College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

On Politics

Iowa Caucus Frenzy

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Once again it is my great pleasure to send my warmest greetings to all alumni and friends of the Department of Political Science, especially on the occasion of the 150th anniversary celebration of Iowa State University. Although the Department of Political Science as a

separate unit has a briefer history than the university as a whole, we have clearly benefited from the university’s excellence over the years and share in the celebration of this sesquicentennial through our various activities. While I highlight some of the department’s activities below, I invite you to review our annual departmental newsletter to obtain a more complete portrait of the student, faculty, and outreach accomplishments by the Department of Political Science in 2007.

Our Programs Our undergraduate and graduate programs are at the

center of what we do in the department, and both are poised for further growth. As I previously reported, the department experienced substantial growth in the number of undergraduate majors over the past several years. With the graduation of a large number of majors during the past three years, however, that total had begun to decline recently. I am now happy to report that we are rebuilding those totals, especially with the current election cycle in full swing. A similar pattern has occurred with our total undergraduate enrollment. The growth in those totals ceased during the past two years, but now, I am happy to report, we had an eight percent increase for the fall 2007 semester. At the graduate level, we have experienced a somewhat similar pattern in majors and enrollment, but we are now ready for additional growth there as well. Indeed, I would anticipate that the modest upswing in undergraduate enrollment and the return to growth among our majors will continue as we hire new faculty, offer more courses, and accelerate our student recruitment efforts.

Our StudentsThe performance of our students continues to be a

source of pride for the department, and 2007 was another good year in that regard. For the spring 2007 semester, for example, 21 percent of our undergraduate majors earned a place on the Dean’s List with the quality of their academic performance. This percentage continues a pattern of 20 percent or more of our majors on that prestigious tally for the last twelve semesters in a row. Significantly, too, three of our majors won university-wide or college-wide awards at the end of academic year 2006-2007: One won the prestigious Wallace E. Barron All-University Senior Award (and a Rotary Scholarship for graduate study), a

Greetings From the Chair

Department News

Faculty Notes

Alumni Notes/News

Giving

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Greetings From the Chair

James McCormick, chairEditor: Joyce Wray

Features and Photos: Dave GiesekeDesign: Sheena Lara

On Politics is published once a year for the alumni, friends and faculty of the Department of Political Science at Iowa State University, an academic department in the College of Liberal

Arts and Sciences.

Please address all correspondence to the editor:jwray@iastate.edu

515-294-7256

www.pols.iastate.edu

Mailing Address:Iowa State University

Department of Political Science503 Ross Hall

Ames, IA 50011-1204

International discussionsConversations with colleagues in a lab

results in international student award

for Karin Brandt.

Mr. Love goes to WashingtonIn addition to receiving the first ever

Hugh Sidey Scholarship in Print

Journalism, Fred Love got a tour of

the White House briefing room.

International ambassadorRohini Ramnath is the latest in a

series of LAS students to receive

the Rotary Scholarship.

Interning at the White HouseAn unexpected internship gives Ben

Cameron an up-close and personal

look a the nation’s leaders.

“I missed politics”Scott Stanzel returns to the nation’s

capital as the White House’s deputy

press secretary.

A change in the environmentWith the 2006 election results Patricia

Beneke’s environment is changing.

Something about Tobin

College ofLiberal Arts and Sciences

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On the CoverIt’s that time of the year for “Dr. Politics”

(Steffen Schmidt) as the Iowa Caucuses are fast

approaching. Learn about Schmidt’s presidential

lecture and on-line course on the caucuses on

pages 12-13.

Photo by Dave Gieseke

second was named the recipient of the university’s Charles A. Frederiksen Leadership Award for his leadership activities, and a third won the LAS Student International Excellence Award. This is the third straight year in which the department has had three such award winners among its majors, and the fourth year in a row in which a political science major was the recipient of the Wallace E. Barron Award. In all, we have had seven Barron Award recipients since 2000. The quality of our graduate students also continues to improve as we apply more stringent admission standards. One important barometer of the success of our graduate programs has been the quality career placements of our graduates. Our graduates now routinely are able to secure key positions in local, national, and state government, or they are able to continue their studies in quality law schools or Ph.D. programs.

Our Faculty Our faculty and their accomplishments are also a

source of pride for the department, and let me share a few highlights there. As the budget difficulties of the past several years eased somewhat in 2007, we are now rebuilding the size of our faculty. During the past year, we made two excellent appointments, both from the University of California, San Diego, and we are currently in the process of completing two other excellent appointments in the area of public administration. These new hires complement and enhance a faculty already recognized for its teaching and research quality. Indeed, departmental teaching evaluations this past year continued to be first-rate, and one of our colleagues was recognized for his teaching excellence by being named a 2007 Master Teacher in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the recipient of the 2007 LAS Introductory Teaching Award. In the area of research, faculty productivity continues apace. Colleagues continue to publish articles in top-tier disciplinary and subfield journals, author scholarly books or prominent textbooks, and offer political commentary and analyses on a regular basis. Furthermore, one colleague was a recipient of research funding from the National Science Foundation this past year and another colleague was a recipient of a Fulbright Award to Austria.

Our Outreach and Engagement ActivitiesThe department and its faculty remain committed

to a broad array of outreach and engagement activities at the state, national, and disciplinary levels. Several faculty members have served on editorial boards or as editors of professional journals, as national officers of various professional organizations and advisory boards, as external reviewers, and as manuscript reviewers for top-ranked journals in political science. The department’s Public Policy and Administration (PPA) program offers its courses statewide via the Internet and, in this way, serves public managers and officials in the State of Iowa. A particularly exciting outreach activity during this past

On Politics

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Department NewsDepartment News

Michael Coveyou, regulatory assistance coordinator with the Iowa Department of Public Safety, has been named the 2007 Dwight Ink Public Service Award winner at Iowa State University.

Iowa State’s Public Policy and Administration Program presented Coveyou the award at a ceremony held Friday, May 4, on campus.

Coveyou has worked at the Iowa Department of Public Safety since 1979, beginning as the department’s statistician. For 11 years he served as the department’s spokesman regarding crime statistics and trends.

Today the core of Coveyou’s duties is responsibility for all of the department’s administrative rulemaking. He also serves as a point of contact for individuals and organizations that are trying to establish their responsibilities for compliance with the department’s rules. He is also a liaison with other regulatory agencies to assist people in negotiating the complexities of identifying and complying with regulatory requirements across state agencies.

The Dwight Ink Public Service Award honors Dwight Ink, an Iowa State alumnus who served every U.S. president from Eisenhower through Reagan. Throughout his public service, Ink had responsibilities for organizing past federal departments and agencies.

The award is given to public managers in Iowa who exemplifies the highest standards of dedication to public service and is characterized by their leadership abilities, their passion for their work, their high professional standards and the respect they are given by their peers.

Michael Coveyou recipient of Ink Public Service Award at Iowa State

Iowa State University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) has honored 25 faculty and staff with awards for their accomplishments.

Among the recipients is Dirk Deam, senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science, who was recognized for excellence in undergraduate introductory teaching.

The recipients were formally recognized in the fall during the LAS Faculty/Staff Convocation on Wednesday, Sept. 5.

