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Winter Term 2010 Newsletter


vol. 15, No. 2 - Winter Term 2010

On the web at: http://rockefeller.dartmouth.edu

“Think Globally, Act Locally” has been a call to action for those seeking to mobilize communities to confront problems they face in common. During the winter term, I am taking this maxim into the classroom as I teach Public Policy PBPL 48, “Policy Analysis and Local Governance.” Students in this course will analyze the public policy challenges faced by local communities, particularly those in urban areas. Among the issues we will consider are public education, crime, poverty, economic development, housing, and transportation. The course will examine the roles of various actors—citizens, nonprofits, and government agencies at all levels—in effecting positive change in local public-policy outcomes.

As an interdisciplinary social science center focusing on public policy, it is central to our mission to educate, train, and inspire the next generation of public policy leaders to ensure they understand that many of the most pressing problems their generation will face must be confronted at the local level. This imperative was brought home to me by Stephanie McHenry ’84, a member of the Rockefeller Center’s Board of Visitors and president of ShoreBank Enterprise Cleveland, who, in her first board meeting, challenged us to consider the many ways students encounter public policy “in their own backyards.” I am pleased Stephanie will be visiting the class and presenting a public lecture this term to share her own experience and insights from years of working on the front lines of community development.

I took her challenge to heart. Remembering my own undergraduate years at Harvard over two decades ago, I cannot recall a single instance where I was prompted to consider the public policy problems being confronted by the place where I grew up. When I got to Cambridge, my ties to Palm Beach County, Florida, faded away. I intend for Public Policy 48 to be something quite different. Throughout the course, students will use their hometowns as case studies of how specific communities have attempted to address their public policy problems. Much of the learning will happen around the seminar table, as students present their reports to their classmates. The diversity of student backgrounds and the great variety of ways their localities have addressed each public policy problem will become a powerful pedagogical tool.

As with other curricular opportunities at the Rockefeller Center, we do not expect the learning to stop when class is over. Building on the recent success of other outreach-to-local-community organizations, such as WIBO, I intend to make available some of the Rockefeller Center’s resources to fund students on leave-term internships back in their communities, applying what they’ve learned and working smartly for better public policy outcomes. I look forward to reporting on our progress in future communications.

Public Policy in Your Own Back Yard - A Challenge

mchenry

In his “Direct Line” this month, Rockefeller Center director Andrew Samwick reflects on how Stephanie  McHenry ’84 influenced the development of Public Policy 48, “Policy Analysis and Local Governance.” McHenry is president of ShoreBank, Cleveland Region. Prior to joining the bank, she served as senior director of minority business development for the Greater Cleveland Growth Association, where she led the group’s successful efforts to support minority business growth. She also was executive director of the Northern Ohio Minority Business Council. McHenry has been recognized by Crain’s Cleveland Business and Kaleidoscope Magazine in their “Forty Under 40” features. She is also a member of the Leadership Cleveland Class of 2003 and was recognized as the “2004 Top Rainmaker in Finance” by Northern Ohio Live.

In 2007, McHenry joined the Rockefeller Center Board of Visitors. She writes, “As I was learning about the Rockefeller Center, I started to reflect on the type of students who were at Dartmouth when I was there. Many were from suburbs around big cities, and my experience in Cleveland leads me to believe that they were fairly isolated from what goes on in the urban core. Then I started thinking about young people today and how many are enthusiastic about ‘big causes,’ like environmental issues and international crises. But these kids may be much less tuned into the challenges in their own communities, broadly defined to include the closest urban core.

“So I asked Andrew to think about whether Rocky should give students an opportunity to understand their local economic and social environments better through the lens of public policy and community development. I thought there could be at least three positive results. First, the students may discover that there are issues around their hometowns that would provide exciting opportunities for them to address through their career and volunteer choices. Maybe even alternatives to Wall Street! Second, it may provide an opportunity to get some serious brainpower on the ground working with nonprofits and government agencies on these community challenges through internships. Finally, the students and community folks would benefit from understanding each other better and not walking around with false notions of who the other is.

“I’m so thrilled that Andrew ‘bit’ and has structured a great learning experience around this.”

Stephanie McHenry will be our Martin Luther King Celebration Event speaker on January 25. Learn more

 

New Public Policy Spring-Term Course

PBPL 51 “Leadership in Civil Society”

civil society Leadership in Civil Society will be taught by Professor Ron Shaiko during the Spring Term. As a means of introducing the course Professor Shaiko draws a direct connection between civil society and leadership.

Leadership in civil society is manifest in many ways, particularly at the grassroots level in American society. As Alexis de Tocqueville observed, “we are a nation of joiners.” It is through the joining of forces in collective action that citizens have a more direct impact on public policy and the more general “pursuit of happiness” in contemporary society. It is through civil society that individual thoughts, preferences, and behaviors are aggregated to create social capital. The aggregation of individual preferences, behaviors, and resources in support of collective, societal goals requires leadership.

Leadership in Civil Society will focus on those aspects of leadership that are directly applicable to the accumulation and utilization of social capital through the various organizational manifestations of civil society. Students will explore the broad literature on nonprofit leadership as well as the more targeted literatures that address grassroots mobilization, religious (lay/servant) leadership, interest group influence, organizational maintenance and political representation, and the leadership problems associated with collective action. In addition, the course will focus on the roles of political parties as aggregators of societal interests and as intermediaries between citizens and the state. The various roles of the news media in civil society will also be critically analyzed in order to evaluate the leadership capacity of news organizations in providing the information necessary to participate in American society as informed citizens.

