PPOL Update 10-25-05:

Here’s the new Update for PPOL-related news items.

1. Registration and Advising (for PPOL Faculty and Students)
2. PPOL Seminar Paper Presentations
3. Smart Growth Conference reminder
4. Upcoming Brown Bag Research Presentations
5. Poverty Presentation at Levine Museum
6. MBA Conference on Executive Leadership
7. Environmental Policy Presentation on Campus
8. Graduate Student Development Professional Program
9. Michigan Policy Journal
10. NCL Conference Volunteers Needed
11. Student Announcements
12. Fellowships
13. Jobs

1. Registration and Advising (for PPOL Faculty and Students)

As many of you are aware, I am still “learning the ropes” to a certain extent as director. One of the tasks that began taking an amazing amount of time was getting a clear handle on how each PPOL student has been progressing through the program. This entails rather tedious work. So, I am enlisting the help of our PPOL faculty advisors. Each of you has been assigned a faculty advisor. However, after speaking with these helpful folks, it became clear that most were not being used by the students. In and of itself, this is not a problem. However, in reviewing a sample of student files, it is clear that many students might need some of this advice. In order to get everyone on the same plane, I have put advising flags on all PPOL students for this term (not something that will be a recurring issue). This means that for this round of registration, you need to get with your advisor and go through your record before being cleared for registration. If you have forgotten who your advisor is, please let me know and I can give you that information.

The point of this exercise is to insure that everyone is progressing as fast as possible towards their next milestone in the program. In other words, first year students need to be taking the courses in the core (and only the core) to get to the qualifying exams as quickly as possible. Those past the exams should be working on their policy area courses and moving towards the comprehensive exam stage with due diligence. They should also have identified a likely candidate as their dissertation committee chair who will be responsible first for organizing your comprehensive exam, and then getting your through to the proposal defense stage. When meeting with your advisor, he/she will likely be confused by the number of Independent Study courses many of you have taken. Please have the information available to explain what each Independent Study course was (topic-wise) and whether it was to replace some other course.

A PhD is NOT something you want to try doing without some guidance, particularly in a young program like ours that is still growing and adapting to its environmental context. The faculty stand ready to help get you through it as best as possible. And if you or your advisor come up against some issue that seems confusing, I definitely will do everything I can to help. Registration officially opens on November 7th. Permits for courses can be given as early as October 31st, but only after you have met with your advisor and he/she has cleared your flag.

2. PPOL Seminar Paper Presentations and Student Organization Meeting

This Friday, October 28th, the PPOL Student Organization will hold a meeting at 3:00pm in Colvard 3066. At 3:30, ALL PPOL STUDENT AND FACULTY are invited to join the PPOL Seminar for a set of conference paper presentations being delivered by our PPOL students at upcoming conferences. This provides an opportunity for the students to get some practice and feedback as they develop their presentation skills (something other PhD programs at other universities should do more of for THEIR students!). The presentations will last about one hour, but is a great opportunity for the faculty to see some of the students “in action.” I hope everyone will be able to attend.

3. Smart Growth Conference reminder

This Thursday, October 27th, the MPA Alumni Association and Student Group are hosting a free conference on smart growth here on campus. This will be at the Cone Center beginning at 8:30 and wrapping up at 11:30. I have attached the flyer to this email.

4. Upcoming Brown Bag Research Presentations

Just a reminder to check the PPOL calendar online for upcoming research brown bag events in the various PPOL-partnering departments. Sociology has one coming up Friday, October 28th at noon in Fretwell 480C.