Despite having an extraordinary high teaching load every semester, Deam invariably has the best student evaluations in the Department of Political Science. He teaches courses in three distinct subfields – American politics, public law and political theory. His classes are writing intensive, often despite large class sizes and he has the ability to engage students in active learning. He pushes students to think clearly and precisely and to learn how to develop good arguments in support of the positions they take.

Deam honored by LAS for teaching

Schmidt honored by Iowa Distance Learning AssociationSteffen Schmidt, University Professor of political

science, was named the 2007 Innovator of the Year by the Iowa Distance Learning Association for “his exemplary contributions to distance learning.” The award is given for contributions to distance learning through outstanding teaching, program design and development, innovations in methods, technique and technology, and advocacy.

Schmidt has offered courses via distance education at Iowa State since the concept’s inception. Over the years, he has flown from Ames to locations in the state to teach face-to-face courses, has utilized the Iowa Communications Network to teach non-traditional students, and currently uses web-based technology to teach distance education students.

He offers a course in coastal zone policies each summer via the web. This popular course deals with environmental issues. Last summer during the perceived

Discussing the global marketplaceFrederick Smith, founder, president and CEO of

FedEx, gave the sixth annual Manatt-Phelps Lecture in Political Science on “Trends and Issues in the World Marketplace.” The lecture is sponsored by Charles (pictured on the left with Smith) and Kathleen Manatt and Thomas and Elizabeth Phelps.

theft of Veterans Identity Documents, Schmidt also created a CD version of his identity theft non-credit course that was delivered to each Iowa veteran. His book on identity theft security was delivered to each library and Veterans Hospital in Iowa for veterans’ use.

year has been the work of several faculty members in creating and conducting the Iowa State University Poll on likely 2008 caucus attendees and non-attendees. The poll is a collaborative effort among the Department of Political Science, the Department of Statistics, the Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology, and the Institute for Social and Behavioral Research, with support from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Vice President for Research and Economic Development. We conducted our first wave of surveys in November, and we will be undertaking two more polls in January 2008. The poll has already generated enormous media attention, and we are confident that it will also result in some published research over the next year or so. Finally, and significantly, the endowed Manatt-Phelps Lecture in Political Science continues to be one of the yearly highlights of our outreach and engagement activities. This year’s speaker, Fred Smith, founder and CEO of FedEx Corporation, attracted an audience of 500, the largest in the history of this series, and provided a stimulating and informative analysis of the global economy. In six short years, the Manatt-Phelps Lecture in Political Science has clearly become a major event on campus, and beyond, and represents a major engagement of the department to the larger community.

Our Gift ActivityThe department had an especially good year in

fundraising in 2007, and we are wholly indebted to

friends and alumni for their generous support. In all, we had $168,000 in funds and commitments during the past fiscal year. This total represents more than a threefold increase over any previous years. This kind of gift activity has enabled the department to increase the number of student scholarships at both the graduate and undergraduate level, support a new internship at the World Bank for one of our graduate students, and recognize faculty excellence with annual awards. What has been particularly gratifying to see is the increase in the number of new and repeat donors to the Political Science Development Fund. Such support reflects the commitment to the Department, and it energizes us to make significant improvement in the quality of our teaching and research for our students. With the new capital campaign, Campaign Iowa State: With Pride and Purpose, now officially under way, we are hopeful that the department will be in a position to continue to set yearly records in its level of support from its alumni and friends.

Thank you once again for your interest and support of the department. Enjoy the rest of the newsletter, and let us know how we can improve it for you. Also, please continue to visit our web site (www.pols.iastate.edu) to learn about our activities, and make it a point to stop by the department when you get to Ames. All the very best for the holidays!

James McCormick, chair

Michael Coveyou (right) accepts the Dwight Ink Public Service Award.

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Department News

Dwight Ink Graduate Scholarship Award

Colin Hennessy pictured with Associate Professor Alex Tuckness

Pi Alpha Alpha

Annette Hacker (left) and Nancy Brooks (right) with Associate Professor

Alex Tuckness

Alumni Award for Senior

Faculty Excellence 2007

James McCormick, professor

and department chair,

pictured with Steffen

Schmidt

These awards will provide

a small sum of faculty

development support ($500)

to aid the research and

teaching activities of the

faculty member selected.

These awards recognize

quality faculty work.

Graduate Student Awards and Scholarships

Donald E. Boles Distinguished Graduate Student Award

Adrian Florea pictured with Associate Professor Alex Tuckness

James A. Socknat Memorial Fund

James A. Socknat Memorial Internship

Colin Hennessy pictured with members of the Socknat family

To encourage leadership development and civic engagement, the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics is expanding its programs with a campaign school for women and certificate in community leadership and public service.

The center partnered with the Ames League of Women Voters to offer the “Ready to Run” campaign school for women on June 1, 2007. Some 50 women from throughout Iowa participated in the non-partisan program, which is designed for anyone considering a run for political office, working on a campaign or becoming more involved in the political process. The workshop was partially funded by a grant from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

Based on the success of the workshop, the Catt Center and Ames LWV plan to make this an ongoing event to be held every other year. Research shows that campaign schools such as “Ready to Run” are key to encouraging more women to run for political office and providing them with the knowledge and skills they need to be successful.

The center also has proposed a new 21-credit certificate in community leadership and public service, which is currently under review for implementation in 2008-09. The program utilizes existing courses in a variety of academic disciplines to provide a strong foundation and appropriate experiences for undergraduate students who plan to become community leaders and engage in public service—regardless of their profession—in the public, nonprofit or private sectors. Five colleges and 13 academic departments—including political science—are participating in the certificate program. “Introduction to Public Administration” is one of three courses required for the certificate.

In addition to the new leadership programs, the center continued to offer a variety of educational, outreach and research opportunities.

Through sponsorship of the Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics, the center hosted the visit of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton on Oct. 24. Speaking to a crowd of 1,500, Clinton highlighted the achievements of women in public service and the challenges that lie ahead as they seek full equity in such areas as employment, education and

Department News

political representation. The center has hosted every woman who has sought the Democratic or Republican nomination for president through the Smith chair since its inception in 1995, including U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) in 1999, former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (D-IL) in 2004, and Clinton (D-NY) in 2007.

As presidential campaigns focus attention on Iowa leading up to the Jan. 3 caucuses, the center intensified its efforts to educate and engage citizens, especially youth, in the political process by sponsoring an educational workshop on the caucus process. More than 100 students and members of the community attended the Iowa Caucus workshop on Nov. 13.

The center’s civic engagement and leadership programs for students also include the Advancing Citizenship Together (ACT) freshman learning community, which is funded by a university grant; the Joni and John Axel Leadership Development Seminar Series, which offers three, three-credit-hour courses; and the Legacy of Heroines scholarships funded

through gifts from individual donors. The Catt Associates, a student leadership organization affiliated with the center, is sponsoring its second annual “Women Impacting ISU” calendar in 2008 with a grant from the Women’s Enrichment Fund.

The center also encourages and supports research on women and politics through the

annual Carrie Chapman Catt Prize, which will be awarded for the 13th time in 2007, and the Archives of Women’s Political Communication. The online archives, established with a gift from Mary Jo and Dick Stanley of Muscatine, currently houses more than 350 speeches of some 100 women who have held elected and appointed office in the United States and several other countries as well as women political activists from historical and contemporary times. In 2007, the center organized an editorial board of communication scholars to help oversee and review the collection of speeches and promote the use of the archives as a teaching and research resource.

