California State University, Sacramento
Public Policy & Administration

COMMUNICATOR

July 22, 2003

FACULTY
Rob Wassmer, Public Policy and Administration, has been appointed to the editorial board of the refereed journal "Public Finance and Management".

He also, presented his article on "The Influence of Local Fiscal Structure and Growth Control Choices on 'Big Box' Urban Sprawl in the American West" at a session he moderated on Local Government and Authority Fiscal Issues at the Western Social Science Meetings on April 17 in Las Vegas.

Rob had his essay on "Urban Devolution and Metropolitan Local Governance in California's Next Half Century of Growth" published in the California Policy Issues Annual (a joint publication of the Pat Brown Institute at CSULA and Center for California Studies at CSUS).

Nancy Shulock participated this summer as a faculty member in the first annual Assessment Conference in Student Affairs at Penn State University, sponsored jointly by the Penn State Center for the Study of Higher Education and the American College Personnel Association.

Nancy Shulock and the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy which she directs, have been funded to continue their work with the California Legislature to develop a framework of policy goals and performance indicators to guide a new system of accountability for higher education in California. The new approach differs from typical state approaches to higher education accountability by looking at statewide policy goals and collective accountability for educational outcomes for Californians, and by seeking to collect only those data that would be relevant for state policy makers to guide policy change. Most approaches try to hold individual institutions accountable for outcomes and fail to recognize the collective responsibility of a variety of institutions, including the Legislature, for designing and funding higher education institutions that meet state needs. So far this approach has successfully avoided the kinds of institutional resistance to accountability that traditional approaches usually encounter.

Nancy Shulock has been funded, along with David Lang, from the Economics Department and Colleen Moore from the CSUS Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy and PPA alumna, through the Faculty Research Fellows Program, to do a study of the equity of funding for Adult Education in the state, with respect to the needs across the state.

Bob Waste has been selected to the American Leadership Forum. To quote CSUS's immediate past president, Donald Gerth, "This is a significant achievement and involves a form or representation of the university in the greater community which is very important." Congratulations, Bob!