The COVID-19 Pandemic and MPA Education: Student Perspectives on Public Service Values and Public Service Motivation

 The Power and Pursuits of Graduate Student Leadership During the Pandemic

by Evana Alam

Public service motivation empowered me to seek MPA education at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Further, the public service values of accountability, inclusion, integrity, and justice in society and governance, aligned with my personal views. The COVID-19 pandemic changed many people’s lives and it is up to MPA students like me to ensure public service values. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic changed the outlook for many MPA students. Some students lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and others have transitioned into remote work/learning. In addition, there are students who are not comfortable with online instruction. They are either struggling through their online courses or deferring to a later semester when things get back to normal. Many people also take technology for granted. Not every student has access to computers or Internet connections suitable for their work and education. We must understand that such resources may be basic to some people, but unavailable to many. Inclusion does not only refer to racial or gender demographics but financial resources as well. 

           

As the current MPA Student Association (MPASA) President at John Jay College, I am seeking ways to connect resources to students struggling during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Since many on-campus student activities have been canceled this semester, I am looking for innovative ways to deliver resources to our students. One of our first events is to help students conduct academic research and navigate the John Jay College online library database. This will be conducted through online training facilitated by the college librarian. For some students, this can be a refresher course. But for others, this is a brand new resource. By collaborating with internal partners at the library, our efforts to support students during this fluid environment will ease some of their academic stress. 

           

Other events this semester include an online writing seminar and a federal employment tutorial. The first seminar will focus on effective writing skills and commonly found mistakes in student writing. A professor of the MPA Program will facilitate this essential training to increase students’ effectiveness in professional and academic writing skills. Many of our students have shown interest in pursuing a federal job. The employment seminar will provide students with tips and techniques to successfully seek employment in the federal workforce. The training will be facilitated by a former federal officer and an MPA faculty member who is well-versed with the federal job application process. 

           

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of many students. I am trying to reconnect broken relationships for graduate students by making sure student activities are continued throughout the semester. Access to college resources is challenging at the moment, but I try to help as many students as I can through productive workshops and webinars during the pandemic. It is the least I can do to uphold public service values during my tenure as MPASA President at John Jay College.

As a student body delegate, I aspire to ensure that everyone’s voices are heard. John Jay College consists of people from diverse backgrounds and ideologies. Unlike many universities, John Jay College is a Hispanic Serving Institution. We encourage diversity and inclusion as some of our main public service values. However, I recognize that many people do not have a voice. It is up to us to expand the views and concerns of people who are underrepresented in public service. As future leaders, we must propose reforms that revolve around community and equity for everyone.  

Evana Alam is an MPA Public Policy and Administration (MPA-PPA) student, dual specializing in human resources management and management and operations. She currently works for The Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, as an office manager. She is the 2020-21 Master of Public Administration Student Association (MPASA) President. She is a human resource and management professional who has experience working for several global firms. Evana is also a certified supply chain analyst. She is a founder of an e-commerce brand, which seeks to create social equity for communities around the world. Her hobbies are photography, painting, and traveling. Evana presented gender equity research at the Northeast Conference of Public Administration (NECoPA) and the John Jay College MPA Conference. She has received the BRAVO! Employee Recognition Award, Section for Women in Public Administration (SWPA) Suffrage Award, NECoPA Award, and International Photography Award.

The COVID-19 Pandemic and MPA Education: Student Perspectives on Public Service Values and Public Service Motivation

Finding and questioning the true essence of public service during the pandemic 

by Silvana Bastante

The COVID-19 pandemic brought forth a multitude of emotions, but overwhelmingly: grief. Grief for our enjoyed perception of normalcy. Grief for those whose challenges and struggles multiplied in a matter of weeks. Grief for the exacerbation of socio-economic issues that were already bursting at the seams, and perhaps the illusion that they were getting better. As a public administration and policy student, the most painful and sobering part of this pandemic has been to watch the opportunity to innovate and embed humanity and justice in new policies be lost in the fight to maintain current systems in fear of not risking the unknown, but at the expense of the continued suffering of others. The reality is that we have been using band-aids on issues that have long required an ambulance to the emergency room. Although this has been a difficult year, the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic has (I hope) opened our eyes to what our perception of normalcy wrongfully allowed for far too long. 

The pandemic has exaggerated the existing inequities including - homelessness, poverty, public health inequities, food insecurity, unfair immigration laws, racial tensions---the list goes on. Why has the government not fought harder for these communities? Why does the government continue to patch-up issues with shelters and vouchers instead of looking hard at committing to aggressively tackling the core of these problems? This pandemic has shown us the extent and gravity of social and economic inequalities and at the same time shown us the resources we have as a nation to alleviate them. As a student of public administration I have been faced with my own discomfort and my role in the perpetuation of said normalcy, maybe, unknowingly, we have been and felt paralyzed because change requires so much sacrifice and uprooting of everything as we know it, but it is our responsibility. More than ever, I have a newfound commitment to the field of public administration and to people. 

