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2006 Programs & Activities
November 2006
ENvision: Election Night Broadcast
From the announcement of open auditions for anchors, reporters, and commentators in early September (2006), the policy studies program, MBC Teleproductions of Allentown, and over 150 Lafayette students and faculty members began researching, writing, and producing the first live, student-run election night broadcast in Lafayette College history.

On Tuesday, November 7 the ENvision broadcast came to life in the Pfenning Alumni Center with up-to-the-minute tracking of results and predictions as well as a series of pre-recorded segments focusing on such topics as voter turnout, immigration, and expected policy changes through interviews, original research and discussions with various experts.

For over two hours, co-anchors Megan Zaroda ’07 of Easton, Pa., Jayne Miller ’10 of Bethel, Pa., and alumnus Jeffrey D. Robinson ’80 provided expert commentary while Meghan Baker ’07 of Medford, N.J., reported up-to-the-minute results. ENvision was viewed over the College’s internal network, on the web site as a webcast, on RCN Channel 4, and on the new jumbo scoreboard at Fisher Field. To attract the attention of the students, the policy studies program and Holla Back hosted an election party on the patio outside the Wilson Room in Pfenning where students could watch the live broadcast. The event was intended to get students involved in the election process. A review of the broadcast came unexpectedly from WPVI-TV Action News anchor Jim Gardner. “I was blown away by the quality of the effort, its seriousness of purpose, the high level of political insight, the fine production values of the program, and the scope of the presentation.” Click here for slideshow of Election Night Broadcast
Click here for the complete 2006 Election Night Telecast

“Can Foreign Aid End World Poverty?” November 2006: William Easterly from New York University
William Easterly, professor of economics at New York University, co-director of NYU’s Development Research Institute, and a faculty affiliate of Africa House at NYU, presented a lecture in November, “Can Foreign Aid End World Poverty?” The event was co-sponsored with the Gladstone T. Whitman ’49 Fund and the policy studies program. Easterly addressed how aid agencies have advocated a program of large aid increases, and how the recent wave of attention to “make poverty history” could be problematic. He also debated how effective past foreign aid has been toward creating economic development and eliminating poverty. He believes that, despite sharply contrasting views on the effectiveness of foreign aid, there is a surprising degree of unanimity that the aid system is deeply flawed and could be much improved. Easterly is the author of numerous works including The Elusive Quest for Economic Growth. His most recent book, The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good, wonthe 2006 People’s Choice Commitment to Development Award sponsored by Foreign Policy magazine and the Center for Global Development.

“America at the Crossroads” October 2006: Francis Fukuyama from Johns Hopkins University
Professor Crain and the policy studies program worked with the department of religious studies and other departments to arrange a lecture on October 25 by Francis Fukuyama, the Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University. Professor Fukuyama’s lecture in October 2006 shared its title with his most recent book, America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy. Throughout the book, he asserts that the war in Iraq failed and that the Bush administration misinterpreted the neoconservative political thought on which it relied. Fukuyama believes that the U.S. is now facing unintended consequences of the war and an opportunity to redefine American foreign policy.
Fukuyama is the author of several other important books, including The End of History and the Last Man.

“Time Discounting and the Brain” September 2006: Samuel M. McClure from Princeton University
Samuel McClure from the Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, and Behavior at Princeton University presented his lecture, “Time Discounting and the Brain,” as part of a seminar co-sponsored by the policy studies program, the neuroscience program, and the department of economics and business. Professor McClure is a major contributor to the emerging interdisciplinary field of neuroeconomics. Neuroeconomics is an interdisciplinary research program with the goal of building a biological model of decision making in economic environments. Neuroeconomists study how the embodied brain enables the mind to make economic decisions.

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