Catt Center expands leadership programs

Narren Brown - ISU Teaching Excellence

Award in recognition of outstnading teaching

accomplishments in a graduate program.

Faculty Awards

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Feature

Mr. Love goes to WashingtonIn addition to receiving the first ever Hugh Sidey Scholarship in Print Journalism, Fred Love got a tour of the White House briefing room.

For someone who has never been to the Washington, D.C., before, Fred Love had an opportunity few will ever have in the nation’s capital.

Love has been selected as the first recipient of the Hugh S. Sidey Scholarship in Print Journalism. The scholarship has been established by the White House Historical Association (WHHA) in recognition of Hugh Sidey, a 1950 journalism graduate of Iowa State and a long-time White House correspondent for Time magazine who covered the American presidency for 30 years. Sidey died in November 2005.

The scholarship was formally announced in a special ceremony at the White House on Friday, Jan. 26. First Lady Laura Bush and former President George H.W. Bush participated in that ceremony.

“Since I’ve never even been to Washington before, the opportunity to go to the White House and get a tour is a fantastic opportunity,” Love said. “I knew it was going to be a great experience, but it was above and beyond that.”

In addition to a guided tour of the White House, the trip to Washington and a chance to meet with members of the Iowa Congressional delegation and members of the White House press corps, Love received a $5,000 scholarship.

The scholarship supports aspiring print journalists and will be awarded on an annual basis to a Greenlee School student who exhibits extraordinary understanding of the responsibilities of covering the chief executive of the United States.

Feature

International discussionsConversations

with colleagues in a lab results

in international student award for

Karin Brandt.

Conversations in a food science laboratory made up Karin Brandt’s mind.

At the time Brandt was a nutritional science major and in between conducting experiments, her discussions with graduate students and post-docs from Ghana, China and India cemented her academic goals.

“I was working in the lab with all these test tubes and I realized through conversations with my co-workers that malnutrition could be better explained by political reasons than simply scientific issues,” she said. “My passion lies more with the policies that are instituted for food distribution.

“I promptly switched majors.”Brandt switched to dual majors in political science

and international studies. And for the past two years she has served as an undergraduate research assistant for the Center for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods, under the direction of Robert Mazur, associate professor of sociology.

In her role with that Center, Brandt has learned about partnerships with an NGO (non-governmental organization), which is assisting rural farmers in Uganda to improve agricultural livelihoods. She has also researched refugee and forced migration issues in northern Uganda and Burma.

“This has been the most memorable experience I’ve had at Iowa State,” Brandt said. “I’ve learned so much from Dr. Mazur.”

Mazur has nothing but praise for Brandt.“It’s been a great pleasure to work with Karin and with

her Honors project,” he said. “She is a truly outstanding student, scholar and human being – one whom I’m

honored to be associated with during her career at Iowa State.”Brandt spent seven months in Ghana on a study abroad

program. During her stay, she worked with an NGO on women’s literacy in the country, which she is transforming into her Honors project. She produced three books in the Komba language, facilitated literacy teachings in area villages and generated literacy awareness by selling local story booklets and creating signboards.

This was the second time Brandt had traveled to Ghana. The first time was a brief, three-week stay.

“The longer stay gave me a better understanding of the complexities in the developing world. Students may have to bribe their way into a university and farmers may lose an entire harvest to drought,” she said. “I was taken aback by how people can cope with that – situations that most of us wouldn’t even dream of experiencing.”

There’s a good chance that Brandt will be going back to Africa in the near future. The May graduate has applied to work for the USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development). She hopes to go to the Sudan for a year and then go on to graduate school.

In the meantime, Brandt has been named a recipient of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ Student International Excellence Award.

Love was selected from a pool of applicants each of whom wrote essays on the challenges, principles and importance of reporting on the modern presidency. The essays focused on social responsibility of a print journalist covering the executive branch.

“I’ve always been interested in political journalism, especially the relationship between presidents and the press,” the double major in journalism and mass communication and political science said. “For my essay I researched Mr. Sidey’s columns and articles that appeared in Time.

“After writing this paper I hope to become a White House reporter like Mr. Sidey.”

After his whirlwind tour of Washington, Love will stay in the city for a semester-long internship sponsored by the Center for Politics and Journalism. He will be assigned to work for a news bureau for a major daily newspaper and will attend seminars for the interns.

“The internship is for student journalists but the emphasis will be how to cover politics,” said Love, who has been a member of the Iowa State Daily staff since his freshman year on campus.

“This internship and the Sidey Scholarship are just two great opportunities that Iowa State journalism students have. I can't say enough good things about being a journalism student here,” he said.

“That was a pretty incredible feeling.”

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International Ambassador

Rohini Ramnath is the latest

in a series of LAS students

to receive the Rotary

Scholarship.

Whether it’s India to visit family or spending a semester studying abroad in Spain, Rohini Ramnath has always felt

comfortable when traveling.“During my experiences

in India I have become immersed in the culture because of my heritage,” says the senior, who is majoring in political science, international studies and Spanish. “And in Europe, the American culture is so similar that I was comfortable there too.

“I’m interested in going to a culture that is not so familiar to me. I want to throw myself out there and see how I react.”

Ramnath got that opportunity in the fall when she spent an academic year in Ghana, studying at the University of Ghana in Accra. She was able to make that journey after receiving a prestigious Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship with a value up to $24,000.

The scholarship program is the world’s largest privately funded international scholarship program, which furthers international understanding and friendly relations among people of different countries. While abroad, the scholarship recipients serve as ambassadors of goodwill to the people of the host country and give presentations about their homelands to Rotary clubs and other groups.

Upon her return back to the U.S. Ramnath will be required to share her experiences in Ghana with Rotarians and others.

“Our responsibility is to do everything we can to get a snapshot of the culture, come back to present and teach that culture to others,” she said. “The Rotary tries to make a difference one person at a time and this is a way we can do that.”

Ramnath became interested in the program after learning of several other Iowa State students who have received the scholarship in recent years including Omar Tesdell, Ramsey Tesdell and Keegan Kautzky, all former students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

“I didn’t want to go straight to graduate school,” Ramnath said. “This is an amazing opportunity to learn

about a new culture and it fit into place with my plans.”

Ramnath applied to study in Ghana after an Iowa State friend had traveled there and talked about her experience. She says that the Ghana educational system is one of the strongest of the all developing countries in sub-Sahara Africa.

“The more I researched it I found out that Iowa State has so many ties with Ghana that it seemed like the right fit for me,” she said.

Ramnath was also the recipient of the 2007 ISU Alumni Association’s Barron All-Senior Award.

When political science professor Steffen Schmidt read an announcement in class about applying for the 2007 Air Force Academy Assembly – a conference for political science students to discuss international relations – my ears perked up slightly. When he mentioned that the year’s topic would be “Prosperity, Justice, and Security in South America,” I knew I had to apply.

On Feb. 6, having received a letter of congratulation on being chosen as Iowa State’s delegate months earlier, I was boarding an airplane bound for the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. When I touched down at the Colorado Springs airport and transported by USAFA cadets to the Academy hotel, I was overwhelmed by my fellow colleagues. Students from prestigious universities like Tufts, St. John’s, Loyola, West Point, Berkeley and others filled the hotel lobby, casually chatting amongst themselves and introducing one another. I secretly wondered how I, an undergraduate at Iowa State, would be able to keep pace with upstanding students from such illustrious universities.

