PPA Newsletter

Greetings members of the PPA community! This edition marks the return of our on-line newsletter, absent for a time because of competing obligations. We hope to offer a new issue about once a month.

WELCOME, MARY KIRLIN
We wish to extend a warm welcome to Professor Mary Kirlin and her family. Professor Kirlin joins us after a few years teaching at an Indiana University campus, but has strong California roots. She received her BA from San Francisco State University, obtained her Ph. D. from the University of Southern California, served as chief of staff to former CA Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin, served as an appointee of the State Treasurer, and held a position as a principal consultant in the Assembly Office of Research. She will teach courses on public management (PPA 240A&B) and has a particular interest in promoting the civic engagement of young people. If that doesn't keep her busy enough, we're sure that baby Luci (who joins big brother Sam and father John) will. The Kirlin family will be settling in the Curtis Park part of Sacramento, and you can expect to see Mary at our late August fall welcome event.

AUGUST 26 PIZZA PARTY
Speaking of that event, you are all invited to a picnic for PPA students, alumni, faculty and friends at 6:00 on Tuesday, August 26. The event will be held in the Alumni Grove near the Guy West bridge. More details will be forthcoming, but please mark this on your calendar. Also, please let us know if you are able to attend as that will influence how much food and drink we bring. RSVP to 916-278-6557 or ppa-01@saclink.csus.edu.

PPA ADVISORY COMMITTEE
We are pleased that before stepping down as President, Don Gerth approved the creation of a PPA Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee will be assisting the department with long range strategy, curriculum review, student recruitment, and other tasks. The initial members of the Advisory Committee include: Christopher Cabaldon, Mayor of West Sacramento and PPA alumnus; Cheryl Davis, Director of the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance; Marlene Garcia, Consultant for the California State Senate Education Committee; Grantland Johnson, Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency; Muriel Johnson, Sacramento County Supervisor; Elisabeth Kersten, Director of the California State Senate Office of Research; Lisa Martin, Policy Analyst for the California Taxpayers Association and PPA alumna; Betty Masuoka, Assistant City Manager for the City of Sacramento; Terry Schutten, Sacramento County Executive; Darrell Steinberg, Member of the California State Assembly; and Betty Yee, Deputy to State Board of Equalization Chairwoman.

CURRICULUM REMINDERS
While we've noted these changes in prior e-mail messages, it is worth reminding people about two major changes to the PPA curriculum. First, fulfilling our commitment to strengthen public management in our course work, we've replaced the old PPA 240 with a two course sequence, PPA 240A and PPA 240B. This will allow us to cover a variety of topics in much more depth. Note that since the old rules apply to people entering the program before this fall, students other than newcomers are only obligated to PPA 240A, but are encouraged to consider taking PPA 240B as an elective.

Second, we are now allowing students to take PPA 500 before the last semester in which they are enrolled in core courses, provided they have advanced to candidacy. We anticipate this will help many people to make progress on their theses/projects before finishing their course work.

And let me remind the procrastinators among you: if you can advance to candidacy you should advance to candidacy. The last thing you need is to deal with this right before you plan to enroll in the thesis seminar. I have horror stories if you need them.

MINI-CONFERENCE SERIES
The Department has decided to initiate a mini-conference series that ill bring speakers to campus and give students the opportunity to discuss important policy issues. For the first year, the topic will be higher education, to include discussions of topics such as student fee policy, access to college, college affordability, strategies for closing
the achievement gap among populations, the community college transfer function, etc. Keep an eye open for further announcements. There will be one event in the fall and one in the spring.

NEWS FROM A PPA ALUM
PPA Alum Richard (Rick) Funderburg is at the dissertation stage of a Ph.D. program in the Department of Planning, Policy, and Design at U.C. Irvine. He earlier served a year as Assistant Editor of the Journal of Regional Science. He writes that Rob Wassmer's course on urban economics provided a good background for the Ph.D. level course Rick took on that topic.

HELP ALWAYS NEEDED
In this difficult fiscal climate, it is especially helpful to send me any job leads or internships announcements you may come across. If you think there's even a chance it a lead may be helpful to someone, send it to me.

Enjoy the rest of your summer.

Ted Lascher
PPA Department Chair

COMMUNICATOR