SBS Newsletter – June/July 2010
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Calling Alumni for Career Networking Career Connections Offers Online Webinars Alumni News Erika Lovley '06 (journalism/political science) is a Congressional reporter for POLITICO. A recent story about sexual harassment and mistreatment on the Hill costing taxpayers significant dollars was one of the top-read articles for several days. Read other articles by Lovley. Lindsay McCluskey '09 (anthropology), former UMass Amherst student trustee, is the incoming president of the United States Student Association. Speaking at the USSA’s annual conference at UCLA, she discussed key issues she wants to address during her tenure. Read more in the UCLA Daily Bruin. Bruce Berkowitz '80 (economics) is the managing member and chief investment officer of Fairholme Capital Management and president and director of Fairholme Funds Inc. The founder of the Miami-based investment firm and mutual fund, Berkowitz appeared on Consuelo Mack Wealthtrack on November 15, 2009. To view the interview and/or download the transcript, click here. Bernie Jaworski '79 (sociology) is executive vice president North America of the Institute of Management Development, a global meeting place for executives from all over the world. IMD is consistently ranked by Forbes, the Financial Times, the Economist and other leading publications as one of the top business schools worldwide in executive education. In this year's series of "Orchestrating Winning Performance" questions, Jaworski addresses the following: How do you foresee the future business environment within your industry and how will you respond to it? Can you describe one idea that you have heard this week that has inspired you to think and/or act differently? Listen to his discussion (and others) on YouTube. Prior to joining IMD, Jaworski was president of Monitor Executive Development for nearly ten years and a professor at the Marshall Business School at USC. Jaworski serves on the SBS Dean's Advisory Committee. Divine Capital Markets LLC, a leading securities brokerage and investment bank serving institutional managers and high net worth individuals, has announced the release of the second of a series of independent research reports focusing on macroeconomic and company specific coverage for Brazil, Russia, India and China (the "BRIC" sector); the world's top four emerging market economies. Danielle Hughes '91 (political science), founder and president of Divine Capital, stated, "Contrary to the conventional wisdom, Brazil's exports are not only agricultural and industrial commodities. The country has a large and diversified manufacturing base. In fact, Brazil's largest exports to the United States are mid-size aircraft and cell phones, followed by electric machinery and petroleum." Hughes also serves on the SBS Dean's Advisory Committee. Read more... Kevin Koczwara '09 (journalism), Ryan Fleming '09 (history), and Joe Meloni '09 (journalism) are The Soccer Guys: Three Yanks, One Blog. The Soccer Guys is a blog dedicated to the game of Soccer, all the latest news, and reviews of games, transfers, players and rumors. Read about the "guys." When the U.S. Senate rejected the Murkowski "Dirty Air Act" that would have stopped the EPA from regulating carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), Greenpeace, The Sierra Club, and The Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) all praised the decision. Kevin Knobloch '78 (journalism), president of UCS, said, "Passing a resolution pretending the agency never made that finding can’t erase the facts. The E.P.A. is right to start regulating these emissions as soon as possible." Knobloch contended that passage of the bill would have had far reaching consequence. "Besides letting power plants and factories continue to emit dangerous pollutants, it would have jeopardized the historic agreement that set the first joint fuel economy and global warming tailpipe standards." The UCS had sent a letter to Congress signed by almost 2,000 scientists urging defeat of the bill. Read more... Another article in Marketplace speaks of Knobloch's efforts to rebrand the image of scientists (especially climate scientists) in response to some bad press they have gotten lately. Gov. Deval Patrick has appointed Vanessa Otero '09 MPA (public policy and administration) of Chicopee, MA, to the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which owns the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield. Otero, is the director of the North End Campus Coalition in Springfield. She replaces Paul C. Picknelly, president of Monarch Enterprises in Springfield, who served on the board for close to 10 years. Read more... Six years ago Peter Trovato '05 (political science) was a star hockey player and captain of the team when he was inspired to start a charity. "I read a story of a service-member who went over to Iraq and was deployed for about a month, and within that time frame, his child was born, and then he was killed. It was stories like that that really drove me to kind of figure out a way to do it," he says. Trovato took on an extraordinary mission, calling it the Massachusetts Soldiers Legacy Fund. Its goal is to help cover the cost of college for every