Looking for NASPAA Schools to Volunteer in New “PROSPECTIVE STUDENT DATA” Pilot Project

This Spring, APPAM will be piloting a new data collection project for collecting and publishing data from APPAM institutional members useful for prospective students. As part of NASPAA’s ongoing effort to create a data warehouse for several key purposes, including accreditation and public accountability, we are consulting with APPAM to identify prospective student data elements of common interest.  In late winter, APPAM will be circulating a data survey to their members. In consultation between NASPAA and APPAM, NASPAA has agreed to seek volunteers from our membership who would like to participate in testing this data survey. The survey asks for a number of responses from MPA and MPP programs regarding number of applicants, acceptances, enrollments, GRE ranges, faculty: student ratios, costs of degree, job placements in public service, and so on. The goal is to develop a data display on the web that can be used by prospective students around the world to choose an MPA or MPP from all the possibilities out there.  NASPAA volunteers would receive the survey via email, and would complete any parts they found relevant, and omit any parts that were not appropriate, obtainable, or comfortable. NASPAA is also looking for additional comments from our members regarding the survey. Those considering volunteering should remember that the data from the pilot survey will be publicly available; and programs can decline to answer any sections they choose without being eliminated from the prospective student data pilot.  Interested in getting the best possible data to prospective students? Get in on the “ground floor” and contact Laurel McFarland at mcfarland@naspaa.org.   < back to top >

 

New MPA/MPP Student Poll Shows Continued Interest In Nonprofit Career

Through referrals from our Principal Representatives and the MPA/MPP Facebook group, NASPAA polled more than 3,300 current and recent MPA/MPP students on several topics, including their decision to get an MPA degree, why they chose their school and career interests. Twenty percent of respondents chose the nonprofit sector as their top choice. This was followed by the Federal government and local government, both of which were named by 18% of those surveyed as choice places to work. Some other key findings: Among MPA/MPP students, the degree the considered most, after ours, was the JD. The JD was followed closely by the MBA. The most common way students learn about MPA/MPP degrees is ‘online searches’ and ‘web’. A clear majority use social networking site Facebook at least once a week. To see full survey and responses click here. < back to top >

First Ever NASPAA Admissions Survey Shows Joint Degree Popularity

The first survey by NASPAA of admissions directors and those responsible for recruiting shows that joint degree programs, especially for law where 54% reported having a joint degree, are popular. The survey was distributed to 400 NASPAA contacts. 142 admissions related staff or faculty responded.  Other interesting items include: Undergraduate GPA is more important than a GRE score in admitting a student. Internet and web are by far the most important way to recruit and reach prospective students. Most respondents said their program doesn’t have a full time admissions person working for them and use faculty and other staff. To see full survey and responses click here. < back to top >

NASPAA’s Youngest Accreditor Makes his Appearance
	Little Thomas Calarusse Lemke, son of NASPAA Academic Director Crystal Calarusse, arrived 10/24/2008, weighing in at 8 lbs and 14 oz and measuring 20 inches. Congratulations to Crystal and her family! (Below) Tommy greets NASPAA staff.
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The Latest Version of the Proposed New NASPAA Accreditation Standards are Now Available Online for Comment and Viewing!

The Standards Committee requests that you please stop by the wikispaces site (http://standards2009.wikispaces.com) to comment on any aspect of the standards. Remember, the next iteration of the NASPAA Standards will be presented for a vote by accredited programs at the 2009 NASPAA Annual Conference. Now is the time to make your voice heard! You can also print a PDF of the Standards for sharing with your faculty, students, and advisory boards.  Standards 2009 Instructions Draft as of 9/12/08 (PDF) Standards 2009 Draft as of 9/12/08 (PDF) < back to top >

Loan Forgiveness for Recent Grads Working in Public Service
Effective October 1, 2007, there is a new loan forgiveness program for public service employees. Under this program the amount forgiven is the remaining outstanding balance of principal and accrued interest on an eligible Direct Loan for a borrower who is not in default and who makes 120 monthly payments on the loan after October 1, 2007. The borrower must be employed full-time in a public service job during the same period in which the qualifying payments are made and at the time that the cancellation is granted. For more info: http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/repaying.jsp  < back to top >

HED Funding Opportunity: Legal Reform in Mexico Higher Education for Development (HED), in cooperation with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), anticipates making two additional awards to provide higher education support for legal reforms in Mexico. For details about applying for this competitive award, please click the link below:

