Washington, and improve your ability to act in an informed way as a denizen of Washington, and of the nation. Our investigations will connect to student internships and the professor's own research into knowledge systems along the way. |
| UCDC182 | General Research Seminar (Unthemed) This seminar complements the internship experience of participants in the UCDC program and is the keystone classroom component of the program. The intent of the course is to guide students through the process of conducting focused and detailed research. Students will learn to frame a research question, build an explanatory theory, develop a feasible research strategy, gather data, either from a variety of data sources, or in the "field," and then write a paper, largely based on their internship placement and experience in Washington. Through readings and written analysis, we will examine the qualities of solid, empirical research: significance, focus, clarity, and persuasiveness. Exploring the themes will help you to critically evaluate other research and improve your own skills as a researcher and writer. |
| UCDC183A | Congress This course explores how Congress works and its role in the U.S. political system. Specifically, we will look at a range of topics, including how Members of Congress work to represent their constituents, the impact of congressional elections, the internal rules of Congress, the role of parties in both Houses, relations with the executive branch, and policymaking in an era of growing polarization. |
| UCDC183B | Presidency/Executive Branch The White House, located in the heart of downtown Washington and just a ten minute walk from UCDC, is an international symbol that simultaneously highlights the lofty promise of American democracy and reflects the significant flaws in the American experiment. The research seminar will examine the strengths and drawbacks of presidential leadership, the evolving role of the presidency in American culture, and introduce students to some major thematic debates that define presidential politics. The seminar will draw on the city of Washington as an experience through visits to current and former White House aides, news correspondents, and political and policy experts. Seminar topics include how presidents have sought to enact their reform agendas from the New Deal to Reagan's economic program to President Obama's health reform law; how they have struggled to manage foreign affairs while leading the U.S. in wartime; why Congress, the Supreme Court, and the news media thwart and assist presidential agendas at different moments; how presidents have harnessed the "bully pulpit" in the modern age to rally voters to their ideas, push their policies, and position themselves for re-election; and how they have pursued various strategies for manipulating a highly volatile, increasingly hostile Washington media climate. |
| UCDC183C | Environmental Policy This course will cover a variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches used in determining the environmental sustainability of various public policies. We will look at current methods of determining sustainability such as life-cycle analysis, carbon footprint calculations, ranking procedures, etc.. Student groups will complete a set of wiki-based labs that introduce students to these methods. Using methods covered in the course, students will write a research paper covering a current topic in the public debate about how to attain a sustainable world. |
| UCDC183D | International Policy This course is intended to provide academic background and guidance to students whose internships involve in some way the subject matter of the course, in this case, international policy. The primary goal of the course is to gain an appreciation of the complex policy community—including governmental, non-governmental, and intergovernmental actors—that engages in forging international policy. This will be done through the lens of specific policy problems. |
| UCDC183E | Washington Media This seminar will explore the rapidly changing relationship between the news media, political communication and governing. Washington offers the perfect backdrop with the opportunity to visit iconic institutions, such as the White House Press Room, Washington Post and Newseum, as well as the chance to witness up close the work of journalists, politicians and other political communicators at the top of their profession. Students will keep abreast of current political news in addition to readings on the practice and history of political journalism, communication and propaganda. Each student will complete an original research project, some of which may be adapted for publication in a California news outlet. The course is designed particularly, though not exclusively, for students interning at news organizations, political press offices, speechwriting groups, public relations firms or those with a passion for writing or politics. |
| UCDC183F | Arts Focus The Seminar goal is to produce a collection of complementary essays that are as distinctive as possible while highlighting shared themes, helping to insure that participants continue to consider and to implement in their lives the experiences they have had in Washington: How do the Arts function in American institutions and society? What can be done to improve this always reformulating interface? The seminar context allows for several significant outcomes: an evolving self-awareness about the nature of the Internship experience, the sharing of such evaluative processes between participants (and therefore across different institutional landscapes), and the "socialization" of the members of the Arts Focus Seminar itself, stimulating a higher level of collaborative potential and fostering group initiatives. View samples of student work products for the Arts Focus Core Seminar from Winter '11 and Spring '12 quarters. |
| UCDC183G | Health Policy By all accounts the Health Care system in the United States is unusual. It grows in every circumstance, whichever party is in ascendance, and whether the economy is thriving or failing. Our policies are distinctive, too. The US is the only developed country that has not provided universal access to care. In this class students will examine the shape of the US health care system, and the trail of public health care policies, starting during World War II and including the expansion of private insurance, experiments in the states, and the enactment of Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act. |
| UCDC183H | US Supreme Court This course introduces the Supreme Court of the United States, tracing its development as a legal, political and cultural institution. Students will learn the court's structure and decision-making methods; the extent and limits of its powers; and its interplay with the executive and legislative branches of the federal government, and with the state governments. |
| UCDC183I | General Social Science Research This seminar complements the internship experience of participants in the UCDC Quarter in Washington program and is the keystone classroom component of the program. The intent of the course is to guide students through the process of conducting focused and detailed research. Students will learn to frame a research question, build an explanatory theory, develop a feasible research strategy, gather data, either from a variety of data sources, or in the "field," and then write a paper, largely based on their internship placement and experience in Washington. Through readings and written analysis, we will examine the qualities of solid, empirical research: significance, focus, clarity, and persuasiveness. Exploring the themes will help you to critically evaluate other research and improve your own skills as a researcher and writer. |
| UCDC189 | UCLA General Seminar (UCLA Students Only) This seminar complements the internship experience of participants in the UCDC program and is the keystone classroom component of the program. The intent of the course is to guide students through the process of conducting focused and detailed research. Students will learn to frame a research question, build an explanatory theory, develop a feasible research strategy, gather data, either from a variety of data sources, or in the "field," and then write a paper, largely based on their internship placement and experience in Washington. Through readings and written analysis, we will examine the qualities of solid, empirical research: significance, focus, clarity, and persuasiveness. Exploring the themes will help you to critically evaluate other research and improve your own skills as a researcher and writer. |