October 2008:
St. Mary’s College of Maryland Political Science Professors offer their predictions for the 2008 Presidential Election
Congratulations to Professor Fevzi Bilgin for having the prediction that most closely matched the final outcome. Well done Professor Bilgin!
With voters poised to go to the polls on Tuesday, the fearless faculty of the St. Mary’s College of Maryland Political Science Department have chosen to throw caution to the wind and go on the record with their predictions for the 2008 election. Read on for our predictions.
Assistant Professor Todd Eberly Assesses the State of the Presidential Contest for National Review
Although several recent polls
suggest that Senator Barack Obama has opened a substantial lead over Senator
John McCain, Todd Eberly, professor of political science argues in the online
edition of
National Review that the race is likely closer than it appears. Says
Eberly, Obama's lead "is far from insurmountable — and the closing weeks of an
election is the very time when as many as one in five voters are tuning in and
deciding which candidate to support."
September 2008:
St. Mary's College Students Attend Debating 4 Democracy Event at Swarthmore College
D4D
on the Road is a one-day training program that will be held at
11 college campuses around the country this fall. The program is designed to
provide novice and seasoned political activists with the tools and tactics
they will need to get their message across to elected officials and the media.
Workshop participants will learn how to analyze federal and state legislation,
contact their elected officials and the news media and get involved in
elections. St. Mary's College students attended the September 27th event at
Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.
The
workshop was be led by Soapbox
Consulting, a Washington DC based organization headed by Christopher Kush,
the author of The
One-Hour
Activist,
and a leading provider of training seminars, workshops, and lobby days for
many national associations.
Nine St. Mary's students attended the event.
Justice Department Seeks to Silence St. Mary's Professor
Adjunct professor of Political Science William Leonard has emerged as a key defense witness in a federal case alleging that Steven Rosen, the former chief foreign policy aide at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and Keith Weissman, the group's former chief Iran analyst, violated a World War I-era law, called the Espionage Act, when they allegedly passed along national security secrets to officials at the Israeli Embassy and to reporters. Leonard, who resigned last January as the U.S. government's chief expert on classified information, was prepared to testify that the information at issue was either not properly classified or was already available from public sources. The Justice Department has threatened to file criminal charges against Leonard if he appears for the defense. Full details of this important case can be found via the on-line version of Newsweek.
August 2008:
St. Mary's Students Meet Vice Presidential Nominee Joe Biden:
On Saturday, August 23 Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama announced his selection of Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) as his running mate. A group of St. Mary's students had an opportunity to meet with Senator Biden in November - when he was seeking the Presidential nomination. Students (standing left to right) Jacqueline Caminiti, Elizabeth LeBlanc, Austin Lyman, Molly McKee, and Sam Birnbaum (seated right) along with professor Todd Eberly (seated left) talked with Senator Biden about the campaign and about his quest for the presidency. Biden withdrew from the race in early January following a poor showing in the first caucus state of Iowa, but he made a very favorable impression on the students. Jacqueline Caminiti, found Biden to be "genuine and straightforward" while Molly McKee was impressed with his willing to stay "for hours after the formal program to talk to everyone."
St. Mary's College students Jacqueline Caminiti, Elizabeth LeBlanc, Austin Lyman, Molly McKee (standing left to right), and Samuel Birnbaum (seated right) along with assistant professor Todd Eberly (seated left) met with Delaware Senator and Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden (seated center) at the College Convention 2008 in Manchester, New Hampshire.
St. Mary's Graduate Robin Ricks (07) Receives William Donald Schaefer Scholarship
St.
Mary's College Political Science graduate Robin Ricks (seated left) was
selected as one of the recipients of the William D. Schaefer (seated right)
Academic Scholarship from the Maryland Higher Education Commission.
Robin is currently enrolled at the Johns Hopkins University graduate school and is working toward a Masters of Science degree in School Counseling.
While a student at St. Mary's, the Center for the Study of Democracy awarded Robin the William Donald Schaefer Internship in the Comptroller’s Office in Annapolis.
See full coverage courtesy of WBAL TV 11 in Baltimore.
Professor Anne Miles Named APSA Congressional Fellow
Anne
Miles has been named an APSA Congressional Fellow. The American Political
Science Association has long been committed to a goal of expanded knowledge
and awareness of Congress through direct participation. Its Congressional
Fellowship Program, founded in 1953, allows selected political scientists,
journalists, doctors, federal executives and international scholars to serve
on congressional personal or committee staffs and get paid to do so. Through
this unique opportunity, the Association enhances public understanding of
policy-making and improves the quality of scholarship, teaching and reporting
on American national politics. A comprehensive orientation begins each
year in November. Office assignments as full-time legislative aides in the
House of Representatives and/or Senate run from December to August.
Fellows are selected in a nationwide competition. To compete for a fellowship, candidates must be a U.S. citizen (or permanent U.S. resident), have completed a Ph.D completed within the last 15 years or a dissertation near completion (ABD); and have a scholarly interest in Congress and the policymaking process. Among the ranks of the Program's more than 1900 alumni are professors, reporters, editors, executives, lawyers, politicians, Hill staffers, parliamentarians, lobbyists, doctors, sociologists, anthropologists, Native American tribal leaders, federal domestic and foreign policy specialists, international scholars, and ambassadors - even a vice president.
(source: http://www.apsanet.org/section_165.cfm)
Student SMP Receives Honor:
St. Mary's College 2008 graduate Chantal Russell was selected as one of three 2008 Portz Scholars in the National Collegiate Honors Council's competition for outstanding undergraduate Honors papers. Chantal was selected for her SMP, "Innocence for Sale? Towards an Alternative Discourse of Sex Trafficking in Women.” The competition this year included 15 institutional nominees, and the overall quality of the papers was outstanding. Chantal will present a twenty-minute summary of her paper at the 2008 national conference of the National Collegiate Honors Council in San Antonio, TX. Asif Dowla, Economics, served as Chantal's mentor on the SMP.
June 2008:
Assistant professor Todd Eberly spoke on state-based efforts to expand health care to the working uninsured, at the third annual National Medicaid Congress in the District. Additional details can be found in the Washington Post.
May 2008:
The St. Mary's College Political Science Department, the Center for the Study of Democracy, and the St. Mary's chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha are pleased to announce the release of the 2007-2008 Edition of Open Water