5. Poverty Presentation at Levine Museum

The Levine Museum of the New South is hosting a free public presentation entitled “Poverty and Plenty: A Century of Economic Change in North Carolina.” This will include a great set of speakers including former Clinton chief of staff and incoming UNC system president Erskine Bowles and perhaps the nation’s leading scholar on FDR, Dr. William Leuchtenburg. This will be Tuesday evening, November 1st. More details are available at http://www.museumofthenewsouth.org/calendar/detail/?ProgramId=165&OccurrenceId=232

6. MBA Conference on Executive Leadership

The School of Business is another partner with the PPOL program and their MBA program has invited interested students to join their executive leadership speaker series beginning with a presentation by Col. Jack Jacobs. I have attached a flyer for this event as well. It takes place tomorrow evening (Wednesday, Oct. 26) at the University Hilton. I am very happy that all our partner departments and colleges are welcoming the PPOL students to so many of the opportunities this growing university has to offer. It’s ultimately up to each of you to take advantage of these.

7. Environmental Policy Presentation on Campus

Here’s another opportunity coming up. On Monday, November 7th, at 5:30 pm in Colvard 3120, Jesse O'Neal of Barons Advanced Meteorological Systems (BAMS) is going to give a talk on the role of advanced computer models in environmental policy. In particular, Jesse is going to talk about the Assessment of Environmental Benefits (AEB) project. AEB is an effort using the CMAQ model to estimate the impacts on air quality stemming from Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) technologies. In addition to spending some time on CMAQ, Jesse will likely talk about experiences coming into the environmental consulting business from the policy side [BS, Biology; MBA; MS Environmental Science] and the project ASTEC which illustrates the role of models on energy policy and environmental policy. For those interested in policy, in air quality, and in environmental modeling, please make a point to take in this talk on Monday, November 7th.

8. Graduate Student Development Professional Program

You all should have received a note from the university about this. I just wanted to repeat a portion of it here along with the contact information for addition details. “I am pleased to announce the opening of the UNC Charlotte Graduate Student Professional Development Institute, which is offering a series of FREE academic and professional development offerings for our graduate and professional students. The Graduate School believes it is imperative to offer a richly and broadly configured infrastructure on this campus that promotes graduate academic excellence and also enhances the graduate culture on campus to enable the University to graduate students with the breadth and depth of knowledge and the intellectual and professional skills to prepare them for a productive life in an ever-changing world. The programs of this Institute will serve to support this Graduate School’s mission of fostering excellence in all dimensions of graduate education. The aim of the Institute’s programs is to complement the superb academic programs presented by our faculty by offering our graduate students an array of sessions aimed at fostering their academic excellence, developing their professional talents, and eventually launching their professional careers. http://www.uncc.edu/gradmiss/index.asp

9. Michigan Policy Journal

I have also attached an announcement for a Call for Papers from the Michigan Journal of Public Affairs which is a graduate student journal. For those looking to start your publishing career, this is a decent beginning and can be a first step in building up a strong publication record prior to entering the job market (an increasingly important criteria for being competitive). Take a look and see if you fit their call.

10. National League of Cities Conference Volunteers Needed

In December, Charlotte plans to host over 4,000 delegates for the National League of Cities Conference December 6-10. To be successful, they need 500+ volunteers to help roll out the red carpet. Volunteers will sign up for two- to three-hour periods of time staffing the Airport, our conference hotel desks, our Host City Area inside the Convention Center, and specific delegate events. If you would like to help, please visit our website at http://nlc2005.charmeck.org to create a volunteer profile, review job assignments and give a little of your time. In exchange, volunteers will be provided with a t-shirt, attend an orientation session, be provided access to Conference sessions the day they volunteer, and an invitation to a Thank You Reception on Friday, December 9. It’s an inexpensive way to attend. If you have any questions, you can contact Susan Elkins at selkins@ci.charlotte.nc.us or (704) 336-2403.

11. Student Announcements

PPOL student Stephanie Southworth and PPOL faculty member Dr. Roslyn Mickelson co-authored a recent article entitled “When Opting Out is Not a Choice: Implications for NCLB's Transfer Option from Charlotte, North Carolina,” in the September issue of _Equity Excellence in Education_ (Vol. 38 Issue 3; p249). Congrats to both on this publication!