Rule of Law: TIES U.S.-Mexico University Partnerships Applications due: January 23, 2009, 5:00 p.m. ET Two awards of up to $450,000 each will be provided for three-year partnerships as part of the U.S.-Mexico Training, Internships, Exchanges, and Scholarships (TIES) Initiative. Higher education support for legal reforms in Mexico will engage partners to update legal education at Mexican institutions, provide training to trainers, develop a continuing education program, and create a legal clinic so that Mexican law students may gain practical experience in trying criminal cases.  < back to top >

NRC Again Delays Ranking of Doctoral Programs

Even the harshest critics of U.S. News & World Report would have to give the magazine credit for one thing: There’s no doubt when the rankings of colleges will come out. They appear like clockwork every fall. Many educators who scoff at U.S. News cite the evaluation of doctoral programs by the National Research Council as a different category of ranking — one that is more methodologically sound and rigorous. But when it comes to timeliness, the NRC isn’t winning any contests. Its last rankings were released in 1995, and the one prior in 1982. While the research council never had the goal of issuing annual reports or anything close, delays and debates have become common — especially with word that the next version is due out in February.  Full article   < back to top >

Public Service Loan Program Begins

Public Service Loan Forgiveness is a new program for federal student loan borrowers who work in certain kinds of jobs. It will forgive remaining debt after 10 years of eligible employment and qualifying loan payments. Public Service Loan Forgiveness is a new program for federal student loan borrowers who work in certain kinds of jobs. It will forgive remaining debt after 10 years of eligible employment and qualifying loan payments. Read more   < back to top >

 

Job Hunting Is, and Isn’t, What It Used to Be  By Alina Tugend

WHEN I think back to my job-hunting days, my methods seem as quaint as comparing a Victrola to an iPod. First, there was no Internet. I perused trade journals for job possibilities. I painstakingly typed my résumé on a typewriter (electric) and had to retype — and retype and retype — when I made a mistake. I cut and pasted my newspaper clips, which I needed to send along with the résumé, onto letter-size paper, which was like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces missing. Full article   < back to top >

Understanding Students Who Were ‘Born Digital’ — Andy Guess

Kids these days! If the technologies students use — and sometimes abuse — add up to an overwhelming jumble for some professors who teach them, John Palfrey and Urs Gasser have written a book that they hope will bridge the generation gap, at least when it comes to an understanding of the different habits, learning styles and ideas about privacy attributed to so-called “digital natives.” Full article < back to top >

No Rise In # of Grad Students Taking GRE By Chris Mooney

It’s a charming nugget of pop wisdom: At times of recession, young people say to hell with the job market and go back to school to improve their long-term career prospects. And sure enough, reports have been flying in lately from schools like UCLA, the University of California-Berkeley, and the University of Texas suggesting that business, law, and graduate school applications are on the rise. Conventional wisdom appears to be convening—or is it? Full article < back to top >

Trickle-Down Economic Duress For Colleges?

— Doug Lederman The financial headlines out of Washington and Wall Street could not be scarier, with words like “collapse” and “crisis” and “failure” spilling out of news reports to an extent not seen in decades. (Analysts are expressing widespread hope, if not exactly confidence, that the U.S. Senate’s passage Wednesday of a federal rescue plan for the financial markets, if followed by House passage Friday, will put out the raging fire.) Full article < back to top >

In Downturn, Families Strain to Pay Tuition By Jonathan D. Glater

In difficult dinner-table conversations, college students and their parents are revisiting how to pay tuition as personal finances weaken and lenders get tough. Diana and Ronnie Jacobs, of Salem, Ind., thought their family had a workable plan for college for her twin sons, using a combination of savings, income, scholarship aid and a relatively modest amount of borrowing. Then her husband lost his job at Colgate-Palmolive. Full article < back to top >

New U.S. Senator Has MPA Jeffrey Alan Merkley is the junior United States Senator-elect from Oregon and the Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives. A member of the Democratic Party, Merkley is a five-term member of the Oregon Legislative Assembly representing House District 47, located in eastern Multnomah County within the Portland city limits.
He defeated two-term Republican incumbent Gordon Smith in the 2008 U.S. Senate election, winning by a three percent margin. Merkley will take office in January 2009, to serve in the 111th United States Congress. Read more < back to top >

MPP is on Cover of Time Magazine By Amanda Ripley In 11th grade, Allante Rhodes spent 50 minutes a day in a Microsoft Word class at Anacostia Senior High School in Washington. He was determined to go to college, and he figured that knowing Word was a prerequisite. But on a good day, only six of the school's 14 computers worked. He never knew which ones until he sat down and searched for a flicker of life on the screen. "It was like Russian roulette," says Rhodes, a tall young man with an older man's steady gaze. If he picked the wrong computer, the teacher would give him a handout. He would spend the rest of the period learning to use Microsoft Word with a pencil and paper.

