Maxwell School News

“It’s really important that we get our definition right with any attempts at regulating this very fast-moving technology,” says Baobao Zhang, Maxwell Dean Associate Professor of the Politics of AI. Super intelligence would be a misleading descriptor for general-purpose AI, as well as AI systems that are more narrow in scope, she says.

The full-day event on Oct. 16 is part of the school’s USA@250 programming and will feature a keynote by Goldman School Dean David C. Wilson and panels with faculty scholars and pollster John Zogby ’74 M.A. (Hist).

The proposal is particularly alarming since the existing survey is already flawed, says Scott Landes, professor of sociology and co-founder of the Disability Health Equity Research Network. “Studies using the survey’s own data show it misses about half of the disabled adults the federal standard for measuring disability identifies,” he says. 

“I think it’s going to cut both ways. On the one hand, Trump’s negatives in New York are very deep. People are very emotional—the ones that don’t like Trump really don’t like him,” says Grant Reeher, professor of  political science. But he can also help fill the Republican enthusiasm gap, he says.

Shannon Monnat, professor of sociology, says immigration has been a demographic lifeline for much of rural America. Rural areas have been losing young adults for years, she says. “For a lot of small towns, immigrants are the reason the school and hospital stayed open and the county didn’t shrink,” Monnat says.

University Professor Jennifer Karas Montez and 30 top health policy researchers warn that recent actions by the National Institutes of Health regarding a retreat from its history of informing policymakers could have grave consequences for public health in the United States.

“One point I would make relative to the Iranian president's speech, there are still splits in the leadership over there. They don't always speak with one voice, but hopefully, things will progress either before or after the elections, because eventually, there's going to have to be some kind of negotiated settlement,” Vice Adm. Robert Murrett (Ret.), professor of practice of public administration and international affairs.

As fewer people take tests or seek medical treatment for COVID infections, viral activity in wastewater has become a key way to measure transmission, says David Larsen, professor and chair of public health. “The wastewater becomes really essential,” he says.

“If states are permitted to follow the guidance of the DOJ and begin forcibly institutionalizing disabled people once again, this loss of rights will expand to where it harms us all. We must work together to fight ableist policies by protecting the civil rights of both disabled and nondisabled Americans,” writes Scott Landes, professor of sociology.

“The contest for Senate control is becoming increasingly competitive, largely due to what continues to come out of the White House—evidenced by the president’s extremely low approval ratings. This latest appearance of essentially a bribe by the president for a good outcome in the midterms will not help,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.

“When Patel mimics Trump‘s speech patterns or media strategies, he draws more attention to himself and not in a good way, especially for his relationship with Trump,” says Mark Brockway, assistant teaching professor of political science.

“Federal law protects both civilian and military public servants from punishment for refusing to follow illegal orders, though few employees know these protections exist,” writes University Professor Emeritus Sean O'Keefe, who served in both Bush administrations at the Pentagon, White House and NASA; and Josh Gotbaum, who served in the Clinton Administration as an appointee at the Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget.

“The long-term conservative or Republican or MAGA criticism of the federal government was actually not about the federal government,” says Mark Brockway, assistant teaching professor of political science. “Instead, it was a criticism or a fight against what we call a vague liberal enemy, which was sometimes mapped onto the government when it was convenient.”

“I just don’t see how they can, at least in good faith. Several other outlets made similar statements about his endorsements and recent upsets in primaries,” says Johanna Dunaway, professor of political science and research director of the Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship.

Co-authored by University Professor Jennifer Karas Montez, the article was published in The Milbank Quarterly.

“Even though the federal government spends nearly $100 billion annually on SNAP, there is no federally funded survey or data source that can evaluate this important change to the program,” writes Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs.

“These are both terrible policy and politics,” says Leonard Burman, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. The benefits of both would “disproportionately accrue to the wealthiest households,” given the existing distribution of assets in the U.S., he says.

“A strong military makes a currency more appealing because it’s a signal to foreign investors that their assets are safe,” says Daniel McDowell, Maxwell Advisory Board Professor of International Affairs. “It matters because a strong defense projects security of assets in a way that is distinct from the financial regulations in a country.”

Yingyi Ma observes impact of policy shifts under President Trump on Chinese international students, “We have seen some signals, such as a stronger willingness among some Chinese students to return to China, and an overall decline in the number of Chinese students going to the U.S.”

The program brings senior international professionals to Syracuse for intensive executive education on disrupting the global drug supply chain.