PPOL student Ashley Dunham is a finalist for this year’s Lutternman Award for best student paper in mental health at the Annual meeting of the American Public Health Association. Even being in contention for these kinds of awards is indicative of the quality of the work you all are doing. These are the kinds of awards and publications that will position you for a strong start to your careers in public policy. Congrats to Ashley!

12. Fellowships

Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government is sponsoring pre- and post-doctoral research fellowships. Details are available at http://fundingopps.cos.com/alerts/39790. As I have stated previously, these are the kinds of fellowship opportunities you should be looking at by your second year in the program and competing for in your third as a means of funding your dissertation research or spring-boarding your career after graduation. Fellowships like these also add significant weight to your vitae for entering the job market.

13. Jobs

Just another illustrative job posting I noticed the other day that made me think “This would be a good job start for a PPOL graduate.”
 

Position as ILO/IPEC Senior planning and evaluation specialist

The International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) is looking for a full-time planning and evaluation specialist for the position of Senior Programme Officer - Design and Evaluation in the Design, Evaluation and Documentation section. IPEC is technical cooperation programme of the International Labour Organization (ILO) that has been in existence since 1992 and has a current portfolio of over 100 projects in over 40 countries with planned spending for 2006-07 of US $ 130-150 million. The aim of IPEC is the progressive elimination of child labour by strengthening national capacities to address the problem and by promoting a worldwide movement to combat it.

Evaluation in IPEC is seen as contributing to building the knowledge base through identifying good practices to be used in action against child labour and through demonstrating accountability by showing how IPEC and its partners constantly learn more about the most effective and relevant action. Over 40 evaluations at the strategic, thematic, programme and project level are carried out every year.

Key areas of work are innovative impact assessment methodologies for measuring impact of policies and institutional development; and tracking and tracer methodologies for demonstrating broader and longer term impact on children. This includes mainstreaming child labour indicators and concerns in the monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment methodologies in relevant areas such as education and poverty eradication as part of national MDG and PRSP processes. Theory of change or logical model approaches at national and programme level are another key area of work.

The planning and evaluation specialist will take direct responsibility for development of and support to methodologies on planning, design, monitoring and evaluation; and to manage the evaluation process within an assigned region or other area of work. Particular areas of work will be support to results based planning and reporting at programme level and the use of strategic planning tools in support of national planning.

The position is for a senior evaluation professional with about 10 years experience in planning, managing and conducting evaluations; extensive facilitation, training and strategic planning experience; and exposure to knowledge management. Supervision of other evaluation specialists and outside evaluators is a key part of the job. The specialist will act as deputy to the Head of Section of DED in very close cooperation in a mutually supportive twinning arrangement. The section currently has 9 staff worldwide.

Given the distribution of work of IPEC, excellent command of Spanish (native level) and English with proficiency and ability to draft quickly and clearly is required. A working knowledge of French would be an advantage. The position is at P4 level in the United Nations and located at ILO/IPEC headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland with considerable travel.

If interested in the full job description and information on how to apply, please go to ILO web site at http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/pers/index.htm, click on "Current Vacancies" and scroll down for "Senior Programme Officer - Design and Evaluation". Deadline for Applications is 21 November 2005 with preferred start February 2006.

For more information on evaluation in ILO/IPEC and the work of the DED section, go to http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/ipec/themes/monitoring/index.htm

or contact Peter E. Wichmand, Head of ILO/IPEC Design, Evaluation and Documentation section, wichmand@ilo.org

October 2005

Carlos Javier Rodríguez Cuéllar

Regional Design, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) International Labour Organization (ILO) Calle Las Flores 275, San Isidro, Lima, Perú

(511) 615-0317 - (511) 615-0300 fax (511) 615-0400 www.oit.org.pe/ipec

Suscribete gratuitamente a nuestro boletin electronico Encuentros en: http://www.oit.org.pe/ipec/boletin

Previous PPOL Updates:

PPOL Update 10-7-05

PPOL Update 9-21-05