child of each Massachusetts service-member killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. To date he has raised over $3 million, enough to guarantee up to $40,000 in assistance to each of these children. Read articles at WHDH TV-7 (Boston) and in Springfield Republican. Please send us your news! Also, view upcoming alumni events, sponsored by the Alumni Assocation, on their Events Listing. And check out MaroonCentral, the Alumni Association's online community. This is a FREE social networking service that encourages communication and professional networking among alumni and students through class notes, profiles, a searchable directory, and more. Faculty/Department News The Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning has recently launched a Facebook page. Become a fan (you must be a Facebook member to do so). Many members of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning went to Budapest for the Fábos International Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning. The conference, held every three years and founded by professor emeritus Julius Fábos (LARP), brings together experts who are influencing landscape planning, policymaking and greenway planning from the local to international level. Intended to highlight recent trends and expand the literature about landscape and greenway planning, its aim is to explore how landscape architects and planners from different countries have approached greenway planning and to understand how greenways have been tailored to each county’s unique geographical, cultural, and political circumstances. Read more... John Mullin (landscape architecture and regional planning), dean of the Graduate School, has been appointed to the Federal Reserve Bank’s New England Community Development Advisory Committee for a three-year term beginning July 1. The New England Community Development Advisory Council for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston was established to provide a forum for representatives of community development organizations from the private, public, and non-profit sectors. The Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues (Division 44, American Psychological Association) selected When Gay People Get Married by Lee Badgett (economics) director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration, for the Distinguished Book Award this year. The award recognizes works that have made a significant contribution to the field of LGBT psychology. It will be presented on August 14 at the 118th Convention of the American Psychological Association in San Diego. Read an interview with Badgett about the book. Professor Jan Servaes (communication), director of the Center for Communication for Sustainable Social Change, introduced the “Future Imperatives of Communication and Information for Development and Social Change” roundtable, the first UNESCO-ORBICOM initiative roundtable held at SIGNIS (the World Catholic Association for Communication) Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Associate Professor Brenda Bushouse (political science) was an invited speaker at the University of Colorado, Denver at an event featuring Elinor Ostrom, 2009 recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics. The presentation was part of a symposium on the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework developed by Ostrom and colleagues at the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University. Papers from the symposium will be published in a special issue of the Policy Studies Journal. Professor Jillian Schwedler (political science) was a featured speaker at the Dubai Initiative Conference "Adaptation and Innovation in the Middle East," organized by the Dubai Initiative of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. Associate Professor Dean Robinson (political science) has been selected as a 2010 Marion and Jasper Whiting Fellow, enabling him to conduct research this summer in Australia and New Zealand on health disparities in those countries and the policies pursued by their governments to address them. SBS in the News New York Times, 7/20/10. Nancy Folbre (economics) comments about the sharp decline in the number of women who identify themselves as housewives in Scandinavia and other western industrialized nations. “Even though a number of women still stay at home, a cultural shift has put them on the defensive,” says Folbre, noting that women now work because they want to and because their families need the added income, leading to a new set of social norms. Hot Indie News, 7/19/10. Folbre is one of 16 economists and historians who have signed a consensus statement demanding more government stimulus to address unemployment and the faltering recovery. New York Times, 7/12/10. Folbre, writing her weekly Economix blog, discusses how to boost the sagging national economy by promoting green jobs. She notes that her UMass Amherst colleagues, economists Robert Pollin, James Heintz and Heidi Garrett-Peltier, have outlined how energy conservation in public buildings and private homes can generate jobs and save energy. New York Times, 7/5/10. Folbre writes in the Economix blog about what she calls cougar capitalism, where women achieve success in what has been a male-dominated