Greetings! We are off to an extraordinarily busy and exciting fall at the Ford School. The incoming classes of MPP, PhD, and BA students have already made a mark on the community with their enthusiasm and engagement. A record number of students participated in this year’s Annual Service Day outing. The group spent the day gardening on behalf of a Washtenaw County-based nonprofit organization called Growing Hope.
We drew nearly 3,500 people to Hill Auditorium to hear from Nobel Prize-winning economist and popular op-ed writer Paul Krugman. Paul’s visit was the keynote event for an academic conference we hosted with the Economics Department to honor the very distinguished career of our colleague and Associate Dean, Alan Deardorff. Read more about the conference, see pictures, and watch the video of Krugman’s lecture here. 
Other recent or upcoming events include a Citigroup Foundation lecture from Senator Chuck Hagel, a panel discussion on the latest prospects for health care reform, an examination of the U.S. macroeconomic policy in response to the financial crisis, and a debate on immigration reform hosted by the newly-launched Center for Public Policy in Diverse Societies.
In the midst of all this activity, we’re also taking some time this fall to look back. This year marks the 95th anniversary of the Ford School. We celebrated with an Alumni Weekend September 25-26 and it was terrific to see so many of you back in town for the festivities. Be sure to check out pictures from the weekend here – lots of happy faces and lots of maize-and-blue.
One warm and heartfelt highlight of the weekend was the presentation of the Neil Staebler Alumni Service Award to Doug Brook (MPA ’67). Read more about Doug and the award here.
We’ve just opened the self-nomination process for the school’s Alumni Board, and I encourage experienced professionals to consider serving. Details are available here in a letter from Board Vice-Chair Elisabeth Wright Burak (MPP '01). As Elisabeth notes, this year we are especially hoping to bring on new Board members with experience in the fields of foreign policy and international development, energy and environment, and education.
By now you should have received a copy of our new school magazine, State & Hill . Our hope is that over time, the magazine will help us maintain connections with our alumni, demonstrate the range of public policy work and research that happens here, and show how our alumni and friends can continue to be a part of our efforts. Your input and story ideas would be very welcome. Please send suggestions and comments about State & Hill to [email protected].
Remember that we’ll host an alumni reception on November 5 during the annual APPAM conference. I’ll be there, along with several of our faculty members, and we hope to see those of you who live in DC or who will be in town for the conference.
Thank you for your support of the Ford School. Please, stay involved and stay in touch. Go Blue!
Best regards,
Susan