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U.S. News & World Report To Shift Operations to Web

By Howard Kurtz U.S. News & World Report is getting out of the newsmagazine business and going all digital. The financially struggling magazine, which cut back to biweekly publication earlier this year, now plans to reinvent itself on the Web. While it will publish one print edition each month, according to staffers briefed on the decision, these will be entirely devoted to consumer guides -- such as its annual rankings of colleges and hospitals -- and contain no other news. Full article   < back to top >

MPA Prof in USA Today on Obama Administration Vetting

By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — The first thing then-White House chief of staff Kenneth Duberstein did was apologize to the job candidate he was about to interview. He told him he was going to ask him very personal questions that would make them both uncomfortable. "You're going to want to go home and take a shower when this is over — and so am I," Duberstein says he told the candidate, a man whose privacy he insists on protecting, even two decades later. As President Reagan's gatekeeper, he was determined to protect his boss from the embarrassment and distraction of a bungled nomination to one of the top jobs in the country. Full article   < back to top >

NASPAA News Sources

foreignpolicy.com  Governing.com GovExec.com    ipma-hr.org Public Manager.org Washingtonpost.com Federal Diary Stateline.org < back to top >

NASPAA Listservs You & Your Staff Can Join
NASPAA now has several listservs as listed below. You can sign up on as many as you would like. Your colleagues and staff can join them too. To sign up to any of these listservs, please read the instructions at http://www.naspaa.org/principals/news/listserv.asp
General  Admissions  Career Comprehensive Schools  Doctoral	Executive MPA Education  Political Sciences  Small Programs  Undergrad Programs  Urban Management
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USC Grad in Obama Cabinet President-Elect Obama Nominates SPPD Alumna Hilda Solis for Secretary of Labor By Anna Cearley-Rivas
	Rep. Hilda Solis
During a Dec. 19 press conference in Chicago, President-elect Barack Obama nominated Rep. Hilda Solis (D-El Monte) for Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor. Solis is an alumna of the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, graduating with a master’s degree in public administration in 1981. Solis’ nomination reflects the rise of a new generation of California Hispanic politicians who have become adept at bridging the needs and demands of their diverse constituents, according to several experts at the University of Southern California. Full article   < back to top >

BYU Announcement of Appointments
On 1 July 2008, Gary C. Cornia began his tenure as dean of the Marriott School of Management. Cornia, the Stewart Grow Professor of Public Management, has been serving as director of the school’s George W. Romney Institute of Public Management since 2004. He succeeded Ned C. Hill, who served as dean from 1998 to 2008.
	Gary C. Cornia
David W. Hart, an associate professor of public management at Brigham Young University, earned his PhD from the State University of New York at Albany. His current research focuses on both theoretical and applied ethics, business-government interaction, and the external environment of organizations. He has published in a variety of journals and is co-author of Wall Street Polices Itself: How Securities Firms Manage the Legal Hazards of Competitive Pressures (Oxford University Press, 1998).
	David W. Hart
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New Core Faculty Member at John Glenn School of Public Affairs The John Glenn School of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University is pleased to announce the addition of three new core faculty members.
	Craig Boardman
Dr. Craig Boardman, whose research addresses relationships between institutions and individuals in science and government, joins us from the Science and Technology Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. Dr. Stephanie Moulton, from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, specializes in low income housing, public management and organizational theory and nonprofit organizations. Dr. Jason Seligman focuses on public finance, social insurance, and risk management, and worked most recently at the University of Georgia. The Glenn School is excited to welcome these new faculty to our existing roster of policy and management experts. < back to top >

Rutgers Offers New Certificate Program

Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration is offering a Certificate in Animals, Community and the Law. Taught by Lawyers In Defense of Animals, Inc. (LIDA) lawyers who have practiced in this area of the law for many years, this is the first program of its kind in a school of public affairs and administration. The Certificate program which consists of three online courses and a practicum can be completed in one year and will cover topics ranging from limit laws and hoarding to cruelty and disaster planning. Courses may be taken on a non credit basis or for credit, with each course being 3 graduate credits. For specific course information and to register for the courses please go to www.ncpp.us/certcourses.php  and select the Animals, Community and the Law certificate program option. The first course begins January 20, 2009 and registration is limited so please apply early. For additional information please contact Isabelle Strauss, Esq. at anrtesq@aol.com. < back to top >