December 5, 2007

December CUPPA Briefing

CUPPABriefing
December 2007. An E-Newsletter for Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

UIC's Brilliant Futures Capital Campaign Update:
CUPPA Goal: $12,910,000
As of 11/15/07: $3,126,000

UTC Research Assistants Awarded Krambles Scholarship
Congratulations to Yandan Lu, PhD student in the Urban Planning and Policy Program, who received a $1000 award from the Krambles Scholarship Fund. Stephen Hunt and Tanushri Swarup, masters students in the Urban Planning and Policy Program were awarded $500 each. The scholarship fund is named after the former executive director of the Chicago Transit Authority, George Krambles. The fund was established by George to provide financial assistance to students embarking on careers in transportation, urban transit, urban planning, engineering and related fields. In 2005, the Krambles fund endowed the UIC George Krambles Transportation Scholarship exclusively for CUPPA transportation students.

UPP Students Win Prize for Glamorous Guangxi
Four UPP students, Yochai Eisenberg, Jieun Kim, Marcela Lopez, and Meng Sun, have won the third prize for the “Glamorous Guangxi 2007” International Student Competition for a Conceptual Urban Design of the City of Dongxing, China (announced at: http://www.gxcic.net/ghsjjs/jsjg.asp). The competition was arranged by China Architecture Academy, China Urban Planning Academy, Guangxi Construction Department. The purpose of the competition was to discuss critical issues as to - “How should medium and small towns develop? How could they keep modern, regional and national city features and characters in the course of present fast urbanization?” Students chose one of the three medium size towns in Guangxi Province (Pingxiang, Dongxing, and Wuming) as their design project, for which students were required to present creative ideas about urban structure, urban design of core areas, and architectural design of landmark buildings.

UIC Receives Pierre de Vise Archives
The University of Illinois at Chicago Library has received a special collection of papers and research files of Pierre de Vise. The researcher, who died in 2004, earned a doctorate degree in public policy analysis at UIC and taught in CUPPA. He later joined the faculty at Roosevelt University, where he retired in 1989. The de Vise collection, which spans from 1965 to 2001, contains 114 file boxes of articles, book chapters, working papers, reports and speeches, as well as graphs, data, and illustrations he gathered as part of his research. The collection is available for use by researchers and the public. It includes materials on segregation, poverty, urban planning, demographic trends, and the health care system in Chicago; urban and suburban economies; and the conditions of cities across the country. A collection directory is online at www.uic.edu/depts/lib/specialcoll/services/lhsc/ead/012-20-01f.html.

CUPPA Receives Gift from MPA Alum
Conrad Pomykala, MPA 91, and his wife, Dr. Ginevra Ciavarella, DPH '05, recently donated $10,500 to CUPPA as portion of their gift to UIC to support programs in the colleges of UPPA, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the School of Public Health. These colleges are, in their words, “near and dear to us.” Conrad has been an employee of the university since 1975 and currently works in Physical Plant Services as a locksmith. He is a member of MENSA, the high IQ society, and runs ultra marathons in his free time. Thanks to Conrad and Ginevra for supporting CUPPA students!

TCF Bank Establishes First Undergraduate Scholarship Award in CUPPA
TCF Bank recently established the college's first scholarship award which will provide $3000 each to five undergraduate students. The purpose of the scholarship is to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds in their junior year of undergraduate study. Scholarship recipients will exhibit the highest standards of scholarly achievement and potential for future leadership.

IBM Computers Donated
Public Administration student David Flint (spouse of MUPP '99 Alum Stacey Flint) arranged a gift of a new IBM laptop computer and a new desktop machine through his employer, United Way. The Teaming for Technology program is a partnership between United Way and IBM that provides computer equipment to schools, non-profits and the communities they serve. The computers will be used in CUPPA's student computer laboratory and Urban Data Visualization Laboratory.

GCI Awards Available
GCI faculty scholar and seed fund applications for 2008-2009 are now available online at www.uic.edu/cuppa/gci.