Following the lecture, all of the delegates including myself were divided into roundtable discussion groups.

Led by the knowledgeable and quick-witted Lt. Col. Alejandro Aleman of the U.S. Air Force as roundtable leader, the invigorating discussion was like a shot of adrenaline. After about half an hour of rapid-fire dialogue and debate, a realization of my place in the discussion began to sink in. It appeared I had previously underestimated myself – I was contributing just as much if not more to the discussions as my colleagues from private, prestigious universities from around the country and world. The knowledge and skills I had received from the political science and Spanish classes I’d taken at Iowa State gave me the preparation I needed to thrive at the Air Force Academy Assembly.

I returned to classes the following week with a renewed sense of purpose in my education. My time at Iowa State would no longer simply be focused on achieving the highest grades, but on what I learn and where I can take it with me. My experience at the Air Force Academy Assembly was not only enjoyable and memorable, but permanently altered my perceptions of what I can achieve at Iowa State and beyond.

Representing Iowa State at the Air Force Academy Assembly – Tyler Barrett

I applied for the James A. Socknat Internship and Scholarship and Internship on a whim. I had little to no expectation of receiving the competitive award, so when The World Bank called, to say that I was surprised would be an understatement. I arrived in Washington in June and stayed through the end of September. I knew very little about The World Bank before arriving, and even less about the specific department to which I was assigned. On my first day I met with several education leaders and quickly learned that the pace of the “Bank” was fast. I acclimated to the culture, and soon found myself navigating the many “Bank” buildings around the White House and using the many “Bank” and human development acronyms with ease.

My assignments in Human Development Tertiary Education were varied, but focused primarily on information technology and higher education. I shadowed a senior educational specialist for a week, meeting with Ministers of Education, Ambassadors, and former Presidents from a variety of countries around the globe. After my brief immersion into the lending process, I began writing a policy note for the Director of the Network on the topic of health care worker training, which was

subsequently presented at a global summit in London. I wrote several other papers for the education specialists in the network on global accreditation programs in higher education, distance education, and career guidance and information systems. My final project was a comprehensive review of all accreditation related projects sponsored by the World Bank. I created a searchable database, detailing project budgets, regions, and objectives. This database is currently used by project leaders as a means to share best practice information on implementing higher education projects in developing countries.

Receiving this award has been a highlight of my education at Iowa State University. I am truly thankful to all who had a hand in the development of the James A. Socknat Memorial Scholarship and Internship.

The James A. Socknat Internship at The World Bank – Colin D. Hennessy

Feature

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On the Cover

may have an off-the-wall question. But candidates have to be polite and listen and understand that a lot of voters out there have quirky questions. And as president, you’re just as responsible for listening to them and understanding those questions as you are for huge foreign policy scenarios.”

Schmidt spoke on some of the cultural aspects of Iowa that make the caucuses unique in the American political system.

“Iowans are used to being able to meet a candidate

one-on-one and ask them the tough questions,” he said. “We’re not intimidated at all by a U.S. Senator, a former mayor of New York or a former First Lady.

“That’s what makes the Iowa Caucuses so interesting to the media and the general public. There are no handlers to form a defensive shield around a candidate. They have to face Iowans that ask really tough questions and force them to face the real public.”

Department conducts caucus poll With exactly one month to go until the Jan. 3 Iowa

caucuses, a new ISU Department of Political Science Poll of 1,416 registered Iowa voters finds Hillary Clinton leading among likely Democratic caucus attendees, while Mitt Romney has a slim lead over Mike Huckabee among Republican caucus goers.

Clinton (30.8 percent) is more than six percentage points ahead of John Edwards (24.4 percent) and more than 10 percentage points ahead of Barack Obama (20.2 percent) in the Democratic race. Nearly six percent of Democratic respondents don’t know who their top choice will be.

The top choices were much closer among likely Republican caucus goers, with Mitt Romney leading Mike Huckabee by just over three percentage points, 25.4 to 22.1, which is within the poll’s margin of error at plus or minus 6 percentage points. Rudy Giuliani, who leads in the GOP national polls, is third at 15.8 percent. But 11.4

C-SPAN's Campaign 2008 Bus rolled into Ames on Monday, Jan. 22, as part of the cable television network's "Road to the White House" tour across the United States. During their stay on campus, the "Dr. Politics" WOI radio program was taped during its live radio broadcast and was aired at a later date on C-SPAN. "Dr. Politics" is hosted by Steffen Schmidt, University Professor of political science, along with Katherine Perkins, "Talk of Iowa" host (top photo). The C-SPAN Bus introduces thousands of teachers, students and schools to C-SPAN programming as an educational tool. The bus is a mobile multi-media demonstration center and TV production unit.

On the Cover

Two lectures in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences have been scheduled. An on-line course on the subject has attracted overwhelming demand.

And this doesn’t even count the number of Republican and Democratic candidates making their way to campus.

On-line caucuses“After 37 years it seemed unfair

for us not to have a class on the Iowa Caucuses. It’s so important to the presidential election process.”

So Steffen Schmidt, University Professor of political science, decided to right that wrong by teaching “The Iowa Presidential Caucuses” during the fall semester’s second seven weeks. The two-credit, on-line course covered the history and future of the Iowa Caucuses.

The course was taught entirely on the Internet with no scheduling conflicts and included digital video, on-line posted discussions and on-line testing.

Schmidt focused on how the caucuses have been shaped by the change in party politics – moving from the smoke-filled backrooms to caucuses and primaries. The course also explored how the Iowa Caucuses have changed in recent years, new formats for presidential debates in the state as well as the strengths, and weaknesses, of the caucuses.

The course concluded with the 2008 process and what the future holds for the event.

It’s the future that concerns Schmidt.“This may be my last chance to teach this type of

course,” he says. “In four years I may have to move up one floor (in Ross Hall) to the history department because that’s what the caucuses will be.”

That’s because Schmidt anticipates the importance of the Iowa Caucuses will be diluted by proposed regional primaries.

Still student interest in the course has been high. The original 75-seat course was filled quickly. Schmidt

increased the number of seats available and more than 120 students signed up.

“I think my current students are more interested in politics than any year since 1973,” Schmidt said. “That may be because this is the first time in almost 50 years that neither party has had an incumbent (president or vice president) running. And both parties have very competitive races.”

Fear and loathing on the campaign trailFor those who didn’t want to sign up for Schmidt’s on-

line course they could still hear portions of it when the University Professor delivered the 2007 Fall Presidential Lecture.

“More Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail: The Iowa Caucuses and the American Presidential Candidate Selection” was held on campus this past October.

Schmidt, who has become one of the most quotable political science experts in the media on U.S. presidential elections and the Iowa Caucuses in particular, shared his insights on 37 years of watching presidential candidates venture into Iowa.

“Iowa is the perfect place to launch a presidential campaign,” he says. “It’s quaint and traditional, friendly but skeptical.

“It’s the smaller events where the candidates are forced not to be arrogant, but to listen to somebody who

Caucus frenzy hits Iowa University Professor Steffen Schmidt uses presidential lecture, on-line course to focus on Iowa Caucuses.

percent of GOP respondents are still uncertain of their top choice.

