Ford School Public Events

José Zalaquett is one of Latin America's leading authorities on human rights. He is an international human rights lawyer, Professor at the University of Chile School of Law, and co-Director of its Human Rights Center.

He will speak about accountability for human rights abuses, drawing significantly on his own experiences in a wide range of countries, including Chile.

Prospective students interested in applying to the BA program (admit term Fall 2010) should plan to attend this information session. The BA Program Faculty Director, John Chamberlin, and the Ford School Admissions Staff will walk students through the application process and give an overview of the program.

Admission is free.

The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan will host a special showing of Gerrymandering: The Movie. Writer/director Jeff Reichert will be present to talk about the film and answer questions. The movie addresses the issue of gerrymandering of political districts and the effects it has on the American political scene.

Marek Belka is President of the National Bank of Poland and former Director of the IMF's European Department. He was previously Under-Secretary General at the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe. Belka served as the Prime Minister of Poland from 2004-05, and was Poland's Deputy Prime Minister in 1997 and Minister of Finance from 2001-02.

One of the U-M's major Peace Corps anniversary events will be a national symposium on the future of international service. The purposes of the day-long symposium are to propose and discuss new programmatic and policy initiatives; present research related to international volunteerism; share best practices in international volunteering programs; learn from voices, ideas and experiences from abroad; and, in the words of JFK, inspire students 'to serve the cause of peace' by volunteering overseas.

The University of Michigan and the Ford School are planning a series of activities to welcome the class of 1960 back to Ann Arbor. The Reunion Weekend will offer alumni the chance to reconnect with old classmates and visit campus. Though much has changed since its time as the Institute for Public Administration, the Ford School of Public Policy is still committed to public policy research and education-come visit us and see how!

David R. Harris is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Services Policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He leads the Office of Human Services Policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE).

'Our Patchwork Nation' is a comprehensive look at who we are as a country and where we are going using Patchwork Nation's 12 community types and examining what they mean for the the nation's Economic,
Political and Cultural future.

Our Patchwork Nation has been called, 'a captivating and at times surprising analysis, both rigorous and accessible' by Kirkus Reviews. The PBS NewsHour's Jim Lehrer, says Our Patchwork Nation is 'a book to keep always at your side and in your mind.' And the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne calls it 'a wonderful book that takes us way beyond red and blue - while also explaining the social, regional and economic roots of our partisan and ideological color wars.'

The world's response to climate change is deeply flawed. The conventional wisdom on how to deal with climate change has failed and it's time to change course. To date, climate policies have been guided by targets and timetables for emissions reduction derived from various academic exercises. Such methods are both oblivious to and in violation of on-the-ground political and technological realities that serve as practical 'boundary conditions' for effective policy making. Until climate policies are designed with respect for these boundary conditions, failure is certain. Using nothing more than arithmetic and logical explanation, Dr. Pielke offers a comprehensive exploration of the problem and suggests a more practical resolution, including investment to create a more carbon-efficient economy and cost-efficient carbon-capture technologies.

From the Publisher:

Vinny DeMarco might be a latter-day Don Quixote except that he tilts his lance at real obstacles to social justice: lobby-locked state legislatures and Congress, stonewalling the public will. And he makes impossible dreams come true. In twenty years of organizing campaigns in Maryland, he has led successful efforts to pass gun control laws (against National Rifle Association opposition), to hike cigarette taxes to prevent youth smoking, and to extend health care to hundreds of thousands of low-income workers. He has also built a unique alliance of mainstream and conservative faith groups, which helped secure rare bipartisan votes in Congress for the enactment in July 2009 of landmark FDA regulation of tobacco manufacture and marketing.