Two PA Faculty Release Books
PA Associate Professor Karen Mossberger's Digital Citizenship: The Internet, Society, and Participation has been published by MIT Press and PA Assistant Professor Sharon Mastracci's Emotional Labor: Putting the Service in Public Service is about to be released by M.E. Sharpe, Inc.

Welch and Ponomariov Receive NSF Grant
The National Science Foundation awarded PA Associate Professor Eric Welch and Postdoctoral Research Associate Branco Ponomariov $170,000 to study "Patenting Behavior of Academic Scientists and Engineers: A Micro-level Analysis of the Factors that Determine the Production of University Patents."

IBM Center Grants $20,000 to PA
MPA Associate Professor James Thompson and Ph.D. Student Rob Seidner received a $20,000 grant from the IBM Center for the Business of Government to prepare a report on human resource management practices in the Intelligence Community.

UPA in Recruitment Mode
CUPPA's new urban and public affairs undergraduate program went into high recruitment mode this fall with representation and presentations as 15 Chicagoland high schools and eight community colleges. For more information on UPA, visit www.uic.edu/cuppa/upa.

Holiday Closings
CUPPA administrative offices and CUPPATECH services will be closed during the December 24, 2007 to January 1, 2008 reduced service schedule. Computers in the 2nd floor CUPPA Hall "Lab Suburbs" and Rm. 251 will be turned off at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, December 21, 2007, and will not be reactivated until January 2, 2008 morning. Separately, the computers in the 2nd floor CUPPA Hall "Lab Suburbs" and Rm. 251 area will be turned off all day on Wednesday, 12/19/07 for conversion to a new login system. Please contact Associate Dean Schorsch if you have any questions or suggestions at 312-996-2177, schorsch@uic.edu.

CUPPA Dean's Search Committee Information
For the CUPPA Dean Search advertisement and regular search updates, please see http://www.uic.edu/depts/oaa/search. For more information regarding the search, email cuppasearch@uic.edu.
Search Committee Members include:
Clark Hulse
Cynthia Barnes-Boyd
John-Jairo Betancur
Charles Hoch
Karen Mossberger
Kara Pennoyer (Public Administration Student Association)
Peter Skosey (Alumnus)
Joanne Sims
Piyushimita “Vonu” Thakuriah
Eric Welch

COMINGS:
Welcome CUPPA Baby!
Ncholas Joseph Jacob, 9/3/07, 6lbs, 1oz, born to Benoy Jacob, PA PhD Student

New Posts
Maria Ayala, MUPP '86, Visiting Assistant Director of Operations, IRRPP
Yingling Fan, Visiting Assistant Professor, Urban Planning and Policy
Simon McDonnell, Postdoctoral Fellow, Urban Planning and Policy
Sophia Radlowski, Assistant to the Director for Budgeting, Public Administration
Sharon Sanders, Visiting Program Coordinator, Public Administration

and GOINGS:
Kathleen Chan, formerly at SRL
Angela Ebreo, formerly at IRRPP, joined the staff at the University of Michigan
Anne Fuller, formerly at SRL, joined the staff at Chicago Public Schools
Meredith Rubin, formerly at SRL

EVENTS:

Alumni Holiday Party - TONIGHT!
CUPPA Alumni Holiday Party, Wednesday, December 5, 5-9:00 p.m., Jak's Tap, 901 W. Jackson, Chicago, Complimentary hors d'oeuvres and cash bar, RSVP: Moira O'Donovan, modono2@uic.edu, 312-996-2569.

College Annual Holiday Party
CUPPA Annual Holiday Party, Thursday, December 13, 3:00 pm, 1st Floor, CUPPA Hall. Dean's Office will provide food and drinks; please bring your favorite (and I am sure award-winning) dessert to share, or make a small contribution in support of the festivities. FAMILIES AND CHILDREN OF ALL AGES ARE INVITED TO ATTEND!! Please RSVP with your dessert to Sharyn Gordon at sgordo4@uic.edu.