The ISU Poll was compiled through phone interviews between Nov. 6-18 and polled 631 Democrats and 785 Republicans, with an overall margin of error for those estimates being roughly 4 percent. Of those polled, 287 said that they definitely or probably would attend the Democratic caucus, and 241 stated that they definitely or probably would attend the Republican caucus. The margin of error is roughly 6 percent for those estimates.

“Most of the top two candidates are still polling within the margin of error, which means there is no clear cut choice,” said Jim McCormick, professor and chair of political science, who directed the ISU team on the poll. “The biggest explanation for that is the volatility that still exists among those people who are likely to caucus. We’re getting real differences from them, even when they’re polled just days apart. And this uncertainty indicates that they’re really not committed to these candidates yet.”

Applying the percentage of respondents who said they “definitely will attend” their party caucuses on Jan. 3 to the number of registered voters in each party. The ISU Poll projects a Democratic turnout of perhaps as high as 150,000 attendees, with a 95 percent confidence interval of 130,000 to 175,000. As many as 88,500 are projected among the Republicans, with a 95 percent confidence interval ranging from about 74,000 to 103,000.

“That disparity (among party participation on caucus night) has actually historically been true,” said McCormick. “I think some of the Democratic projections may be a reflection of the popularity of some of the candidates. I think you can certainly make the case that if Hillary Clinton could get more people to attend, it looks like she would probably do a lot better in the caucuses. For instance, we found that among likely non-caucus goers, Clinton’s support was higher than among likely caucus goers.”

The poll is supported by the Department of Political Science, the Department of Statistics, the Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology, the Institute for Social and Behavioral Research, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development at Iowa State University.

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Faculty Notes

Matt Potoski is spending this year on sabbatical at the University of California Santa Barbara's Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. Matt misses ISU and teaching, but is enjoying his new colleagues, the lovely weather, and watching from his office window dolphins and birds frolicking in the ocean. He is looking forward to the whales that pass through during the southern California "winter."

Kim Conger has had a busy and productive year in research and teaching. Her research on religion and politics and politically active evangelical Christians has given her many opportunities to reflect and comment on the current political situation and coming elections both in Iowa and nationally. In the summer, she submitted the manuscript for her first book, tentatively entitled The Hope of Glory: The Christian Right and Republican State Politics. The book analyzes how the Christian Right movement is constrained by the state political context in which it finds itself. A seed grant from Iowa State’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will provide the resources to expand this research on state political contexts to other interest groups in the spring of 2008. She’s also been hard at work at a variety of other publications and conference presentations throughout the year. A co-authored article combining the insights of political philosophy with empirical data on democratic citizenship and religion will appear next year in one of political science’s flagship journals. On partial maternity leave in the fall, Kim has enjoyed the opportunity to work closely with a number of the department’s graduate students as they design their thesis projects and collect and analyze their data. She is looking forward to an exciting year in the political science department as Iowa and the entire country prepares for the 2008 elections.

David Cunningham joined the Political Science Department as an assistant professor this fall. He finished his Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego, in June 2006 and was a post-doctoral fellow at the Olin Institute at Harvard University in 2006-2007. His current research focuses on the resolution of civil wars through negotiated settlement. This year he is teaching classes on African politics, comparative politics, international relations and research methods.

Kathleen Cunningham joined the political science faculty this fall after completing her dissertation at the University of California, San Diego. This past year she has presented her research on nationalist politics at a number of national conferences in the US and a NATO-sponsored meeting in Albania. She has also guest lectured at Yale and is currently teaching comparative politics here at Iowa State University.

Faculty Notes

In addition to his administrative duties during this past year, James McCormick engaged in a number of teaching, research, and service activities. In the area of teaching, he continued to teach U.S. foreign policy, assist with the Orientation to Political Science course, and served on several graduate POS committees. In the area of research, he published an article entitled the “Democratizing Canadian Foreign Policy” in Canadian Foreign Policy and co-authored an article entitled “Commitments, Transnational Interests, and Congress: Who Joins the Congressional Human Rights Caucus?” in Political Research Quarterly. He presented papers at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association and at the biennial meeting of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States. He also gave a joint presentation on assessment at the American Political Science Association’s Conference on Teaching & Learning in Political Science. Finally, he co-edited the fifth edition of The Domestic Sources of American Foreign Policy: Insights and Evidence that was published in August 2007 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. In the area of university service, he continues to serve on the Chairs’ Cabinet, chaired the Department of Mathematics Chair Search Committee, and serves on a Distance Education Committee and the African-American Studies Search Committee for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Just recently, he was asked to chair the Policy Research Committee for the newly-established Engineering Policy Leadership Institute in that College. During the past summer and fall, he coordinated and secured funding for the Iowa State Poll, a two-wave survey of Iowa caucus-attendees conducted by departmental faculty in conjunction faculty from the Department of Statistics, the Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology, and the Institute for Social and Behavioral Research. In the area of professional service, he completed his term as president of the Human Rights Section of the American Political Science Association in September 2007, reviewed several manuscripts for major disciplinary journals, and continued to serve on the editorial advisory boards for Paradigm Publishers and Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Ardith Maney finishes her last semester teaching at ISU in December 2007 and will retire at the end of spring semester 2008. It’s been an exciting and rewarding ride, not just on the ISU campus but with many stops in Washington, D.C., and foreign locations over the years since fall 1975!! Maney will continue her projects in teaching and learning with U.S. and international partners, including colleagues from the ISU colleges of Agriculture and Engineering. Her current initiative is establishing a community college network in the Republic of Georgia, funded by the Georgian government, supplemented by grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the International Executive Service Corps, Community Colleges for International Development, Inc., and the Engineering Information Foundation.

On October 9, 2007, Maney attended the opening of the first college in Gori at a ceremony presided over jointly by U.S. Ambassador John Tefft and Deputy Minister of Education & Science Bela Tsipuria and attended by community college presidents and other senior college officials from Iowa (Muscatine), Wisconsin (Waukesha), British Columbia (Selkirk), and Denmark. The first year class includes 150 students and the Ministry has subsequently given the go-ahead to start classes using the same curriculum in two other locations. Since only the first year of courses prepared, Maney will be busy arranging for assistance from U.S. colleges on the rest of the courses in spring 2008 and beyond.

Richard Mansbach spent last spring in Europe on a Fulbright lectureship – his third – at Vienna’s Diplomatic Academy teaching graduate students from around the world. This stint was punctured by a series of lecture tours dealing with postinternational politics and American foreign policy that took him to Norway, Finland, Germany, Ireland and Israel. During the summer and autumn he finished a book of his essays for Routledge, a new textbook, and the fourth edition of his edited reader. He also managed to squeeze in a coupler of conferences – in Italy and Turkey – and is planning to fly off to Italy next year to give a paper in honor of the 400th anniversary of the death of pioneer international law theorist Alberico Gentili, as well as a conference in Slovenia. Although he is now officially enrolled in Medicare, there are no thoughts of retirement. Teaching and research are too much fun, and, in any event, his daughter’s college bills at Swarthmore need to be paid.

