Campaigns & Elections Minor
This minor provides background to prepare students for possible volunteer or career-track work in consulting or campaigns. The minor would be a complement to a Political Science, Management, Economics, Communication, Journalism or other major. Also a complement to majors with advocacy as common career track (Environmental Studies, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, or Women’s and Gender Studies, for example).
The minor consists of one required course and four other courses (totaling 20 credits). Students must choose courses from at least three disciplines and an array of Group 1 and Group 2 choices. Group 1 choices are considered most central to the desired outcomes above and may have prerequisites. Group 2 choices are related lower-level courses with important content. Group 2 choices are offered more frequently and can be used when Group 1 courses are unavailable or to facilitate a student’s progress toward timely completion of the minor. Students are advised to pursue a related outside internship or other experiential learning opportunity. Department internship credit awarded for such an experience may be applied to the completion of the minor.
The minor is coordinated by a tenured faculty member responsible for teaching a course from one of the contributing departments. The coordinator will review and approve any related internship credit applied toward the minor and sign off on needed substitutions or other exceptions to stated requirements. The coordinator will also approve and seek out opportunities for special topics courses related to the minor.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Minor Requirements (20 credits) | ||
| Foundation Course | ||
| POSC-310 | Political Participation | 4 |
| Group One Courses | ||
| Select two of the following: | 8 | |
| Persuasion | ||
| Public Relations Principles | ||
| Public Relations Practice | ||
| Principles of Marketing | ||
| Advertising & Promotion | ||
| Social Psychology | ||
| Group Two Courses | ||
| Select two of the following: | 8 | |
| United States Politics | ||
| Public Speaking | ||
| Media Writing Fundamentals | ||
| Multimedia Fundamentals | ||
| Introductory Statistics | ||
| Applied Statistics | ||
| Quantitative Decision-Making | ||
| Accounting for Decision Making | ||
| Org Theory & Behavior | ||
| Total Credits | 20 | |
**Students may also be granted credit for Special Topic or Internship coursework with approval of Coordinator.
Upon completion of the Campaigns and Elections Minor, students will:
- Be prepared for possible volunteer or career-track work in consulting or campaigns
- Have learned about elections, voters, and their behavior; presentating and marketing of a candidate or political issue; principles of communication, persuasion, and decision-making; geographic and other population data and its collection and use; and considerations including budgeting, goal setting, and team building associated with an organization of business.