2011-2012 Archived Catalog Information

Mission Statement

Politics is the process of making decisions for groups. It is the way in which people who hold opposing beliefs work out their differences. When politics fails, violence follows. The undergraduate Government major offers a liberal arts education with a focus on the institutions, ideas, and processes of community, national, and international decision making. Students choose one of four tracks, which are described below.

The Government Department offers undergraduate students an opportunity to enter into the political profession by gaining expertise through a wide range of courses, faculty and student research, and public service. The Department also seeks to improve the political process, and to expand public understanding of political issues, institutions, and processes through a variety of public programs, work with the media, the polls conducted by the Suffolk University Political Research Center, and research by its faculty and students.

The Department offers a major and a minor, each with a choice of four tracks. The Department also collaborates with others to offer majors in Latin American and Caribbean Studies and in Environmental Studies.

The Government Department offers the undergraduate major in both the B.A. and, except for Track D, the B.S. degree.

Students must do at least 8 credits in residence in the major to graduate.

Waiver of Admissions Examination for MSPS

Students graduating with a major in any Government Track, and with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0, are exempted from the requirement to submit scores from either the Graduate Record Examination or Miller Analogies Test when applying for admission to the Master of Science in Political Science program at Suffolk University.