Skip navigation.

 

"The Program's flexible curriculum and participant-advisor relationship meet students' particular needs and interests. You leave empowered."

Tinh Dinh Le
Institute for International Relations
Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs

 

Public Administration > The Program > Master's Degree > Capstone

Capstone

The capstone completes the Public Administration Program experience by integrating knowledge and skills gained through course work and the practicum into an examination of a public issue of importance to Hawai'i or the Asia-Pacific Region. The focus is on pooling an individual member's resources in a collaborative anaylsis of the selected public issue.

Capstone Planning - PUBA 709, 1 credit hour
The capstone planning seminar is taken during the semester preceding that in which graduation is expected. Students use the seminar to define a topic or issue, decide upon the focus and methods to analyze that topic, locate informational resources, identify public organizations or officials as recipients of the work, and establish working relationships within the group.

Capstone Seminar - PUBA 710, 3 credit hours
The capstone seminar is taken during the last semester in the Program. Participants undertake and complete group work based upon what was decided in the capstone planning seminar the previous semester. The completed analysis is shared with the individuals or organizations identified in the planning seminar.

Recent Capstones

In the spring of 2006 four capstones were completed by candidates for the MPA degree. They are:

  1. "Site-Based Management: Drawing Lessons for Hawai'i's School Community Councils." This capstone examines the history of educational decentralization via site-based management in Hawai'i. It focuses on the recently-created School Community Councils (SCCs), which are forums consisting of school personnel, parents, students and community members. The operations of SCCs at four schools were examined based upon interviews with a legislator, DOE official, and sixteen SCC members. While concerns were expressed about the effectiveness of SCCs, the team made several recommendations aimed at improving the implementation and development of this aspect of education reform.
  2. "‘Not Here, Not Ever!‘ Using Hawaiian Electric Companyís Campbell Industrial Park Experience as a Case Study to Address NIMBYism in Hawai'i: Could ‘Community Givebacks’ be the Answer?" This capstone explores the process by which Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) sought to address initial community opposition to siting a power plant in leeward Oahu. Local opposition to undesirable infrastructure location, known as NIMBY (not in my back yard), was addressed in a process by which the community developed a list of ìgive backsî to compensate for the undesirable features of the plant. The team met with decision makers at HECO and conducted 19 interviews with community members active in the process. The capstone concluded that this approach can serve as a model for managing NIMBY opposition, though it does not guarantee success.
  3. "Recycling at the University of Hawai'i Manoa Campus." This capstone studies recycling on the Manoa campus. The group conducted an electronic survey of student attitudes toward recycling and sought information on willingness to pay a recycling fee. The group also surveyed campus custodians to estimate the degree to which staff removed from the waste stream recyclables subject to the HI-5 recycling rebate (beverage cans and bottles). In the course of this work, the group developed estimates of the cost of a recycling program at Manoa and found that a recycling fee, acceptable to students, would largely cover the direct costs.
  4. "Oahu Homeless Point-In-Time Study: More Than Just a Count." This group focused on counting the homeless population of Oahu. They surveyed and interviewed relevant stakeholders, including legislators, neighborhood board members, business owners, homeless service providers, and members of the homeless population. With this information the group developed a set of recommendations for a methodology to count the homeless. Their recommendations include: building community awareness in an effort to solicit broad involvement in the count, including homeless people to assist in the count, and keeping a narrow focus on achieving U.S. Housing and Urban Development goals for the count.