June 28, 2011

Friends and Colleagues:

So we come to an end of another academic year, my 5^th.  At a sunny commencement on June 3rd, McCormack Graduate School awarded 7 PhDs, 81 Master's Degrees, and 26 Certificates.

Of particular note was Jamie Kirsch, who graduated with her Master's in Conflict Resolution and was selected by the Graduate Student Assembly as the graduate student speaker for 2011.  She has been awarded a two year, Presidential Management Fellowship, designed to develop a cadre of potential government leaders. Jamie will be working for the US State Department. Congratulations Jamie! 

We will be welcoming two new faculty in September.

• Dr. Sam Barkin will be joining our department of Conflict Resolution, Global Governance and Human Security, from the Department of Political Science at the University of Florida

• Dr. Christine Brenner will be joining our department of Public Policy and Public Affairs, from the department of Public Policy and Administration at Rutgers University, Camden.

Most of you know that it has been an important priority for me at MGS to instill a culture of customer service, of finding solutions rather than identifying problems, and of doing everything in our power to make the work of our students, faculty and staff a success.  I am pleased to tell you that I have awarded the first MGS Customer Service Bonuses to both Brandon Milby and Rob O'Keefe who sit in the front office of the Dean's suite, for their extraordinary commitment to service over the course of this year.  As an example, Judith Kurland, Director of the Center for Community Democracy and Democratic Literacy, wrote this after her first conference on campus: "Without your help, your knowledge, attention to detail, thoughtfulness and very hard and long work, the meeting would not have been the success it was.  No matter how good the content, and no matter how inspiring the speakers, the preparation, smooth flow and ambience of an event leave lasting impressions.  Because of you (and those you recruited) that impression is aglow."  Congratulations and thank you to Brandon and Rob, for always going the extra mile. I'll make this award annually.

A few other notable MGS activities:

•  Our Pension Action Center, part of the Gerontology Institute, has been working for 17 years to help pensioners find lost pensions and recover denied benefits.  The project has to date recovered $38.5M for such pensioners.

• Dr. Michael Ahn, Assistant Professor in our Department of Public Policy and Public Affairs, recently published "Politics of E-Government: E-Government and the Political Control of Bureaucracy" in Public Administration Review.  This is a fascinating insight to how political leadership can exert control over a civil service bureaucracy and enhance government accountability and transparency with electronic tools. Michael was also granted the President's Award by the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration, and will be serving as President of that chapter for the next two years.

• Georgianna Melendez, Co-Director of the Commonwealth Compact, was well and duly recognized by the Boston Business Journal as an emerging leader.


• A day after news broke that Gov. Deval Patrick decided the state would not participate in the federal "Secure Communities" program, he returned to UMass Boston to meet with our Center on Media and Society's ethnic-media group to discuss the issue.  At least 22 media were represented at this forum , which has greatly expanded the exposure of senior public officials to ethnic media.

   

Providing a major opportunity for Boston to address its reputation as a community not particularly welcoming to people of color, the National Urban League (collaborating in part with the Commonwealth Compact) will be holding its national conference here in late July-the first time to Boston in 35 years.  There are many opportunities for attending and offering volunteer support.  I hope you will check it out at www.ulem.org.

Have a good summer.  And hope for a rational budget and debt deal in Congress.

Steve Crosby, Dean