Maxwell School News and Commentary

“Training future professors in public budgeting, finance, and financial management: The Inter-University Consortium for PhD courses,” co-authored by Yilin Hou, professor of public administration and international affairs, was published in the Journal of Public Affairs Education.

"So many of the calls come to them [mothers], even though they're in kind of very demanding jobs [and] they've told the schools to call their children's fathers," says Kristy Buzard, associate professor of economics.

Thomas Keck, Michael O. Sawyer Chair of Constitutional Law and Politics, says the Princeton Principles do improve on the Chicago principles, which don’t use the term “academic freedom.” But he says the Princeton Principles still seem to privilege free speech over academic freedom. 

"Action anthropology and public policy change: Lead poisoning in Syracuse, NY," co-authored by Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Robert Rubinstein, was published in the Annals of Anthropological Practice.

Bill Coplin, professor of policy studies, has written “The Path to Equity: Inclusion in the Kingdom of Liberal Arts” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023). In the book, Coplin argues that the approach to liberal arts education that prioritizes academic scholarship and learning for its own sake does not fully equip students with the practical, career-oriented skills for which many people enter college. 

Bill Coplin, professor of policy studies, says he has been saving students from the damage done by the “bait-and-switch business model of the liberal arts programs” for fifty years. 

Yingyi Ma, professor of sociology, says that around 2018-2019, American universities began to see a slight decrease in the number of Chinese students. “And then the pandemic hit,” Ma says. “And with the rising geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China...[it] made Chinese students hesitate to come to the United States to study.”

"What I think is the best mode is for the government to step back and to support community organizations who are often at the forefront of these conversations and are often populated by people who are directly impacted, and who are the very people who have the expertise because they are the people we are talking about," says Jenn Jackson, assistant professor of political science.

Ying Shi, assistant professor of public administration and international affairs, and John G. Singleton of the University of Rochester, investigated what happens when educators are elected to school boards. "Despite raising teachers’ salaries, electing an educator to a school board does not translate into improved outcomes for students and has negative impacts on charter schools."