business world. She cites the example of Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, highly successful women who have used their money and influence to win primary elections in California for governor and U.S. senator. New York Times, 6/21/10. Folbre writes about differing opinions regarding how to deal with high levels of unemployment. She notes that the issue is becoming politically polarized with conservatives arguing against extending benefits and more liberal politicians seeking to extend jobless benefits. She also says some people contend that wages in the U.S. are too high and need to be adjusted downward and people who are out of work need to lower their expectations and take any available work. Mlive.com, 6/21/10. A columnist from Michigan, which is experiencing high levels of unemployment, cites Folbre’s views in a piece about why some commentators and officials actually blame the unemployed for their situations. New York Times, 6/14/10. Folbre writes in the Economix blog about sagging job and income growth in the middle class in recent decades. She says this trend threatens to derail reaching the American dream for many families. Business Daily, 7/13/10. A new report from the Society for International Development, co-authored by Mwangi wa Gĩthĩnji (economics) finds that while Kenya’s economy added jobs last year, the benefits of this growth were enjoyed only by a small fraction of the country’s population. The report found a widening inequality in incomes and a steady but inadequate job creation. Boston Globe, 7/7/10. Tatishe Nteta (political science) is quoted in a story that examines the political implications of U.S. Sen. Scott Brown’s upcoming vote on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court. He says Brown has to consider how a vote against Kagan will be viewed by independent voters and women in Massachusetts. American Banker, 7/6/10. Jane D’Arista (Political Economy Research Institute) says the ultimate responsibility for regulating the activities of huge banks such as CitiBank rests with the Federal Reserve because it has authority over the bank holding company as a whole. Her comments come in a story about how regulatory oversight of financial institutions is fractured and lacking in clear lines of responsibility. Fortune’s Wall Street blog, 6/15/10. D’Arista comments in a story about how reformers want Congress to pass tough new rules to control the financial industry, but many elected officials are happy to talk about reform without taking significant action. D’Arista says the financial regulation bill that is being drafted by House and Senate negotiators contains many instances where an issue is to be studied rather than having a new rule enacted. Veteranstoday.com, 6/11/10. D'Arista argues in favor of provisions in Section 716 of the U.S. Senate’s financial reform bill that make a clear separation between the business of banking and the marketing and trading of derivatives. The Independent [London, U.K.], 7/5/10. Robert Feldman, dean of the College of Social and Behavior Sciences, talks about why it is difficult to detect when someone is lying in a lengthy article. It was picked up by the wire services and appeared in many major outlets around the world, including Fox News [Chicago], 7/6/10; Gulf Times [Doha, Qata], 7/6/10; The Age (Melbourne, Australia), July 18, 2010. Feldman is author of The Liar in Your LIfe, based on 25 years of research. Middle East Report Online, 6/30/10. Jillian Schwedler (political science) reports on the political situation in Jordan and the Middle East after spending several weeks this spring in Jordan. Springfield Republican, 6/29/10. Cherise Leclerc '11 (communication), of Hampden, MA, was the third runner-up in the Miss Massachusetts scholarship pageant held this summer in Worcester. Leclerc was the winner of interview portion of the pageant and performed a harp solo for her pageant talent. The fourth-overall finish gave her a $1,500 scholarship. McClatchy News Service, 6/29/10. Peter Haas (political science) comments in a story about how other countries in the Americas are watching the response to the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico and the difficulty in stopping the flow of oil from the well and the inadequacy of cleanup efforts. Haas says international cooperation on environmental issues is frequently driven by disasters such as this. Aliran.com [Malaysia], 6/28/10. Doctoral student Lee Hwok Aun (economics), writes a column supporting the idea of establishing a minimum wage in Malaysia. The column responds to two previous pieces that opposed the idea. In These Times, 6/28/10. A story about the high unemployment rate and how unions and Democrats are failing to make it a bigger political issue mentions various plans to generate jobs in the recovering economy. One proposal offered by Robert Pollin (economics), co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute, calls for creating 18 million new jobs by 2012 through public investment financed by $700 billion in bank loans and an equal amount of federal spending. The jobs would be in retrofitting homes for energy efficiency, conservation projects, creating public art and providing social and educational services. New York Daily News, 6/27/10. Pollin