Teaching | Michael S. Hayes, Ph.D.

Recipient, Jay A. Sigler Award for Department Professor of the Year, Rutgers University-Camden (2024)
Recipient, Jay A. Sigler Award for Department Professor of the Year, Rutgers University-Camden (2021)
Recipient, Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence (2020)
Nominee, Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence (2019)
Recipient, Open and Affordable Textbook Program Award (2018)
Recipient, Digital Teaching Fellow, Rutgers University-Camden (2017)
Recipient, Jay A. Sigler Award for Department Professor of the Year, Rutgers University-Camden (2016)
Recipient, Civic Engagement Faculty Fellow (2015)

Semester: Fall 2019, Fall 2016, and Fall 2015
Level: PhD Students
Description: This course is designed to prepare students for advanced quantitative methodology courses required of doctoral students. The course begins by reviewing descriptive statistics and data presentation techniques. In preparation for the study of inferential statistics, the next section of the course covers the basic of probability. A solid grounding in probability is necessary to understand how and why statistical techniques work. Building on that foundation, the heart of the course is a rigorous introduction to statistical inference: sampling theory, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing. The final section of the course is an introduction to regression analysis, with an emphasis on interpretation of regression results.

Semester: Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2020, Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Fall 2016, Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015, and Fall 2014
Level: MPA Students
Description: The logic of action, decision making, and belief; epistemological issues underlying scientific and policy research; causality, probability, statistics, and public policy; the role of problem definition, description, theory, model building, explanation, and prediction in policy research and decision making. Reviews major substantive theories of public choice and public policy-making and critically examines them from a logical and theoretical perspective.

Semester: Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020
Level: MPA Students
Description: Combines readings with the development of a budget for a hypothetical city to demonstrate budget formats, the politics of budgeting, and methods of projecting expenditures and revenues. Administration and criteria for selecting taxes.

Semester: Summer 2023, Summer 2022, Summer 2021, Summer 2020, Summer 2019, Spring 2019, Summer 2018 (Online Version), Spring 2018, Summer 2017, Spring 2017, Summer 2016, Spring 2016, Spring 2015, and Fall 2014
Level: MPA Students
Description: Examines budgetary processes, municipal bonds, cash management, and intergovernmental fiscal relations as they apply to financial management of public programs. Topics include cost-benefit, cost-revenue, and cost-effectiveness analyses, as well as contemporary issues such as privatization and liability insurance.

Semester: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2020, Fall 2019, Fall 2018
Level: MPA Students; EMPA Students
Description: Examines research and methodology as a practical skill for public administrators. Topics include research design, descriptive and differential statistics, regression and qualitative research. Students should enroll in this course one semester before taking the Research Workshop (capstone).

Current Syllabus by Course

56:831:535 – Research Methods for EMPA Students