News Releases

SPA Professor John Casey Authors New Book
SPA Associate Professor John Casey has written a new book entitled Policing The World: The Practice of International and Transnational Policing. Using case studies, Professor Casey examines and compares the responses and challenges of policing given the political, social and economic impacts of a new dimension of crime in the globalized world of the 21st century. For more information about Professor Casey’s book, click here. And click here for to learn more about Professor Casey.
2009-2010 Perspectives in Immigration Lecture Series Begins
SPA and the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences are jointly sponsoring a lecture series entitled "Perspectives on Immigration." The lectures, beginning on November 23, 2009 and to be held on Mondays and Tuesdays throughout the academic year, will focus on various aspects of immigration, including its impact on our culture and economy. Each lecture will last approximately 45 minutes, will be followed by a question and discussion session, and are open to the entire Baruch College community. For more information, contact Jonathan Engel at the School of Public Affairs or visit the SPA Calendar of Events.
SPA Student Reflects on his Internship
Apurva Mehrotra, MPA ‘10, recently served as the Community Service Society’s Harvey W. Schultz Public Policy Intern. Throughout the summer, he explored workforce development issues and projects relating to public assistance access for youths and young adults. In addition, Mehrota began research on an independent project looking at attitudinal and cultural barriers to higher education for minority students from urban areas. He said the internship gave him a greater understanding of the issues of poverty and youth development and validated his decision to enter the field of public policy.
SPA Offers Five Fabulous New Electives
PAF 9342 - Political Policy Analysis in Education
Code: 1812 Wed 6– 8:30pm Professor Dorothy Shipps
This course will apply several major political science policy analysis frameworks to typical education policy problems. Cases involve schools, districts, states, and the federal government as well as non-governmental organizations. Students learn to use the vocabulary of political policy analysis and develop a tool-kit of analysis techniques.

PAF 9699 - Selected Topics in Public Policy: Law & Nonprofit Organizations
Code: 1814 Tues 6-8:30pm Professor Sonia Jarvis
This course will analyze the legal issues involved in establishing, regulating and maintaining nonprofit organizations. Also examined will be the legal and administrative issues that affect the structure, management, behavior and accountability of nonprofit organizations.

PAF 9699 - Selected Topics in Public Policy: Anti-Semitism and Civil Rights Code: 1816 Thurs 6-8:30pm Professor Kenneth Marcus
This course examines contemporary anti-Semitism, with emphasis on political and legal ramifications. Policy issues explored include: conflicts regarding the boundaries of free expression, the application of civil rights laws, the status of anti-Israeli rhetoric, and the putative existence of a “new anti-Semitism.”

PAF 9299 - Selected Topics in Nonprofit Management: Managing Arts & Culture Organizations in 21st Century
Code: 2296 Sun 1 - 3:30pm
Introduces students to Arts Management for nonprofit organizations. Course examines the overall situation of the arts/culture segment within the nonprofit world. Examines fundraising, marketing, outreach and arts      education research as they pertain to Art Management. The course will be taught by Wanda Bershen, President of RDP, who has worked with arts and cultural organizations for 25 years. Her work has included being a curator and Dept head at the Jewish Museum, and a consultant to state arts councils for New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. She was the Program Director for CUNY-TV & the founding director of the first national arts services organization for media arts (NAMAC). Her company RDP consults on planning, marketing and fundraising for arts, cultural & educational organizations. She has developed projects with organizations including Brooklyn Museum of Art, American Museum of the Moving Image, Film Society of Lincoln Center, and Southampton Historical Museum. She has taught at Rutgers & Temple Universities, at Philadelphia College of Art and is currently a faculty member at NYU for the Arts Management Certificate Program. She has written for numerous publications including American History Review, Artforum, & Film Quarterly.

