By almost any metric, federal government activism in the US ratcheted-up on a massive scale and at an astonishing pace in 2009.  A dazzling array of public policies toward business left no sector of the economy untouched.  Still to come is the Obama Administration’s ambitious agenda to overhaul the US healthcare and education systems and to achieve energy independence.  With these expansions of government control and responsibility, the American economy is being reordered in fundamental ways.

These dramatic developments place public policy issues at center stage, and obviously elevate the relevance of our program.  In the classroom, Policy Studies students this spring engaged in intensive give-and-take with distinguished professionals representing all sectors of the global economy.  We facilitated co-curricular seminars and lectures by leading academics and policy experts, including a two-day workshop on how global conflicts over water resources might be managed in the 21st Century. 

By special petition, two students graduated in the Class of 2009 with a Policy Studies major, one year before the degree is officially available.  Twenty-eight students have declared the major, and 18 rising sophomores have registered for the introductory Policy Studies course for next fall.  These are solid signs that our curriculum is meeting the needs of a growing number of Lafayette students.  This positive response from students reflects a host of successful courses, events, projects, and activities in 2009.

Please let me hear your suggestions for future activities and, of course, I welcome your feedback.

2009 Highlights:

• The student-run, live election night broadcast “Lafayette Electoral College” was available to 500,000 viewers on cable television and around the world on the Internet;

• Philadelphia Action News anchor Jim Gardner led a discussion on broadcast journalism, national politics, and other topics;

• An election forecasting competition attracted 150 student entries and the winner received tickets to the Inauguration of President Barack Obama and the Inaugural Ball, and $1,000;

• “Policy in Action” ― the Policy Studies student club ― hosted “Bracketology: Political Style” to educate students interested in the 2008 elections;

• Industry, Strategy, and Policy, a required course for the major, hosted 11 distinguished guest commentators who brought real world, professional perspectives on the global economy into the classroom;

• Dr. Michael Hudson, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City addressed over 125 students and faculty on “The Economic Crisis: How We Got Here and Where We Are Going”;

• “Poseidon’s Children: Managing Water Conflicts in the 21st Century,” an interdisciplinary workshop co-sponsored with the Environmental Studies initiative, featured six sessions covering local and global resource issues;

• Peter W. Singer, Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution and Director of the 21st Century Initiative, gave a captivating lecture to a crowd of over 200 students and faculty entitled “Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflicts in the 21st Century”; and

• Two Policy Studies majors received a Caine Scholars Award in Global Leadership, Business, and Policy, which includes a $5,000 stipend.

These highlights and the other activities described below illustrate our progress in creating one of the world’s most unique and compelling undergraduate educational opportunities.  We are grateful to Christopher G. Caine ’78, Peter G. Jacoby ’81, Bruce Maggin ’65, and J. Peter Simon ’75 for their generous financial support that made possible many of these activities in 2008-09.  In addition, the program benefitted from the counsel and advice provided by our Alumni Steering Committee.