Dirk Deam has received the 2007 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Introductory Teaching Award for courses in American politics, law and political theory. He has taught a variety of courses including “Science, Technology and Public Policy,” which is part of a new initiative supported by the College of Engineering that encourages engineering students to learn about politics and public policy while integrating that knowledge into their technical work. In the summer, Deam also taught a course entitled “Adventures in Ordinary Civics” for talented and gift high school students through ISU’s OPPTAG program. He has given several guest lectures this past fall to the Engineering Leadership Program (ELP) on ethics, engineering and public policy, and American political parties. He appeared as a panelist at the annual dinner of the ELP with invited elected officials this year, including the Ames mayor and members of the Iowa legislature.

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Faculty Notes

Alex Tuckness served as director of the Public Administration program this year and also served as director of graduate education for the M.A. program starting in the fall of this year. One of his major activities has been serving as chair of the public administration search committee. The Political Science Department is hoping to hire two new public administration faculty to begin their appointments August 2008. He delivered a paper on ethics and public administration and met with prospective candidates at the ASPA conference conferences in Washington, D.C. He also attended the APSA conference in Philadelphia and the NASPAA conference in Seattle, Wash. He is teaching two new courses this year, 571 Organizational Theory in the Public Sector in the fall and 569X Foundations of Public Administration in the spring. His current research is on the topic of punishment, with a particular interest in the way conceptions of punishment and justifications of punishment have changed in western political thought.

Student Awards

Undergraduate Student Awards and Scholarships

Kent & Kristen Lucken Fund

Tyler Barrett, Air Force Academy Conference

Jeffrey Rothblum, SCUSA Conference, West Point

Monica Stich, Naval Academy Conference

Serge Garrison Memorial Scholarship

Tyler Barrett

Tyler Barrett (left photo) pictured with Professor James McCormick.

Nora Kelly Tobin (second from left in right photo) pictured with

representatives of the Garrison Family

3rd House Memorial Scholarship

Nora Kelly Tobin

Don Hadwiger Working Student

Scholarship Award

Tyler Barrett with Senior Lecturer Dirk

Deam

Ross Talbot Outstanding

Graduating Senior Award

Karin Brandt with Senior Lecturer

Dirk Deam

Political Science Club Recognition Award

Political Science officers Devin Hartman and Nathan

Chiaravalloti pictured with Associate Professor

Matthew Potoski

Pi Sigma Alpha initiates

Left to right: Allison Vennerberg, Annette Hacker, Rohini

Ramnath, Steven Vander Linden, Sally Gnat, Brionni

McGriff, Tyler Barrett, and Robert Hunter

Young W. Kihl Scholarship

Jessica Maves with Professor Emeritus

Young Kihl

Steffen Schmidt completed phase one of the National Science Foundation-funded research on Identity Theft Prevention and Protection project. Michael McCoy is the research assistant for this project. Schmidt was just awarded a second year of funding for this project, which will produce both policy and behavior modification training. Schmidt was also the Presidential lecturer this fall and gave a talk to over 400 people on the Iowa Caucuses and presidential nomination process titled “More Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail: The Iowa Caucuses and American Presidential Candidate Selection.” Schmidt says this has been the busiest media season for caucuses in his 37 years of doing caucus analysis for the media. His on-line Iowa Caucuses class had 300 students enrolled and was very well received. Mack Shelley returned

to the department in July 2007, following eight years of service as coordinator of research and director of the Research Institute for Studies in Education in the College of Education (later the College of Human Sciences). A highlight of the year was receiving the Making a Difference Award, presented February 2, 2007, by the Ames, Iowa branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He has been working on a book to be published by Springer in 2008; the tentative title is Gold Standard(s) of Quality Research in Science Literacy: Science Education, Reading, Statistics, and Other Adventures in Science-Based Research. In addition to a number of other publications and presentations at professional conferences, he also worked on several externally-funded research grants and contracts. A highlight of the funded research is the effort with Seongyeon Auh to evaluate electronic government resources for aging and disability services in the states of the United States and in other countries, made possible with support from the IBM Center for the Business of Government and based on funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to evaluate Iowa’s online Aging and Disability Resource Center (http://www.lifelonglinks.org) for the Iowa Department of Elder Affairs.

Dana Schumacher is still playing shepherd to the 350 or so undergraduates majoring in political science and tending to administrative matters with the International Studies program. Last year she gave a presentation on using outcomes data to guide new majors in an orientation class – Pol S 101 for those of you who took it – at the APSA Teaching & Learning Conference and taught a class for the Honors Program called “10 Ballets to See Before You Die.”

Alda & Weldon Brown Award

Michelle Elkhatib

Robert Urbatsch has spent the year delighting at no longer being at the bottom of the seniority totem pole, and has lorded it over the Professors Cunningham at every opportunity. When not busy with that, he has continued to teach research methods and international political economy.

photo by Stan Brewer

18 19

Alumni News

LAS Distinguished Service Award given to political science alumna

Carol (Campbell) Elliott (’72) is the recipient of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Service Award. The honor was bestowed at Homecoming celebrations on campus this October.

The Distinguished Service Award is awarded to alumni, faculty and friends for their outstanding service or academic contributions that further the educational mission of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Air Force Brigadier General Carol C. Elliott is a long-time member of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s Advisory Council. She will retire from the Council at the conclusion of her third term in office, having served as chair-elect, past-chair and in 2006-07 as Council chair. In addition to these duties, Elliott has also been active with Iowa State University’s Department of Air Force Aerospace Studies and Department of Political Science.

Elliott retired in 2001 as the vice commander, Air Intelligence Agency at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Her military career included positions as intelligence analyst, targeting officer and collection manager, and assignments with Air

Julie Poorman started her financial aid career as a counselor in 1987 at Iowa State. She also taught as an adjunct faculty at DMACC for a couple of years. In 1995 she accepted the position of Director of Financial Aid for the three campus system, Eastern New Mexico University. In June of 2001 she moved to Maryland and spent one year working for the Maryland Commission on Higher Education as the director of the State Scholarships Administration. She moved to Massachusetts in June of

Among the folks enjoying their first round of law school exams: Rachel Allen (Penn State), Jonathan Bracewell (Regents), Craig Buske (Minnesota), Robert Hunter (New York), Eric Lindstrom (Golden Gate), John Ewing, Rebecca Moore, and Nicole Woodruffe (Drake); Rachel Geilenfeld, Lindsy Rohlf, and Rachel Stone (Iowa)

Students attending graduate school are Tony Gertz (Minnesota), Elizabeth Hess Goers (St. Thomas), Stephanie Turbie (UNLV), Agata Kosuda, Andrew Schramm, Marisa Stadlman and Emily Jensen (ISU), and Momoka Fukushima (Drake).

In the service: Aaron VanLengen, Brian Lenzmeier, Kyle Mattox, Benjamin Schaeffer, and Tyler Harman.

Casey Sinnwell and Adam Lounsbury work in the Iowa governor's office.

Greg Chandra, David Miles, and Jeff Rothblum are all practicing on the engineering side of their degrees, but we're sure their hearts are still in Pol S.

Out and about: Rohini Ramnath is at University of Ghana on Rotary Scholarship, Staci Hagen in Australia in outdoor education, Brent Wood (graduate study in Germany), Nick Ziegler (teaching in Japan), Keegan Kautzky (graduate study in South Africa), Dan Lekin (teaching in Korea).

Political Science engagements (aw…): Tim Kearns & Sarah Fischer, John Tillo & Sophia Magill.

