Policy & Society

Recent polls indicate that America thinks congress is a lost cause.  Is the solution to hand over leadership to a younger generation? Will the momentum of Occupy Wall Street propel young people to greater levels of civic engagement? Those are the questions that Craig Berger, student life’s coordinator for campus and civic engagement, discussed on WYPR’s “Midday with Dan Rodricks” on Thursday, November 17. “What I think is interesting about the Occupy Wall Street movement is how it has been institutionalized,” said Berger. “Millennials like institutions, they like to work together, but in this case the institutions are failing them.… Continue Reading Craig Berger, Student Life, on “Midday with Dan Rodricks”

Michelle Scott, associate professor of history, will head to South Africa this winter to work with students on issues of diversity. Scott is a Resource Faculty in the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow-SSRC Graduate Initiatives Program, which aims to transform the academy by eradicating racial disparities on the faculties at colleges and universities in the United States and South Africa.  She and five other Resource Faculty Fellows have been invited to lead a seminar at the University of Capetown, South Africa, for graduate students. The seminar will deal with diversifying the academy and finishing the dissertation. Scott has also been asked… Continue Reading Michelle Scott, History, to Teach in South Africa

Mario Monti “may be just what Italy needs” to avert economic crisis, writes UMBC associate professor of political science Carolyn Forestiere in a letter to the Baltimore Sun. She notes, “Mr. Monti does not belong to a specific political party and was not directly elected by the public,” which makes his rise to the office of prime minister perplexing for some. However, Forestiere argues, at a time of political disagreement over how to manage necessary reforms, “Prime Minister Monti’s technocratic government may be the best immediate solution to thwart economic crisis in Italy.”

UMBC public policy professor David Salkever delves into the University System of Maryland merger debate in a new Washington Post letter to the editor and Baltimore Sun commentary, published last week. In the Sun, Salkever argues that merging the University of Maryland, College Park and University of Maryland, Baltimore in an effort to “raise their national rankings based on total research funding” represents flawed logic, given that rankings groups are aware of and have mechanisms to mitigate the effects of such tactics, such as collecting data at the campus rather than institutional level. He writes, “to increase the College Park… Continue Reading David Salkever, Public Policy, in the Post and Sun

Thomas Schaller’s new Baltimore Sun commentary responds to Rick Perry’s recent debate gaffe, where he failed to recall the third cabinet agency he’d like to close, after naming the Depts. of Education and Commerce. Beyond the “oops” moment, UMBC political science professor Schaller asks why Perry wants to eliminate those three departments in particular, rather than cutting spending across all departments or eliminating newer agencies.Schaller has also written a new guest post for Sabato’s Crystal Ball, exploring the limited political impact of President Obama’s foreign policy successes in Iraq, Libya and with the killing of Osama bin Laden. Schaller writes:… Continue Reading Thomas Schaller, Political Science, in the Baltimore Sun

Kathy Scales Bryan, American studies lecturer, recently commented on a California politician’s daughter who has publicly split with her father on a controversial issue. Briana Bilbray, the daughter of Republican Congressman Brian Bilbray, recently came out in support of medical marijuana dispensaries and extoled the drug’s therapeutic benefits for chemotherapy patients. Briana is currently in remission from melanoma. Children of politicians often are brought up to put the public persona ahead of their private lives, Bryan said . “The understanding within a family is that that’s where you could take care of your needs that can’t be taken care of… Continue Reading Kathy Scales Bryan, American Studies, in the News

In an editorial in Chevy Chase Patch, Mary Rivkin, associate professor of education, argues the importance of environmental justice, community health and childhood development to the decision-making process that is determining the future of the Capital Crescent Trail. “Planners take many variables into account, but the variable of economic development should not dominate the decision-making as it has in the case of the Purple Line. I suggest that other variables—environmental justice, community health and childhood development—now take precedence,” Rivkin writes. She urges developers to follow the model of “Highline Park in New York City, where a repurposed railway right-of-way has… Continue Reading Mary Rivkin, Education, in Chevy Chase Patch

Carrie Evans, adjunct faculty member in Gender and Women’s Studies, was named the Executive Director of Equality Maryland.  Equality Maryland is Maryland’s largest LGBT civil rights group. “We wanted the next Executive Director to have intelligence, compassion, a record of leadership on LGBT issues, and most importantly, an understanding of the unique needs of Maryland. We are confident that we have found that leader in Carrie Evans,” the organization’s board of directors wrote in an e-mail to supporters. Evans appointment was covered in the Washington Blade in a November 9 story entitled “Equality Md. names new exec director.” ““This is… Continue Reading Carrie Evans, Gender and Women’s Studies, Named Executive Director of Equality Maryland

The Baltimore Sun quoted UMBC’s Donald Norris, chair of public policy, today in its ongoing coverage of the Sen. Ulysses Currie corruption case. “The evidence does suggest that what he did, if not criminal, is unethical,” Norris said. When asked about the Senate’s possible censure of Currie, however, he noted, “Currie is very well-liked by his colleagues, and that may mitigate the penalty.” For more, read “Common Cause calls for Currie censure.” Yesterday, Norris reflected in the Sun on the election of Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to her first full term. “Will she have signature achievements? I’m not sure,”… Continue Reading Donald Norris, Public Policy, in the Baltimore Sun

Theodore Gonzalves, associate professor of American Studies, is the co-author, with Roderick N. Labrador, of the new book Filipinos in Hawaii. This pictorial history is the latest volume in the “Images of America” series by Arcadia Publishing.Nearly one in four persons in Hawaii is of Filipino heritage. Representing one-fifth of the state’s workforce, Filipinos have been in Hawaii for more than a century.  This book traces that history from 1946—the last year that sakadas (plantation workers) were imported from the Philippines—to the centennial year of their settlement in Hawaii.A portion of the profits from the sale of the book are… Continue Reading Theodore Gonzalves, American Studies, Authors Book