Lerner Center News

"People are looking for that kind of connection, and if they can find it with a group that they don't know online, they don't necessarily see the bad parts of what's happening," says Shana Gadarian, professor and chair of political science. "Then with the technological part of it where extreme voices get more airtime on the internet, you can see how people get radicalized."

In recognition of exceptional scholarship and innovative academic and professional activities, Madonna Harrington Meyer has been reappointed to a four-year term as University Professors, one of the highest honors the University bestows on faculty members. 

In one study, University Professor Jennifer Karas Montez and other researchers found that, if every state simply implemented the same policy environment as Connecticut, “The U.S. would increase its life expectancy by roughly two years,” she says. “That is a massive increase.”

The One University Awards Ceremony, an annual event to honor members of the Syracuse University community who are making a difference through academics, scholarship, creative work and dedicated service, will be held Friday, April 21.

Sarah Hamersma, associate professor of public administration and international affairs, believes the number of Onondaga County residents who lose coverage will be less than the 9.5% estimated by a federal government study. That’s because New York’s Medicaid and other public health insurance programs are more generous than those offered by many other states, she says.

Overall, grandmothers still take the lead in spending time with grandchildren, often rearranging their schedules to do so, says Madonna Harrington Meyer, University Professor and author of “Grandmothers at Work: Juggling Families and Jobs” (NYU Press, 2014).

“Unfortunately,” says Colleen Heflin, professor and chair of public administration and international affairs, “my own work suggests that cognitive decline can act as a barrier to SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] participation among older adults eligible for the program, due to the difficult administrative processes associated with demonstrating program eligibility.”

“The lack of access to food can make older Americans more socially isolated,” says Colleen Heflin, professor and chair of public administration and international affairs.

"Recent data from the Department of Defense indicates that one in four service members were food insecure at the end of 2020," says Colleen Heflin, professor and chair of public administration and international affairs.

"Screening for food insecurity can at least provide the clinician some sense of the risks their patients might be facing and their potential negative health consequences," says Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs.

"There is a well-documented history in the U.S. of marginalizing people with IDD (intellectual or developmental disability). Our hope is that we will not add to that history, but will take the necessary steps to ensure that people with IDD are provided the opportunity to live and thrive in the midst of the ongoing pandemic," says Landes, associate professor of sociology.

University Professor Jennifer Karas Montez says “state policy knobs are a lever that we could use to really turn this country around and stop this alarming—just horrible when you think about it—increase in the risk of dying before age 65.”

Associate Professor Emily Wiemers is the principal investigator of the team that includes her Maxwell School colleague, Marc A. Garcia. 

"Moving On from Covid? Immunocompromised People Can’t," written by Associate Professor of Sociology Scott Landes, was published by the Hastings Center.

Asked about the White House’s assertion that “President Biden’s leadership” is responsible for the increase, Gary Engelhardt, professor of economics, tells CNN: “This assertion is incorrect.”

“State policies, which have been relatively ignored in research on explanations for U.S. mortality trends, turn out to be really important for understanding geographic disparities in mortality,” Shannon Monnat, professor of sociology, tells U.S. News & World Report.

If states had adopted liberal policies across the board, University Professor Jennifer Karas Montez and her co-authors calculated that 171,030 lives would have been saved in 2019 alone; on the flip side, conservative policies in all states would have led to an additional 217,635 working-age deaths.

"What happens when we think of social goods—those that contribute to human thriving? Is scale just as problematic in those cases, or might we use its powers for good?" asks Sarah Hamersma, associate professor of public administration and international affairs.

“There might be a small drop in one or two years, but the long-term trend has been an increase,” says Shannon Monnat, professor of sociology. She was interviewed for the Grid article, "U.S. suicide rates rose again in 2021, ending a brief decline during the covid pandemic."