writes an op-ed supporting legislation that would create a living wage law in that city. He says paying workers a minimum of $10 per hours does not artificially boost prices and hasn’t been shown to reduce the number of lower-wage jobs in cities that have adopted this policy. Overall, Pollin argues, living wage laws have not harmed low-wage workers or had unintended economic consequences. Therealnews.com, 6/16/10. Pollin discusses federal regulation of derivatives. Huffington Post, 6/7/10. Pollin writes a column about what the key issues are likely to be as negotiators from the U.S. House and Senate work to reconcile the two chambers’ versions of financial reform legislation. Pollin says much effort will be spent coming up with a new way to regulate derivatives and other financial instruments used to speculate on oil and food prices. Keennewsservice.com, 6/27/10. M.V. Lee Badgett (economics), director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration and research director at the Williams Institute, says it’s unclear whether there will be a public backlash if a federal judge overturns California’s ban on same-sex marriage. She points to a recent Gallup poll that shows a statistical increase in the number of people who say gay and lesbian relations are “morally acceptable” or “morally wrong.” The difference in the latest poll has increased and seems to indicate that the number of people who find gay and lesbian relations “morally wrong” is declining over time. Gltnewsnow.com, 6/23/10. The U.S. Department of Labor has ruled that the federal Family and Medical Leave Act will allow employees to take unpaid leave to care for children of same-sex partners. A new study conducted by Badgett says up to 100,000 children in 50,000 families could be affected by the ruling. Sacramento Bee, 6/20/10. Sheldon Goldman (political science) says President Barack Obama is appointing a very diverse group of people to federal judicial posts, in sharp contrast to what was done in the past. He also says Obama should join with former presidents Clinton and the two Bushes to call on the Senate to stop using filibusters and secret holds to stall action on judicial nominees. USA Today, 6/16/10. Goldman comments in a front-page story about President Obama’s efforts to bring greater diversity to federal judicial appointments. Goldman says seven of the president’s first ten appointments to federal judgeships have been “‘non-traditional,’ meaning they have not been white men.” Overall, half of the 73 candidates for judicial posts have been women, about 25% have been African American, 10% are Hispanic and 11% have been Asian American. Goldman has been tracking federal judicial appointments since the 1960s. Therealnews.com, 6/17/10. Michael Ash (economics and public policy), who co-directs the Corporate Toxics Information Project of the Political Economy Research Institute, discusses the top 100 polluter list the group compiles each year. He says the list is a reminder that there is a constant amount of pollution being released into the atmosphere by large companies and that doesn’t get the kind of public attention that an event such as the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is receiving. Business West, 6/9/10. John R. Mullin (landscape architecture and regional planning), dean of the Graduate School and director of the Center for Economic Development, explains his role as the “point person” for UMass Amherst’s Springfield Initiative, a series of projects aimed at boosting the profile of the university in the region’s largest city. Mullin says the university seeks to help Springfield in various ways and wants to attract top students from the city to come to the Amherst campus when they graduate from high school. SocialistWorker.org, 6/4/10. A column by Professor Emeritus Rick Wolff (economics) examines the financial crisis in Greece. He concludes that government officials there and in international financial circles have misdiagnosed the economic problems and are blaming ordinary working people for something caused by the underlying capitalist system. A Word from SBS Gifts from alumni and friends are vital to the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Your investment allows us to create remarkable opportunities for today’s—and tomorrow's—students. If you are already a donor, please accept our sincere thanks. If not, please consider a donation to SBS for your department, student financial aid, or a purpose that speaks to your personal experiences and priorities. To make a gift online, click here. Or, send a check to the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Draper Hall, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 40 Campus Center Way, Amherst, MA 01003-9244. Questions? Contact James Mallet, 413.545.3945. We welcome feedback related to this newsletter, the college in general, specific concerns, or topics of interest. Please address all correspondence, including story ideas, to Sabine Cray, director of communications and marketing. If you wish to add your name to the mailing list, or if you wish to unsubscribe, please contact us. If you have had a change of address, email or other personal information, you can update it online. 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