Rachel Danner Rasmussen is a clerk with the Iowa Supreme Court. Pam Hennings has taken a position with the Iowa Asian Alliance. Karin Brandt is working with an international non-profit in Pennsylvania. Laura Schmitz is working at Creighton University. Andrew Peterson graduated from Iowa law school in May 2001 and lives and practices in Denver, Colo. Joshua Novak works for the law firm of Richards, Layton & Finger in Wilmington, Del.

Michael Krull was recently appointed director of education for American Solutions for Winning the Future, an unique, non-partisan organization designed to rise above traditional gridlocked partisanship, to provide real, significant solutions to the most important issues facing our country.

Jim O'Brien worked as a legislative assistant to Congressman Berkley Bedell, as a member of a

congressional campaign staff, as a member of House caucus staff at the Iowa State Legislature, and as a policy analyst in the Iowa State University Office of Federal Relations. He attended Drake Law School and practiced law at the Dickinson Law Firm in Des Moines and as corporate counsel to three publicly traded companies. Since 2003, he has been working as Chief of Staff to Michael Crow, President of Arizona State University.

Tamra Ortgies Young is currently serving as an instructor in the Social Science Department of Georgia Perimeter College, a two-year Regent's Institution in Atlanta. Before this career transition, Ortgies Young served in administrative capacities in college admissions, financial aid and continuing education at Northwestern University, the University of Illinois and the Chicago City Colleges. Ortgies Young continued her education in Chicago as a Visiting Scholar to the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern and is ABD in Adult Continuing Education at Northern Illinois University. She is married to Eric Young, BA '86, and MBA Keller Graduate School, '99. They met at the Iowa State University Club of Chicago.

In March, Chad Harris became executive director of FarmHouse International Fraternity, Inc. located in Kansas City, Mo.

Paul Kirpes is president and CEO of the TPG Companies in West Des Moines. TPG Companies are consultants to business, philanthropy and non-profit enterprises.

Paul Randolph is currently posted as Senior Democracy and Governance Officer with USAID in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, working on local government decentralization, anti-corruption and political process programs.

Bob Roller completed his MA at the University of South Carolina and is now a Presidential Management Fellow in Washington, D.C.

Jenny Smyser is a program officer in Communication and Outreach at the Stanley Foundation where she is responsible for outreach to citizen groups, advocates, and grassroots leaders. Prior to joining the foundation, Smyser spent 10 years working in U.S.-based NGOs focused on international education, exchange, and training. She and her husband, Brent Bruhn, welcomed a baby daughter, Mallory, on Oct. 29.

Alumni Notes

Staff force management and security. She directed intelligence activities at wings and at all three combat Air Force major commands. She commanded a 2,700-person intelligence group in the Pacific and in 1995 led combined intelligence operations for NATO air operations over Bosnia.

Elliott, who resides in Montana, is the recipient of the ISUAA Young Alumnus Award.

Four political science graduates are currently serving on the ISU Alumni Association’s Young Alumni Council. Members include Matt Craft (’00), La Porte City; Chad Harris (’01), Kansas City, Mo.; Sophia Magill (’05), Ames; Paxton Williams (’00), Diamond, Mo.

2002 to become the director of Financial Aid at the Berklee College of Music, the largest private music college in the United States.

20 21

“I missed politics”Scott Stanzel returns to the nation’s capital as the White House’s deputy press secretary.

Politics had dominated Scott Stanzel’s professional life. But the long hours had taken its toll on the 1995 journalism and mass communication and political science graduate.

He was starting to get burned out.So after helping get President George W. Bush re-elected

in 2004 (he served as the Bush campaign’s press secretary and worked in the White House during Bush’s first term), Stanzel stepped back from politics and moved almost as far away from the Beltway as you can get.

“It was time for me to get away from politics for awhile,” Stanzel said. “I had worked on the past three presidential campaigns and that was enough.”

Stanzel moved to Seattle where he served as a communications executive with Microsoft. He traded in his Washington, D.C., suit and tie for a more casual look. The hours were shorter, press requests more manageable and job pressures weren’t as great.

“It was a real eye opener,” Stanzel said. “We would work on a project at Microsoft for months at a time. There wasn’t that immediacy that I was used to at the White House.”

While many individuals would love the new lifestyle, Stanzel started to get that itch again – the itch to be back in the political game.

He started a blog on political issues. He remained in contact with friends back on the other coast. He even served as a technical adviser on the last season of the television series “The West Wing.”

But none of those activities came close to making the itch go away. So when Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, called about a job, Stanzel jumped at the opportunity.

Now he works down the hall from the most powerful man in the world as a deputy assistant to the President and deputy press secretary, a job he started right after the 2006 mid-term elections.

“I missed politics, the adrenaline rush that you get from working in the White House,” he said. “Plus I do believe the work that happens here is important and believe in what the President is doing.

“I had the luxury of being fairly mobile. I didn’t have any pets or even any plants to take care of. And I may never have this opportunity again.”

Stanzel has made the most of the opportunity. Working

closely with Snow and Snow’s successor Dana Perino, he gives briefings to the White House press corps and travels the world with the President of the United States. He has direct media relations responsibility for agriculture, education, energy, transportation, homeland security, energy and immigration..

Officially Stanzel’s day starts at 6:15 a.m., but in reality it starts the moment he wakes up.

“I’m in a constant consumption of the news in this job,” he says. “Literally from the moment I wake up until I go to sleep at night.”

On his morning walk from his apartment to the White House, Stanzel reads the Washington Post, New York Times and other newspapers on his Blackberry. He also listens to two radio stations before he leaves and views Tivoed newscasts of the three network evening news shows after he gets home at night.

“An important part of my job is to brief the press secretary on what’s happening in the world before he goes into senior staff meetings or meets with the media,” Stanzel said. “We pepper her with questions on the day’s news.”

Another key role Stanzel and the White House Press Office plays is giving the “Gaggle,” a morning overview of the President’s day for reporters. Stanzel has given this briefing on numerous occasions. He has also conducted the on-camera briefing twice.

“The ‘Gaggles’ and briefings are stressful events,” he said. “There are a lot of reporters throwing question after question to you on several different subjects. Preparing for all of those topics is a real effort.

“By the end of the day you’ve talked to reporters about a lot of interesting subjects. I believe what we’re doing here makes a difference in what appears in newspapers tomorrow or on television tonight.”

Alumni FeatureAlumni Feature

Interning at the White HouseAn unexpected internship gives Ben Cameron an

up-close and personal look at the nation's leaders.

“Honestly I’m not sure how I got this internship. Most of the other interns there had a connection with the White House in some way.”

Ben Cameron, a December 2006 political science graduate of Iowa State, is one of those rare individuals who got ahead in Washington without any connections. Cameron served as a White House intern from January to May 2006.

“I had absolutely no connections,” Cameron said. “I filled out the application and was frankly surprised when I was selected.”

The political science graduate may not have had any connections within the White House but he did have experience on his side. During the 2004 Presidential election, Cameron says he worked many hours on the Bush/Cheney Campaign.

That hard work paid off when he filled out his application.

“I knew I wanted to do some kind of internship in Washington,” he said. “I was just looking at the possibilities when I came across the link (for this internship) and I decided to give it a try.”

The application contained four questions each applicant had to answer including what aspects they would bring to the White House.

