SLU Public Policy Studies

The Office of Community and Social Research advances the research, teaching and service mission of the College of Education and Public Service through the development, management and support of faculty-community grants, contracts, and services. The office and College staff, the College leadership team, and faculty fellows meet regularly to vet opportunities and proposals and to engage broader university and community partners.  For more information see http://www.slu.edu/x11059.xml

The Program Director is responsible for leadership and management of the Ph.D. Program in Public Affairs (PAF). The PAF doctoral program, which was started in 1998, stands as the flagship graduate program in the College of Health and Public Affairs. Presently, the program has an enrollment of 91 students, representing a variety of academic backgrounds and career interests. The program is fundamentally interdisciplinary and draws primarily upon faculty in the departments of Criminal Justice, Health Management and Informatics, Public Administration and Social Work. The Director will be charged with working to insure that the program becomes one of the leading interdisciplinary public affairs doctoral programs in the nation. To achieve this goal, the Director should have a firm grasp of public affairs curriculum and of the unique advantages and challenges presented by an interdisciplinary public affairs program. The director also should have a clear vision of how best to advance interdisciplinary teaching, research and scholarship within a multidisciplinary organizational context. Also, the Director will need to work collaboratively with departments and offices, within and outside the college, in a leadership role to insure that strategic planning for the continued growth and development of the program is carried out and that necessary resources are obtained. Finally, the Director is responsible for all aspects of program operations, which are carried out with the dedicated assistance of a full-time staff person and a part-time student worker. An enumeration of specific administrative responsibilities accompanies this position description.

Qualifications: 1) Eligible for appointment in the College of Health and Public Affairs in a discipline associated with the PAF program; 2) significant level of involvement in doctoral education; 3) active research agenda appropriate to doctoral level education; 4) ability to generate sponsored research and support; and 5) administrative experience in graduate education (required).

Application: Please send (1) a letter of application describing your qualifications and interest in the position; (2) a recent copy of your curriculum vita; and (3) a statement that describes your philosophy and vision of interdisciplinary social science with particular references to the PAF Ph.D. program to:

Dr. Mary Ann Feldheim, Search Committee Chair

College of Health and Public Affairs

HPA II – Room 238C

University of Central Florida

Orlando, FL 32816-1395

PH: (407) 823-2604

EM: mfeldhei@mail.ucf.edu

The River des Peres Trash Bash will have clean-up sites throughout the entire River des Peres watershed. Several of the clean-up areas are along Great Rivers Greenway District trail projects. The clean-up base area, as well as registration and after clean-up festivities, will be along the River des Peres Greenway Trail on River des Peres Blvd between Morganford and Gravois (Fultz Field area) in St. Louis City. The clean-up promotes the connection of land and water through neighborhood and stream clean-ups, educating the public on how they can Make a Difference in their neighborhood, and the development and promotion of partnerships along River des Peres. Please come out and join us! Sign up here….

At the first SLUUPA meeting of the semester, held Friday 8/28/09, officers for the current school year were elected.

The new officers are:

• President – Anne Stevenson
• Vice President – Dawn Griffin David
• Secretary – Dan Burghoff
• Treasurer – John Roper
• Representative- Adriana Bates

Anne Stevenson, SLUPA President

SLUUPA meets every 2nd Friday of each month, although dates may vary depending upon the schedule of an invited speaker.  Save the following dates this semester:

• 9/11/09
• 10/9/09
• 11/13/09

Metro St. Louis Foreclosure Intervention Task Force Meeting Reminder: Thursday, September 17, 2009, 10am to 11:30am, location: Schlafly Branch Library,  225 N. Euclid, St. Louis, MO 63108. Parking is available in the garage above the library or on the street.

Agenda will include a special discussion about rising unemployment and foreclosure intervention strategies. According to NeighborWorks, since last year unemployment went from 40 % to 65% as the primary reason people are defaulting on mortgages. While we continue to see defaults on subprime high cost loans a growing majority of defaults are on prime interest rate loans. See recent Washington Post article:

Non-profit counselors, lending industry reps and elected officials are encouraged to attend and all are invited to participate in this discussion with an eye on solutions. We are in the middle of a new phase of the foreclosure crisis. Now is a good time to discuss and rethink what we are doing.

Discussion questions to include:

• What is different about the client group we are seeing now?
• What do we need to do differently in counseling homeowners who have experienced a job loss (if anything)?
• What do we need to do differently in outreach and messaging (if anything)?
• What do we need to ask lenders to do differently?
• What are lenders doing differently?
• What policy solutions are being discussed at the federal and state level to address the issue of unemployment and foreclosure?

Upcoming Committee Meetings:

• Marketing and Education Committee: September 8, 2009 from 3:30 to 5pm at Beyond Housing
• Legislative and Research Committee September 14, 2009 from 9:30 to 11:00 am at Beyond Housing

See foreclosure task force on line calendar

www.beyondhousing.org
www.foreclosurehelpstl.org

In celebration of the new academic year, Thursday, August 27th for the College of Education & Public Service: Gathering of the Minds BBQ.

Where: Marquette Field (behind Tegeler/Fitzgerald)
Time: 12:00-2:00

Activities: BBQ, t-shirts for sale, and sno-cones.

If you want to receive email updates about upcoming SLUUPA events and other valuable information, please send your name and email address to Anne.

Join our facebook group (just search for SLU Urban Planning Association) to keep up on educational and social events that you might be interested in attending. There is already a ULI (Urban Land Institute) Happy Hour this Thursday evening (August 27th) at 5:30 PM that you might be very interested in! See www.stlouis.org for more details.

We have volunteers to run for President and Vice President so far, but we still need people for Treasurer, Secretary, and Representative. (Of course, if you are interested in pres or vice pres you’re more than willing to run for those too!) None of the jobs require a huge time commitment, just some enthusiasm and perhaps a little paperwork. If you want a copy of the “official” duties or have any other questions, please email Anne for more information.

Elections are scheduled to take place at our first meeting this Friday at 5:30PM in Tegeler Hall.