Faculty Notes

Hamilton named Bass Chair

James (Jay) Hamilton was named the Oscar L. Tang Family Associate Professor of Public Policy Studies as part of the Bass Program for Excellent Undergraduate Education. The program recognizes faculty who are gifted teachers as well as scholars.

Hamilton teaches public policy courses on the regulatory process, on political analysis, and on media violence. His areas of research are the economics of regulation, public choice/ political economy, environmental policy and the media.

His most recent books are Calculating Risks? The Spatial and Political Dimensions of Hazardous Waste Cleanups (MIT Press 1999) and Channeling Violence: The Economic Market for Violent Television Programming (Princeton University Press 1998).

Zangar snares a Peabody

Stuart Zangar and his news team at WCPO-TV in Cincinnati won a Peabody Award, one of the highest honors in television, for what the judges called "courageous... investigations of fraud and misrepresentation in the construction of a new pro sports stadium."

Zangar, former news director at the station, now teaches Television Journalism at the Sanford Institute. He received the good news about the Peabody on his cell phone, while driving on a family vacation near Tampa, Fla. "I almost drove off the road," he said.

The investigative series, which spanned two years, previously won a national public service award from Sigma Delta Chi, the Society of Professional Journalists.

Jentleson lectures on foreign policy

Institute Director Bruce W. Jentleson has given a series of guest lectures on foreign policy issues this spring. As the Heather Reisman and Gerald Schwartz Distinguished Visitor at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto in early April, he lectured on the "Prospects for Peace in the Middle East."

He also spoke on "Conflict Prevention: U.S. Policy and Lessons Learned" at a conference sponsored by the Foreign Service Institute and the State Department. He discussed "Coercive Diplomacy, Scope and Limits: The Case of Iraq" at a conference conducted by the U.S. Institute of Peace.

In March he spoke on "Defining U.S. Interests" at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. His lecture was part of the Great Decisions series sponsored by UNC.

Jentleson is a foreign policy advisor to Vice President Al Gore and a leading expert on a wide range of foreign policy issues. His most recent publications are: American Foreign Policy: The Dynamics of Choice in the 21st Century (W.W. Norton 2000) and Opportunities Missed, Opportunities Seized: Preventive Diplomacy in the Post-Cold War World, a project of the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict (Rowman and Littlefield 1999).

Ladd speaks on improving school results for children

Helen (Sunny) Ladd, professor of public policy studies and economics, was the keynote speaker at the American Education Finance Association Meeting in Austin this spring. "Policy issues related to education finance can no longer be looked at in isolation from the broader set of issues related to overall education policy," she said. "The challenge is to harness the finance system toward the goal of higher achievement for all students."

Ladd also traveled to California this winter to make a presentation at the Danforth Foundation Policymakers' 2000 conference on "Improving Results for Children: Strengthening Communities, Families, and Schools." The conference was sponsored by the National Conference of State Legislatures, The National Governors' Association, The Danforth Foundation, and the Child and Family Policy Center at Vanderbilt University.

Conference participants included teams of high-level state officials and legislators in the fields of education and human services from 17 states. Ladd spoke to a plenary session about the conclusions from the recent National Academy of Sciences book, Making Money Matter, Financing America's Schools, which she co- edited.

Tifft and Jones finalists for Critics Circle Award

Public Policy Professors Susan E. Tifft and Alex S. Jones were finalists for the coveted National Book Critics Circle Award for best biography for their book, The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind the New York Times (Little, Brown 1999). The book was also named among the best non-fiction books of 1999 by the Los Angeles Times, Time magazine, Business Week and the New York Times.

Mickiewicz comments on Putin and the press

Acting Russian President Vladimir Putin's restrictions on news coverage of Chechnya have raised questions about whether he is bad news for press freedom. "It's always tension between issues of national security and war time on the one hand, and press freedom on the other," said Ellen Mickiewicz, James R. Shepley Professor of Public Policy Studies and Political Science, speaking on the PBS "News Hour with Jim Lehrer."

"What the Russian military had thought they would do in this war, as opposed to the first Chechen war, is simply to cordon it off and try to keep the news of what's going on from the news organizations," Mickiewicz said. "That's not a long-term strategy that works, as we see." But Russian audiences are "smart and savvy and able to make judgements when it sees differences in how news is covered," and Russian journalists "are very aware of the importance of perhaps the greatest achievement that the post-Soviet Russian government has actually made possible, which is freedom of expression," she added.

Mickiewicz, director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Communications and Journalism, is author of Changing Channels: Television and the Struggle for Power in Russia (Duke University Press 1999).

Ascher explains why governments waste natural resources

Many people seem to think that governments squander natural resources because officials are ignorant, incompetent, or greedy. But it's a bit more complicated than that, writes public policy professor William Ascher, in a cover story for Environment magazine.

He examines the complex motivations of public officials in 16 cases of major resource policy failure in developing countries. Ascher, director of the Center for International Development Research (CIDR), is the author of Why Governments Waste Natural Resources (Johns Hopkins University Press 1999).

Korstad heads Duke scholarship program

Robert Korstad, director of the Hart Leadership Program at the Sanford Institute, will serve as faculty director of Duke's B.N. Duke Scholars Program, effective July 1. The program awards 10 merit scholarships to students in each entering class from North and South Carolina, who are chosen for their leadership abilities and community involvement.

Professorship named for Susan King

A gift from an anonymous donor and several individuals made it possible for Duke to establish six new endowed professorships, including one named for Susan Bennett King, former Leader-in-Residence in the Hart Leadership Program, and a member of the Sanford Institute's Board of Visitors. The Susan B. King Professorship was established by King, who is also a 1962 graduate of The Women's College at Duke and a current member of the Duke Board of Trustees. King is currently president of The Leadership Initiative.

Keyssar and Tifft comment on corporate mergers

Public policy professors Alex Keyssar and Susan E. Tifft offer cautionary words about the impacts of mega mergers, in the March-April issue of Duke magazine. Keyssar, a labor historian, is concerned about the impact of mergers on consumers and displaced workers: "...this does result in increased prices, it does result in harms for various potential competitors and intermediaries - and people do lose their jobs, which is an important human cost." Tifft, who teaches a public policy course called "Who Owns the Press?" worries that corporate ownership of the news media can result in conflicts of interest regarding news content: there is a "danger that because you're covering yourself - and it's hard to avoid covering yourself - that you're going to pull your punches." For the rest of the story, see http://www.adm.duke.edu/alumni/dm27/merge.html

Rogerson speaks about governing the Internet

Kenneth Rogerson, director of research for the DeWitt Wallace Center for Communications and Journalism, participated in a roundtable discussion on "How and Whether to Govern the Internet" at the 30th Annual Administrative Law Conference at the Duke University School of Law. He also gave a presentation earlier at the International Studies Association on how international organizations discuss and relate to the Internet.

In other news, Rogerson wrote a paper on "Broadcast Policies of the European Union: Economically or Culturally Bound" which won the International Communication Association award for best paper in international communication. He will present the paper at the ICA meeting in June.

Rogerson, received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of South Carolina this spring.

Dyer on Durham merger commission

Donna Dyer, director of the Institute's Office of Internships, Placement and Alumni, has been appointed to serve on the Durham City-County Merger Commission. She is one of five Duke employees on the 40-member commission.