Learn more about the Rockefeller Center's Public Policy Minor

Rockefeller Internships - Part of the Dartmouth Experience

lowe2 Jensen Lowe ’10 grew up in New York City and attended Horace Mann School. He became passionate about the environment and sustainable development while studying at the Cape Eleuthera Island School in 2004. This experience led him to pursue a major in environmental studies and government at Dartmouth. In the fall term of his junior year, Lowe attended the Environmental Studies foreign study program in southern Africa. The following spring, he was able to expand on his experience in Africa with an internship at the Bureau of African Affairs in the U.S. Department of State. Lowe’s internship was sponsored by the Dartmouth class of ’64. Jensen Lowe speaks about his internship and the impact it has had on his post-Dartmouth plans in a YouTube video entitled “A Rockefeller Internship as Part of Jensen Lowe’s Dartmouth Experience.”

Update on the Rockefeller Center's New

Management & Leadership Development Program (MLDP)

During the fall term, the Rockefeller Center piloted a new leadership program: the Management and Leadership Development Program (MLDP). The MLDP curriculum is management focused but frames topics from a public policy perspective to stay consistent with the Rockefeller Center’s mission and expertise. A total of twenty-one students took part in this initial offering.

Much was learned from the pilot that will be incorporated as the program is officially launched during the winter term. Reflecting on the pilot, Danielle Thompson, assistant director of Student and Public Programs, outlined what worked well and those aspects of the program that needed a little fine-tuning.

The pilot program was composed of seniors who had expressed an interest in the Rockefeller Leadership Program. Going forward, the MLDP is open to all students who have completed their first year at Dartmouth. This will necessitate more emphasis on orientation and opportunities for students to “jell” as a group.

Each session is led by an outside speaker. Students who participated in the pilot rated the creative activities, multimedia presentations, and energy of the speakers extremely high. They appreciated that sessions were geared to encouraging discussion and opportunities to practice the skills learned in each session.

In the coming months, speakers will have more opportunities to collaborate on topics and share insights. After each session, students will be required to complete a reflection on what they learned. In the future, speakers will have access to the summary data gleaned from these reflections and be able to compare student learning against their pre-established learning objectives for the session. This information will be used to improve speakers’ future sessions.

Thompson also noted that going forward, more emphasis will be placed on clarifying expectations for students. This includes explicit instructions for completing the individualized development plan, being very clear about the time commitment needed, and underscoring the importance of completing assigned reading prior to each session.

Based on the evaluations received, the pilot program was a resounding success. Students noted the Center staff as well as the speakers were committed to providing participants with a valuable introduction to management and leadership skills.

Learn more about the Center’s MLDP and how you can participate.

 

WINTER EVENTS AT THE ROCKEFELLER CENTER


Learn more about Upcoming Programs

Public Lectures

Stephanie McHenry ’84, President, ShoreBank Enterprise Cleveland, Ohio

“Banking to Change the World: Creating Jobs and Empowering Communities”
Monday, January 25, 4:30 p.m.
3 Rockefeller Hall
A Martin Luther King Celebration Event sponsored by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences

Melanie Sloan, Executive Director, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Washington, D.C.

“Can the Government Be Trusted to Oversee Itself?”
Thursday, February 4, 4:30 p.m.
3 Rockefeller Hall

Thomas A. Barnico ’77, Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General, Massachusetts

“World Trade and States’ Rights: New Threats to Sovereignty?”
Tuesday, March 2, 4:30 p.m.
3 Rockefeller Hall
The Thurlow M. Gordon 1906 Lecture

Panel Discussion

“Activism in the Electronic Age: The Impact of Technology on Political Protest”
Panelists: (Moderator and other panelists to be confirmed)
Elham Gheytanchi, Professor of Sociology, Santa Monica College
Evgeny Morozov, Yahoo! Fellow in Residence, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University

Tuesday, February 9, 4:30 p.m.
Room 041 Haldeman
A Dartmouth Center Forum Event

Nancy Rosenblum, Senator Joseph Clark Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government Theory, Harvard University
"Partisanship and Independence: The Moral Distinctiveness of 'Party-ID"
Thursday, March 4, 4:30 p.m.
3 Rockefeller Hall
The Roger S. Aaron ’64 Lecture

Co-sponsored with the Dartmouth Legal Studies faculty group and the Dartmouth Lawyers Association

Faculty Workshops

See the Rockefeller Center Calendar for additional Faculty Workshops

Social Psychology Research Interest Group (SPRIG)

“Is Morality Unified? Evidence that Distinct Neural Systems Underlie Judgments of Harm, Dishonesty, and Disgust”
Thalia Wheatley, Assistant Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College
Tuesday, January 12, 12:00–1:30 p.m.
Class of 1930 Room, Rockefeller Hall

International/Foreign Policy

“War and State-Society Relations: Another American Exceptionalism?”
Tom Walker, Visiting Professor, Dartmouth College
Wednesday, January 13, 3:00–4:30 p.m.
Class of 1957 Library, 353 Haldeman

International/Foreign Policy

“Title TBA”
Jennifer Erickson, Dickey Fellow, Dartmouth College
Wednesday, January 27, 3:00–4:30 p.m.
Class of 1957 Library, 353 Haldeman

Upcoming Deadlines

Spring 2010 Internship Funding - Applications due February 3, 2010. Find out more.

Spring 2010 Civics Skills Training- Applications due February 10, 2010. Find out more.

Dartmouth-Oxford Exchange - Applications due February 1, 2010. Find out more.

Where are they Now Project - Find out how you can participate

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