A Message from the Dean

These first few months as dean of the UCLA School of Public Affairs have been exciting and challenging. In my meetings with faculty, students, staff, alumni, and friends, I’ve been impressed by the commitment to academic excellence, quality teaching, diversity, and making a difference in the world. As a member of the founding faculty in Public Policy when the school first came together, I am now honored and humbled to serve the School of Public Affairs as dean. I look forward to working with all of you to help reach our fullest potential in the coming years.

The comparative advantage of the School is that it is inherently multi-disciplinary. Moreover, the three departments – Public Policy, Social Welfare, and Urban Planning – are themselves inter-disciplinary attracting faculty and students from their home disciplines as well as from such academic fields as Political Science, Economics, Sociology, Geography, Public Health, Environmental Studies. It is the breadth and depth that attracts faculty and students from the best universities in the nation and the world. In short, we are the preeminent public graduate school of public affairs located in, and dedicated to, the challenges of a world-class city – Los Angeles.

Our uniqueness, diversity, and commitment to excellence contribute to my confidence that together we can continue to build and develop the School, even in the face of the challenging economic climate. Just as UCLA opened the Westwood campus in 1929 and added graduate education in 1933, we too will succeed in building a stronger and more self-sufficient School of Public Affairs in hard times. And in doing, so we will contribute solutions to the difficult social, economic, and environmental problems of our era.

Toward this end I would like to share with you what are, I believe, the major questions we must address as we chart our way forward:

• How can we better support the excellence and ambitions of our three departments to assure a whole School of Public Affairs, greater than the sum its parts?
• How can we be more innovative, entrepreneurial, and cutting edge in the way that we pursue our research and offer our educational programs?
• How can we better support and develop the next cadre of public and private sector leaders through our graduate programs?
• How can we better promote and disseminate the outstanding work done by our faculty, students, and alumni?
• How can we become more robust stakeholders in devising solutions to the multiple problems that confront our city, region, state, and nation?
• How can we best inspire and spur increased fundraising and development?

These are the questions I bring to faculty, alumni, students, friends, and staff of the School of Public Affairs in the coming months and years. I hope you will join me in finding and implementing answers to these challenges.

In sum, I am extremely excited, optimistic, and fully confident that we can and will meet the challenges of being a great 21st century school of public affairs. It is now up to all of us – you and I – to roll up our sleeves and be about the work that is necessary to achieve our goals.