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Alumni and Friends: La Follette Notes: Fall 2005
Student projects inform policy
La Follette School students in the Public Affairs Workshops in domestic and international issues completed seven research projects in spring 2005, with five of the groups presenting their findings and recommendations to clients.
Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, right, makes a note while La Follette School student Kim Herb, left, reports on her group’s recommendations for improvements to Madison’s permitting process. The students presented in May to a joint meeting of the city of Madison Plan and Economic Development commissions. Herb is working as a consultant in Colorado.
Funds to cover travel and publication expenses are provided through a generous donation from University of Wisconsin-Madison alum Wilbur R. Voigt to honor Edwin Witte, grandfather of La Follette School professor John Witte. Known as one of the founders of Social Security, Edwin Witte was a UW economist who went to Washington at the invitation of President Franklin Roosevelt to serve as executive director of the committee that drafted the Social Security Act.
- In Wisconsin, the Domestic Issues class taught by Andrew Reschovsky played to a full house for the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, the mayors of Madison and Milwaukee and a joint legislative committee:
- About 15 legislators of the Wisconsin Joint Legislative Council heard about long-term health-care problems for Wisconsin’s growing aged population.
- Revenue Secretary Mike Morgan and a team
of analysts were given a report on Wisconsin’s machinery and equipment tax exemptions. - Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, the Plan Commission and the Economic Development Commission met to hear a report on the city’s development and permit process. The EDC later endorsed the La Follette School’s recommendations, and the report garnered attention from the Wisconsin State Journal on June 12.
- Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and his Department of Administration received an analysis on a potential city sales tax.
On the international side, Melanie Manion’s students looked at a range of issues:
- One group examined the effects of the expiration of the Multi-Fiber Arrangement on South Asia and presented findings to the sponsoring agency in Washington, D.C.
- Another made recommendations to help Mexico City’s police department to reduce sexual harassment and discrimination.
- The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development received a summary of objectives and strategies that metropolitan governments around the world use to pursue livability and competitiveness. The team also explored partnerships between governments and non-governmental organizations to provide services.
The workshops are the capstone courses of the La Follette School’s two master’s degree programs, the Master of International Public Affairs and the Master of Public Affairs. The students work in teams to produce carefully crafted reports that meet high professional and academic standards and address problems in the public, non-governmental and private sectors.
Index to La Follette Notes fall 2005