Public service is the realization that change lies in the organization and empowerment of people, and we are simply there to facilitate that change, in informed, sensible, and compassionate ways. Public service understands the need to decolonize the field as we know it because all communities deserve to be fervently and courageously fought for.  The solutions may be unpalatable to our old way of thinking, but if there is anything we should have learned as public servants is that going back to the old way would be unconscionable.  

After earning a bachelor’s degree in Sociology in 2015, Silvana’s public service background began at the Guatemalan Maya Center in South Florida as the Assistant Director of the early literacy-based, Parent-Child Home Program. Now in her last year of the Master of Public Administration program at the University of Central Florida (UCF) Silvana is focused on the future for community resilience and development through a policy lens. Silvana is the Vice President for Nonprofit Outreach of the ASPA Central Florida Chapter and the Graduate Assistant to the Director and Assistant Director at the UCF Downtown Center for Public and Nonprofit Management (CPNM), and recently received the 2020 Equity and Inclusion Student Fellowship for the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM). With a strong foundation in public service and applied studies in Public Administration, Silvana’s primary career interests include education, immigration, and economic development initiatives that aim to build up vulnerable communities. Whether her pursuits are through the private, public, or nonprofit sector, her efforts in advancing public service will always uphold community-building at their core. 

The COVID-19 Pandemic and MPA Education: Student Perspectives on Public Service Values and Public Service Motivation

COVID-19 Pandemic Response & the Dilemma of American Federalism

by Amanda Studor Bond

It is no secret that the federal response to the global COVID-19 pandemic in the United States has been clumsy and disorganized. As I am writing this today, the United States leads the world in COVID related deaths. Many of the 5.31 million people who have recovered from COVID survived with long-term health effects and are now without health insurance. The national unemployment rate reached a historic peak of 14.7% in April while unemployment claims continue to remain high (and unfunded) during partisan Congressional stonewalling; and these statistics do not begin to describe the disproportionate effect COVID-19 has had on people of color and indigenous communities. With all of this, the question I keep coming back to is how did it get this bad?

One notable feature of the COVID-19 pandemic, and one possible explanation for the above observations, is that the government response has largely been driven by state and local officials. This is counter to historical precedent - federal power generally increases during a time of national crisis, with the FDR Administration’s approach to the Great Depression as a prime example.  Indeed, a unified, central response is common beyond national crises, especially as it relates to issues between multiple states. One of the first examples that comes to my mind is the Federal Emergency Management Administration’s (FEMA) National Response Framework developed to provide a “scalable, flexible, and adaptable” doctrine for how the Nation responds to an incident. Among the five guiding principles is “unity of effort through unified command”, which states that having a unified command ensures effective and efficient response across multiple jurisdictions, agencies, and organizations. During a natural disaster, such as a hurricane, FEMA follows its own framework by leaning on the National Hurricane Program and operationalizing the Hurricane Liaison Team to facilitate the rapid exchange of information to their partner agencies and local emergency management community.  

Like the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes and other natural disasters can be unpredictable, making FEMA’s planning, coordination, and emphasis of unified leadership invaluable in a crisis situation. With States, businesses, and citizens physically, economically, and socially connected, it seems that the need for an interstate, or national, solution to mitigate the spread of the virus was, and is, necessary. We knew early on that the primary spread of COVID-19 was through respiratory droplets and that it spreads quickly in close quarters and in large gatherings of people (airplanes, churches, concert venues, to name a few). Based on what we knew about the virus and effective emergency response, the pandemic response seemed to lack a unified federal directive to reduce the spread. Instead, what resulted was a fragmented response driven by state and local officials. With the absence of federal leadership, governors, mayors, and town councils, all with different values and objectives, took action by issuing executive orders ranging in efficacy, stringency, and language. 

While research into the content of these executive orders is still ongoing, I would postulate that the content and language contained within them vary based on that state’s general public opinion and/or that of their elected official. Regardless of intent, each decision state officials made, and continue to make, about the pandemic have tradeoffs rooted in variable values of state leaders, administrators, and their constituents. The primary problem is that these decisions within a state and between states can be at odds with one another, creating a patchwork of regulations confusing to citizens and businesses. This confusion is the primary reason for strong, centralized government during a time of national crisis.   

One key theme underpinning the study of public administration is the understanding that people have different values and opinions, which leads to challenges when making leadership decisions. As a current student of public administration and future leader, it is in moments like these that I must reflect on my own values and be reminded that no decision will ever be easy. However, during times of crisis it is not always necessary for a leader to have all of the right answers, but rather to act with clarity, confidence and conviction with the public’s health, welfare, and safety in mind.

Amanda Studor Bond is a Watershed Specialist with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. She has worked for the Office of Water Quality since 2017, shortly after she earned her Bachelor of Science from Purdue University in Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology with a minor in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. She is currently seeking a Masters of Public Affairs in Environmental Policy and Sustainability, with a primary interest in the intersection of environmental justice and water resources.