Fifteen Master of Public Administration students from BYU took the top prize this past April at the third annual Utah City Managers Association Case Competition held in St. George.
The competition invites other MPA programs from around the state to participate, including the University of Utah and Southern Utah University. BYU's MPA program sent three representatives to the competition to present their case.
Rex Facer, the faculty adviser for the competition, wanted all students in the MPA program to participate in the competition in some fashion. All of the professors involved played an integral part in preparing for the competition by providing feedback and helping with the case analysis.
"The two years before, the U of U had taken home the trophy so we had a great responsibility to take it home for all those city managers out there that are BYU alums," said Michelle Roberts, a first-year MPA student.
The case is given to the schools one month in advance and required the collaborative research skills of fifteen students. This year's competition asked students to present a case for a city deciding whether or not to begin their own police department or continue contracting local law enforcement through the county. The students presented their case to a fictional city council made up of Utah city managers.
"We broke up responsibilities pretty heavily," said Robbie Jackson, a second-year MPA student. "Since I was one of the presenters, the hardest part for me was to prepare my presentation. Also, the other schools will probably plan their presentation on what we did this year. BYU will be the team to beat."
The month-long preparation continued down to the wire. One of the students stayed up until 2 a.m. the morning before the competition making final adjustments to a handout they used in the competition.
"When I told one of the presenters from another school that more than 15 people significantly participated on our project, he was shocked," said Heber Lefgren, a first-year MPA student, in a press release. "He could not understand how that many people could work well together to complete one project."
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Copyright Brigham Young University 2 Jun 2008
