Spring Cleaning

Hi everyone, I hope your semesters are going well. I'll start with my classes: Administrative Law is about the same, following the same pattern from the first half of the semester. I did get my midterm back and was very pleased with the result. In Research Methods we administered our surveys and are tweaking a few issues before we move into the analysis of our results. We're covering quantitative methods and statistics right now and it makes me glad I worked so hard on those subjects in undergrad. It's still hard, but I imagine it'd be so much harder if I didn't learned the concepts well the first time around. This Thursday will already be time to register for fall classes and I'll be more than halfway finished with the program. This summer I'll have a break from classes and will hopefully be working at the internship I had a preliminary interview for last week. I'm anxiously waiting to hear back this week.

In the office, the NASPAA reaccreditation site visit took place two weeks ago and seemed to go really well. They met with various faculty, staff, students, and alumni. I'm continuing to work on a literature review of urban renewal and revitalization through community entertainment and arts districts. I had a library consultation last week and the research has been really interesting.

In PASS updates, last week we hosted guest speaker, Cincinnati vice mayor, Roxanne Qualls. Qualls addressed the topic of building inclusive organizations. More than twenty people from the MPA program attended and made up an active and engaged audience. Qualls pointed out that diversity is about more than the traditional concepts of gender, race and ethnicity, and includes a broader spectrum such as experience, perspective, and lifestyle. She emphasized the distinction between leadership and management, which are too often used interchangeably. Finally, she really drove home the point that an inclusive organization is important for many reasons, but perhaps the most important reason, is that it allows you to make better decisions. Qualls' presentation was informative and thought-provoking and I think gave each of us something to take back to our respective organizations. Thank you to everyone who attended and made this event so successful! This Saturday PASS will participate in Service on Saturday-A Day of Service in NKU's Backyard. Comment below if you'd like to join us or receive more information about the event. On a similar note, this Friday is the first MPA alumni (students, board, faculty, and staff also invited!) quarterly happy hour at Keystone Bar & Grill. Hope to see as many of you there as possible!

PASS 2012 spring social event at the Cincinnati Cyclones game 2/16