SAVE THE DATE:

MAY 9: CUPPA Commencement, Friday, May 9, 2008, 10:00 a.m., UIC Forum

READ AND HEAR MORE ONLINE:

Archived CUPPA Briefings
CUPPA Daily Clips (faculty who have appeared in print and broadcast media on a weekly basis)
CUPPA Podcasts (various lectures or events audio recorded and available for download)
CUPPA Events (http://www.uic.edu/cuppa/news.html#events)

PUBLICATIONS, CONFERENCES, PRESENTATIONS:

Kheir Al-Kodmany represented UPP in Amman, Jordon the week of October 15 as part of a Sister Cities program.

Feeney, Mary K. Staying Late: Comparing Work Hours in Public and Nonprofit Sectors. Public Management Research Conference, Tucson, AZ. October 25-27, 2007.

Feeney, Mary K. Red Tape in Contracting: The Contrary Views of Public Managers and their Private Consultants. Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, Washington, DC. November 8-10, 2007 with Barry Bozeman.

Barry Bozeman and Mary K. Feeney. 2007. Toward a Useful Theory of Mentoring: A Conceptual Analysis and Critique. Administration & Society 39: 719-739.

Karen Mossberger presented a paper at the Third Karlstad Seminar on Studying Political Action, in Karlstad, Sweden, October 19, 2007, "Who Is Mobilized by the Internet? Online and Offline Political Participation," by Karen Mossberger, Caroline Tolbert, and Daniel Bowen. She was also invited to speak at a Workforce Development Forum hosted by Microsoft Community Affairs at their Redmond, Washington headquarters on November 28, 2007. Mossberger spoke about evidence on the benefits of Internet use at work for less-educated workers, as well as recent evidence on digital inequality, from her recent co-authored book. Other speakers at the forum include a deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor, and representatives from the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and workforce development programs in Seattle-King County and New York. Mosbberger also received a contract in September from Oxford University Press for The Oxford Handbook of Urban Politics, to be edited by Karen Mossberger, Susan E. Clarke (University of Colorado-Boulder), and Peter John (University of Manchester).

Kazuya Kawamura and Paul Metaxatos (Nov. 16) participated in the 1st CFIRE Research Workshop at University of Wisconsin, Madison. Together with other participants, they evaluated and prioritized research topics related to the CFIRE's theme of "Sustainable Freight Transportation Infrastructure and systems". CFIRE will award $1.95 million in grant starting next summer. As a member of the technical advisory committee, Kazuya will be participating in the RFP development for the research topics in the Freight Planning and Policy area.

Kazuya Kawamura attended a TRB sponsored conference, "Research Issues in Freight Transportation", held at the National Academy in Washington D.C.

SRL staff participated in the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research (MAPOR), held November 16-17 in Chicago: Geon Lee presented a paper titled: “Is Cultural Context a Matter in Reporting Errors? : A comparison of Self-Reported and Measured Weights and Heights.” Tim Johnson gave the MAPOR Pedagogy Hour lecture: “Culture and Survey Behavior.”

Professor Eric Welch gave four conference presentations: Gender Differences in Benefits to Social Capital: Access to Professional Networks for Men and Women Scientists in Six Fields, Association of Public Policy and Management Annual Conference 2007, with J. Melkers. Science Hierarchies and Networks: Structural Determinants of Resources Critical for the Success of Men and Women Academic Researchers, Public Management Research Conference 2007, with J. Melkers. /Technical, External and Internal. Dimensions of E-Government Performance: A National Study of Health and Human Services Agencies, Association of Public Policy and Management Annual Conference 2007, /with /S. Pandey and W. Wong. Gender Differences in Reaction to Transit Safety Measures and Service Attributes: An Analysis of Passengers Perceived Train Safety in Chicago, Association of Public Policy and Management Annual Conference 2007, with N. Yavuz.

CUPPABriefing is an electronic publication by the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs for faculty, staff, students, and alumni. Published and distributed via email monthly following the meeting of the CUPPA Cabinet, CUPPABriefing will contain announcements, updates, and facts that are important to those working and/or studying in CUPPA. Questions, comments, or announcements may be sent to Jodi White Jones, Assistant Dean for Communications, jmwhite@uic.edu, 312.413.9127