Volume 1, Issue 1
Winter 2009
Talking Points
Newsletter for public affairs
Director’S note
INSIDE THIS
ISSUE:
A. Trevor thrall
Programs News
Inside Second Story
2
Institute for Local
Government News
3
Student News
4
Internship News
Contact Us
& Course List
5
6
Welcome to the first
issue of Talking Points,
the newsletter for
everyone interested and
engaged in public affairs
programs, research, and
teaching at UM
Dearborn. Beyond
being a useful resource
for UMD students, I
hope to use Talking
Points as a way of
engaging the UMD
community, both inside
and outside the
university walls, in an
ongoing conversation
about issues of
importance to our world
and what UMD is doing
about them. UMD is a
“ UMD is a
tremendous resource
for problem solving
in our region…”
- A. T. Thrall
tremendous resource
for problem solving in
our region, both
because we have
talented faculty
investigating a wide
range of policy
problems and because
we train talented
students to take
leadership positions in
organizations charged
with solving those
problems.
Best wishes for
a great 2009,
ATT
Calling All Alumni
Speaking of alumni, we have just established a Public Affairs Alumni Advisory Board.
Composed initially of three former MPA students and three former MPP students,
this group will work with program faculty to review how we’re doing and how we
can make things better. Early projects will include creating an alumni directory
and networking system as well as examining how to improve career services
available to graduating students. All alums are welcome to participate even if they
are not on the advisory board, so if you have ideas to share, please email Jonathon
Younkman at jyounkman@gmail.com.
Talking Points
Page 2
Be sure to catch the
Detroit Free Press
article about UMD
and Windsor’s joint
degree program.
MPA JOINS MPP IN CASL
In the Fall of 2008 the MPA program and Professors Seth Hirshorn and Dale
Thomson joined the MPP program in the Social Sciences Department in CASL.
The public affairs faculty is excited because we believe that having the programs
under one roof will strengthen both. Stay tuned over the coming months for more
information.
Program News
LOCAL GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT
CERTICIFICATE PROGRAM LAUNCHING
FALL 2009
This fall the MPA
program will launch an
online graduate
certificate program
offering local
government practitioners
training that will prepare
them for credentialing by
the International City
Managers Association
(ICMA). The program,
being marketed in
partnership with the
Michigan Municipal
League and the Michigan
Local Government
Management
Association, is an 18credit graduate program
consisting of 15 1 credit
seminars and a 3 credit
directed study.
Graduates will receive a
certificate in Local
Government
Management from UMD
and will be prepared to
pass the ICMA Certified
City Managers exam.
Graduate will also be
able to transfer their
credits if they choose to
enroll in the MPA
program at a later date.
For more information
contact Seth Hirshorn,
shirsh@umd.umich.edu
Welcome new students
We are pleased to
welcome twelve new
MPA students and five
new MPP students to the
program this term.
New MPA Students
Include:
Datiashvili, Meri
Givens, Irma
Krieg, Kathryn
Majumder, Antara
Masta, Debra
Misener, Christopher
Pan, Stephanie
Rowe, Kristen
Terry, Christopher
New MPP Students
Include:
Carson, James
Ostrenga, Kimberly
Riess, Angela
Wycoff, Sara
Bond, Alex
Farnum-Honeycutt
Winston, Galen (Joint
Program with Windsor)
Page 3
Talking Points
Institute For local government
relocates to casl
Dr. Dale Thomson, Director of the Institute for Local Government (IFLG), has
big plans for his program as it moves to CASL. As a professional education
counterpart to the MPA and MPP graduate programs, IFLG provides learning
opportunities for public affairs professionals with a special emphasis on the issues
facing citizens, school districts, and local governments in southeastern Michigan.
For more information: http://www.umd.umich.edu/ilfg.
Municipal-school collaboration
initiative
Portal
IFLG Begins Winter Seminars for
Local, Elected Officials
In March, IFLG will begin its winter series of seminars for officials elected to serve
in cities, villages, townships, or school districts. The series will include sessions on
running for office, bargaining, school budgeting, surviving budget shortfalls, school
technology, ethics, and how to effectively engage citizens in local government.
IFLG's winter seminars are offered in partnership with the Michigan Municipal
League and the Michigan Association of School Boards. They are held in the
evening on the UM-Dearborn campus and will run through May.
IFLG NEWS
In late February, the Institute for Local Government (IFLG) is launching its
/Municipal-School Collaboration Initiative/ to increase service collaboration
between municipal governments and school districts in Southeast Michigan.
Through this groundbreaking initiative, IFLG will provide team-building,
facilitation, and technical assistance services to teams of elected, appointed, and
career officials from municipal governments and school districts whose boundaries
overlap. The goal is to help these teams formalize collaborative service agreements
to improve service quality and efficiency. Initially, the initiative will target
assistance to municipalities and school districts who have taken some steps
towards service collaboration. These communities have a greater probability for
achieving collaboration than those who have not taken such steps. Over time, we
hope to expand assistance to communities that have yet to pursue collaborative
efforts. The knowledge acquired through this initiative will be shared with all
interested communities. This initiative is being undertaken in partnership with the
Michigan Suburbs Alliance.