“Maybe it was something that I wrote that stood out to them and caught someone’s attention,” he said.

During his five-month internship, Cameron worked in the Office of Presidential Correspondence. He would handle mail, e-mail and FAXes that came into the office.

A majority of his work dealt with e-mail.“I would read the e-mails and then have to help decide

what type of response the office would give,” he said. “The correspondence we would receive dealt with a wide variety of issues.

“At night I would watch FOX News or CNN to see what issues people would be reacting to the next day. Getting to see how people reacted to issues and how the White House would respond was very interesting.”

Although Cameron can’t divulge the content of any of the correspondences he read, he said the e-mails and letters from families of servicemen and women serving in Iraq were the most memorable to him.

“To see how proud these families were of their loved ones made it all seem real to me,” he said.

Cameron’s internship wasn’t all e-mails, letters and

FAXes. As a White House intern he got special privileges including attending special events at the White House.

He attended two state arrivals for the heads of state of China and Australia. Along with other interns he assisted with the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

And he went on tours in the West Wing, seeing the Cabinet Room, the Roosevelt Room and the Oval Office.

The Iowa State intern also got to meet President Bush.“There are days when Marine One (Presidential

helicopter) lands and the President greets some of those who are there to watch,” Cameron said. “One day I was there when he landed and I got to shake his hand and get a photo taken.”

That photo is now framed and is in an honored place in Cameron’s apartment.

But it’s not the only memory he’ll take from his experiences at the White House.

“My first day I was very nervous not knowing what to expect,” Cameron remembered. “But when I walked into the office and saw the seal of the President of the United States and the photos of the President and Vice President I realized where I was working.

“That was a pretty incredible feeling.”

22 23

Alumni FeatureAlumni Feature

Patty Beneke can’t pinpoint the exact moment that the environment became such a defining part of her life.

Maybe it was her political work as a political science major at Iowa State. Or when the Iowa State Legislature passed the bottle deposit bill. Or when she worked in the environmental collection at the Iowa State University Library.

“I sort of fell into environmental issues,” Beneke says. “I think it was part happenstance and part growing up in a beautiful state like Iowa.”

Whatever it was after she graduated from Harvard Law School, the environment became and still remains an important part of both her professional and personal lives, from her time serving as Assistant Secretary for Water and Science in the Department of the Interior or as a lawyer in the U.S. Department of Justice working on environmental litigation.

For the past several years, Beneke (B.S., 1976, political science) has served as Democratic Senior Counsel on the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. After the Democrats regained a majority in the Senate, Beneke’s job changed a little.

Now her boss, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), is the Committee Chairman and oversees the legislation that passes through the committee. In the short time that the Democrats have been the majority party, Beneke has seen changes.

And she expects a different approach to the environment.“Over the next two years I think you’ll see the Democrats

work for greater stewardship and protection of the environment,” she said.

In her role with the committee, part of Beneke’s job is oversight of the Department of the Interior. It’s a different role than she had during the Clinton Administration when she was an assistant secretary in that same Cabinet department.

Then Beneke focused on issues involving water resources. “It was a great experience,” she said. “We had a chance to

work on the restoration of watersheds and ecosystems.”That included restoring the habitat and landscape of the

Everglades, the Platte River ecosystem in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming, and the Bay Delta Area in northern California.

“Each of these areas is very important for fish and wildlife as well as water resources,” she said.

She also worked on preservation efforts in the Loess Hills during the Clinton Administration, subsequent to its

designation by the U.S. Department of Transportation as a scenic byway.

“The Loess Hills area has a very unique quality to it both geologically as well as in terms of its prairie habitat. It was a very special project for me because Iowa is still home,” Beneke said.

It’s still such a home to her that Beneke and her family, including her two daughters and husband Robert Waters, a Washington, D.C., attorney and Carroll native, travel back to Iowa regularly for the Iowa Caucuses and Election Day activities. Waters is also a political science graduate and former chief-of-staff to Iowa Senator Tom Harkin.

“Election Day is a holiday in our house,” Beneke said. “I grew up appreciating what Iowa has to offer the country through the caucuses.

“I run into Iowans all the time out here,” the Ames native continued. “To me Washington seems very much like a small town. There are lots of people with good Iowa roots here.”

A change in environmentWith the 2006 election results Patricia Beneke’s environment is changing.

It’s not a stretch to see Terrence (Terry) Tobin making the jump from corporate attorney to real estate investor.

After all, the 1979 political science graduate also holds a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from Iowa State in economics. And after graduating from Georgetown Law School, Tobin worked for General Growth, one of the nation’s leading shopping mall developers.

That was the start of 15 years in real estate law for Tobin, many of which came with the Principal Financial Group in Des Moines.

“When I first started at Principal, I had many internal clients in the real estate division,” Tobin says. “One of those clients, Principal Enterprise Capital, kept getting bigger and bigger to the point where they were my only client.”

At some point, Principal asked Tobin to step over the business side and not practice law. That’s exactly what he has done for the past several years as a director of Principal Enterprise Capital, an investment manager which partners with private real estate operating companies using investment funds from third-party clients.

Principal Enterprise Capital invests in companies that own real estate properties including warehouses, retail, apartment complexes and some office buildings. While the investments are throughout the nation, the company tends to invest in the Denver, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas and Southern California markets.

But, according to Tobin, Principal Enterprise Capital invests in real estate a little bit different than the normal real estate investor.

“We invest at the company level,” Tobin says. “We go find really good management teams and say ‘you do the real estate and we’ll give you the capital.’

“It’s a real good business model and if done correctly can benefit all sides of the equation.”

Location, location, locationLaw degree prepares Terry Tobin for job investing in real estate.

Tobin says there are a lot of skills that he learned from being an attorney that have translated to his new job description. He enjoys the variety of his position and working with “motivated entrepreneurs.”

There are times however when he misses practicing law.“I miss the collegially of a law department, working day-

to-day with other lawyers,” he says.In addition to his daytime job, Clive resident is active in

a variety of Iowa State, civic and community organizations. At Iowa State, Tobin is or has been a member of the ISU Foundation Board of Governors, the FarmHouse Fraternity Association Board, the Department of Political Science Alumni Advisory Committee and served six years as an Iowa 4-H Foundation Trustee, including a term as president of that board.

He is currently a member of the West Des Moines Community School District Board of Education and is a recipient of the Iowa State Bar Association Young Lawyers’ Division Award of Merit.

“I grew up in a family that put a high level of importance on education and community service,” Tobin said. “I owed it to the community to give back and serving on these boards can be very satisfying.”

Tobin was honored this past fall with the Department of Political Science’s Outstanding Alumni Award.

Back to Wyoming

College of Liberal Arts and SciencesDepartment of Political Science503 Ross HallAmes, IA 50011-1204

The Department of Political Science at Iowa State University is committed to providing outstanding opportunities for the university community. In order to have the resources necessary to take our programs into the future, support for the department is essential. We want to provide scholarships to support our very best undergraduate majors and graduate students as well as recognize faculty excellence. To help make a difference, simply fill out the form and mail to: ISU Foundation, 2505 University Blvd, Ames, Iowa 50010-8644.

For more information about making a gift to the Department of Political Science or including ISU in your estate plans, please contact the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Development Office at 515-294-3607 or Erin Steinkamp at estein@iastate.edu.

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