Faculty and Student News

2013

As part of the Oregon University System summer program in Cuba organized by Dwain Plaza (Sociology) and Amy Below (Political Science), a Cuban-American student will finally be able to visit Cuba again, as reported by the Gazette-Times and KVAL.

The Oregon Policy Analysis Laboratory (OPAL) has been launched officially Monday, April 15.

MPP student Matthew Palm won the OSU Graduate School's 2013 "Scholars Insights" program where students get three minutes to present their research to change the world. See the press coverage at the Gazette Times Newspaper and the event on OSU Media Space. Matthew would like to recognize his adviser Dr. B Starr McMullen and the Furman Fellowship for supporting his work. He would also like to thank Brian Gregor, the author of Oregon's Greenhouse Gas Statewide Transportation Emissions Model (GreenSTEP), for initiating this project.

Todd Pugatch has received a Faculty Time Release Award for his research project on “U.S. Border Enforcement and Mexican Immigrant Location Choice” for Spring 2013.

Alison Johnston recently gave a talk at the University of Oklahoma on the Debt Crisis and General Strikes in Rurope that was aired on National Public Radio. You can listen to her presentation online.

School of Public Policy faculty and students and Rural Studies conducted a study for the Oregon State Legislature in 2013 that examined the participants in the State's Oregon Senior and Disabled Property Tax Deferral Program for Seniors and the Disabled. Read about the study in the Salem Statesman Journal. MPP student Conor Wall and Professors Bruce Weber and Brent Steel presented the results of the Oregon Senior and Disabled Property Tax Deferral Study to the Oregon House of Representatives Revenue Committee and Oregon Senate Revenue Committee on March 22, 2013.

Professor Rob Sahr has talked with NPR about the National Debt and 2012 Election. The national debt is a major talking point in this year's presidential election. But political scientist Robert Sahr says it hasn't always been this way. He sits down with host Michel Martin to look at what the presidential candidates plan to do about the debt. The conversation is part of NPR's "Solve This" series, looking at the issues driving the election. Read or hear the interview at: Does Candidates’ Debt Math Add Up?

Oregon Sea Grant researcher Lori Cramer, a sociologist at Oregon State University, says natural disasters, instead of affecting everyone equally, will often exacerbate preexisting inequalities. And, says Cramer, for poor and vulnerable groups on the Oregon coast, the Japanese tsunami on March 11, 2011, could be their wake-up call. Read the article: Who is Most Affected by Tsunamis?