PAF 9299 - Governing Communities & Funding Infrastructure
Code: 2452 Sat 9:05am - 12:10pm
An introduction to the principles governing and regulating units of state and local government in our federal system. The course will prepare students for positions in the public and private sectors, doing work that entails the public provision of goods and services, the financing of infrastructure projects, and the creation and development of public-private partnerships. The course will be taught by Eugene W. Harper, Jr., who has practiced as a public-finance attorney for about 35 years in New York City, where he represented public- and private-sector clients involved in infrastructure finance nation-wide, including such major projects in NY as MTA, SUNY, Thruway, Environmental Facilities, JFK’s Terminal 4, and others.   He has also been a law professor at Fordham and Benjamin Cardozo law schools.
SPA Offers New Map Making Class
Is a map worth a thousand words? This course will provide an introduction to basic map-making skills and the use of maps and spatial data in policy applications. Students will learn how to think spatially and to create thematic maps. Students will be required to evaluate maps for what they reveal as well as what they do not reveal. Students will gain hands-on experience with ArcGIS mapping software including: the basic geographic conventions for mapmaking, importing, cleaning, and editing data in mapping software, variable construction and classification, and production of maps along with data tables and graphs. Students will then refine skills to include: overlays of more than one data type and dual presentation of maps; constructing geographically-specific variables (e.g., distances between locations of interest). Students will also learn how to export data for use in statistical package, and will generate complementary maps, tables, and basic statistical test of newly constructed data. The course will consist of lectures and lab work. Students will receive a free 1-year copy of ArcGIS for home use. Class meets on Wednesdays from 6-8:30PM. Pre-requisite: PAF 9170 (including concurrent enrolment) or Instructor's Permission For the latter, email: Deborah.Balk@baruch.cuny.edu. View Professor Balk's bio here.
SPA Alum honored by the New York Times Company
Baruch College’s School of Public Affairs has the distinct honor of having alumni win two years in a row, the prestigious New York Times Nonprofit Excellence Award. This year’s winner, Gary Bagley, XMPA ’05, Executive Director, New York Cares won the top 2009 New York Times Nonprofit Excellence Award for “Overall Management Excellence”. The judges cited New York Cares' strength in financial management, communications, human resources, use of technology, and new program development. We're delighted to recognize Gary and New York Cares for the management practices that make it possible to mobilize 43,000 volunteers to help 450,000 New Yorkers in need each year. Last year’s award was given to Diane Arneth, XMPA ‘01, Executive Director of Community Health Action of Staten Island, who also won the top award for “Overall Management Excellence”
SPA Alum on NPR's On Point
Mosharraf Zaidi, MPA ’01, joined NPR’s Tom Ashbrook to discuss Pakistan’s instability and nuclear arsenal. Mosharraf is a columnist for Pakistan’s biggest English-language newspaper, The News, and for the Egyptian paper al-Shorouk. His work also appears in the Far Eastern Economic Review.
Listen to the segment online
SPA Student Receives Party Backing in Special Election
Current MPA student Vanessa Gibson received the endorsement of the Bronx Democratic Party and her former boss, Assemblywoman Aurelia Greene, in the race to fill the State Assembly's 77th District seat.
NUF Alum Makes Bid for Council Seat
Ronald Kim, MPA '06, is a candidate for New York City Council, District 20 in Queens. Ron was most recently the Regional Representative for Queens County in the Governor’s Office of New York State, appointed by Governor David Patterson.
XMPA Student Honored by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer
Peter Cheng, Executive Director of the Indochina Sino-American Community Center and current Executice MPA student, was honored as a Distinguished Leader in the Community by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer at the 4th Annual Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Cultural Celebration.
SPA Alumna Receives NASW Award
Anna De Santis, XMPA '08, was honored, this May, with a Social Work Image Award from the National Association of Social Workers.
Professor Awarded '09 Guggenheim Fellowship
Robert Courtney Smith, associate professor in Baruch’s School of Public Affairs, is among the 180 artists, scholars and scientists designated as recipients of the 2009 Guggenheim Fellowships. Each Guggenheim Fellow, “appointed on the basis of impressive achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment”, receives a grant to support his/her work. Professor Smith, who was selected in the field of sociology, proposed to write his next book, Horatio Alger Lives in Brooklyn . . . But Check His Papers. Smith describes it as “about upward mobility among Mexican youth, and the cruel natural experiment the United States is practicing on undocumented youth who grow up here, but cannot work or sometimes go to school.”

The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation was established in 1925 by former U.S. Senator and Mrs. John Simon Guggenheim as a memorial to their son, who died in 1922. The foundation has distributed more than $273 million in grants since its founding. Smith is one of six City University of New York professors who were among this year’s awardees, selected from a pool of close to 3000 applicants.

Robert Courtney Smith earned his Ph.D from Columbia University, and is the author of “Mexican New York: Transnational Lives of New Immigrants.” Based on 15 years of ethnographic research in New York City and Puebla, Mexico, it shows how transnational lives are influenced by migration decisions, assimilation patterns, gender relations among both first and second generation immigrants, religious experiences, political participation in American and Mexican communities and participation in gangs among other factors. The book won the 2006 W.I.Thomas and Florian Zaniecki Award of the International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association for the best book on migration. He has also won the American Sociological Society’s 2007 Robert Park Award, the 2008 Best Book Award of the Latino Section, and the 2008 Distinguished Book Award.

SPA Alumna also Obama Appointee

Michelle J. DePass, MPA '99, is President Barack Obama's nominee for Assistant Administrator for International Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency. Ms. DePass is currently a program officer at the Ford Foundation where she manages the foundation's initiative on Environmental Justice and Healthy Communities. She taught federal environmental law and policy at the City University of New York, developed and administered a bi-state workforce development training program for disadvantaged youth on superfund waste sites, and served as executive director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance.
American Humanics Receives Excellence in Student Recruitment Award
American Humanics (AH), a national alliance of universities and nonprofit organizations, presented its 2008 Excellence in Student Recruitment award to Baruch College in recognition of the College's innovative recruiting methods. Baruch AH student leader Caitlin Hannon received the award at the American Humanics Management/Leadership Institute (AHMI) earlier this month on behalf of AH Campus Executive/Director Professor Stan Altman.
SPA Faculty Receive ARNOVA Awards
The Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) held their annual conference in Philadelphia, PA on November 20-22. Among the award recipients were SPA's Bin Chen, William Diaz Fellowship Award; Peter Dobkin Hall, Award for Distinguished Achievement and Leadership in Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Research; and Thad Calabrese, who will joing the SPA faculty roster in the Spring of 2009, Emerging Scholar Award .
Professor David Hoffman received an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported fellowship from The Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Mellon Resident Humanities Fellows will receive full release from undergraduate teaching to spend the academic year at the Graduate Center, pursuing their research and helping to coordinate an interdisciplinary seminar comprised of other Fellows.

Professor Shoshanna Sofaer recently received the prestigious designation as the Lorraine and Ralph Lubin Distinguished Visiting Professor, Weil Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Department of Public Health.