Talking Points
Page 4
New CTools Site: Public Affairs
Student News
Over the past month we have launched a new CTools site, the Public Affairs
Portal, to provide easy access to useful resources for MPA and MPP students and
to give us an easy way to communicate job and internship opportunities and big
events. We are still in the process of getting things posted but look for career
resources, program policies and procedures, advising forms, and writing and thesis
guides and examples. If you can’t find the Public Affairs Portal tab in CTools,
email your uniqname to Karen Bankovich, kbankovi@umd.umich.edu, and she
will get you added to the site. If you have other ideas for the site, please contact
Trevor Thrall, atthrall@mich.edu.
Congratulations graduates!
The MPA and MPP programs were happy to watch as December’s commencement
ceremonies created several new alumni. The MPP program graduated the three
people featured in the picture to your right (left to right: Wesley Herrin, Stacy
Brown, Jonathon Younkman). The MPA program saw eight of its own graduate as
well.
MPA Graduates Include:
Finkelstein, Caryn
Frajj, Lial
Franklin, Maureen
Hollier-Jackson, Essialani
Mack, Marianne
Ostrenga,Kim
Sultan, Fakeha
Wolf, Stacey
MPP Graduates Include:
Brown, Stacy
Herrin, Wesley
Younkaman, Jonathon
IFLG ENCOURAGES students to
serve in local government
Building off the momentum of youth engagement in the 2008 presidential
campaign, IFLG is launching a new initiative to encourage college students to run
for local elected office or get appointed to local boards and commissions.
Participants will learn about the opportunities available to them, the costs of
running for office, the process of getting appointed to local boards and
commissions, the responsibilities associated with holding public office, and the
basics of structuring a campaign. The initiative will begin on March 27, 2009 with
an afternoon symposium at the University of Michigan-Dearborn where college
students from throughout Southeast Michigan will interact with panels of local,
elected and appointed officials, as well as election experts. If you are interested in
participating, contact IFLG Director Dale Thomson at thomsond@umich.edu.
Page 5
Talking Points
Internship opportunities
The Public Affairs Internship Program has placed graduate students in
organizations throughout the metro area and in Lansing, Michigan. Students are
able to earn three credit hours after working 200 hours during the semester and
completing several short written assignments. Interested students must complete
the internship application and provide a transcript and resume. We will contact
organizations which are accepting graduate student interns and following the
successful interview, students will advise us of their choice of internship position.
http://www.casl.umd.umich.edu/public-affairs-intern300
Public affairs winter 2009
internship speakers
Location: Room 1205 Social Science Building
Time: (Mondays) 12:45 PM – 1:30 PM
February 2:
February 9:
February 16:
February 23:
March 9:
March 16:
March 23:
March 30:
April 13:
Bill O’Brien
Recruitment Director - Tubman Center
Amy Cell
Managing Director - Ann Arbor SPARK
Butch Holloway
Michigan Insurance Consumer Advocate
Kevin Jones
Deputy – US Marshal Service
Portia Hamlar
Retired Attorney and College Administrator
Tiffany Hartung
Associate Regional Representative: Sierra Club
Rod McClary
Legislative Aid – US Congressman John Conyers Jr.
Dianne Webb
Wayne County Commissioner – 9th District
Rashida Tlaib
State Representative – 12th District
Internship news
For additional information contact PA Internship Program Director Nancy
Kursman, nkursman@umd.umich.edu or check out the website:
Page 6
Public Policy Program
CASL Graduate
Programs
Room 1080
Social Sciences Building
4901 Evergreen Road
Phone: 313-593-1183
Fax: 313-583-6498
caslgrad@umd.umich.edu
Talking Points
Upcoming Courses
Summer 2009
PADM
507, Strategic Communication, Online, Summer 1 (Hinga)
527, Public Relations, MTWR 6-9(Fowler)
548, Fundraising, MTWR 6-9, Summer 2 (Barrit)
583, Program Evaluation, MTWR 6-8, Summer (Hirshorn)
PADM 690 Directed Study
PADM 720 Internship
http://www.casl.umd.umich.edu/mpp/
PPOL
500, Economic Theory and Policy, T 6-9 Summer 1&2 (Roddy)
508 Project Writing Summer 1&2 (Staff)
551, Environmental Economics and Policy, MW 6-9, Summer 1 (Roddy)
552, Michigan Regional Economic Environment, TR Summer 1 (Pietrykowski)
680, Internship
698, Directed Study (Staff)
699, Thesis (Staff)
Fall 2009
PADM
PADM 505 Introduction to Administration, T 6-9 (Thomson)
PADM 520 Leadership and Administration W 6-9 (Staff)
PADM 540 Administration of Financial Resources M 6-9 (Hirshorn)
PADM 560 Administration of Human Resources W 6-9 (Staff)
PADM 562 Labor Relations R 6-9 (Staff)
PADM 580 Information Systems and Statistics for Administrators M 6-9 (Staff)
PADM 650 Assessment Seminar Saturdays 9:30-3:30 on 9/27, 10/11, 10/25, 11/15
and online (Hirshorn)
PADM 690 Directed Study
PADM 720 Internship
POL
571, American Foreign Policy (Wayman)
MPP
501, Research Methods, M 6-9 (Prough)
502, Political Environment of the Policy Process, Online and M 6-9 (Thrall)
503, Economics and Public Policy, W 6-9 (Roddy)
504, Rational Choice, R 6-9 (Wayman)
505, Ethics and Public Policy, T 6-9 (Thrall)
689, Internship (Staff)
698, Directed Study (Staff)
699, Thesis