Work in Progress and 2006 Achievement for
Prof. Richard Sylves
Dept of Political Science and IR
University of Delaware
SYLVES’
SCHOLARSHIP
I completed more than half of the chapter work on my
book,
DECLARING DISASTER: THE POLITICS AND POLICIES OF
PRESIDENTIAL DISASTER DECLARATIONS for CQ
Press, who provided
me both a
contract and advance on
the book last summer 2006. I had prepared a long prospectus
and sample chapters for CQ. All five outside reviewers
endorsed the project and CQ’s letter told me their
editorial board enthusiastically approved the book project.
I also received a contract from
Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann to do
a book entitled
Homeland Security and Emergency Management: A Public
Budgeting Perspective. I have been
invited by George Haddow and Jane Bullock, to author this
book in their edited series for
Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann. The book will have a tight
production schedule and my manuscript must be completed by
mid-summer 2006. I have furnished you draft work completed
to date on this book for this evaluation.
I should add that I wrote in the review period a long
article for the International City Management Association’s
book, Emergency
Management: Principles and Practice for Local
Government,
2nd
ed.
(edited by William L. Waugh. Jr. and Kathleen Tierney.) My
article is entitled, “Budgeting
for Local Emergency Management and Homeland
Security.” In this
review period I received extensive editorial comment that
required considerable revision and re-writing of the
manuscript. That book should appear in 2008. The work
invested in that project will be extremely helpful in
preparation of my book manuscript for Elsevier.
In this period of evaluation, I completed
second year work on
a
$50,000 research project funded by the Public Entity Risk
Institute (PERI). The
culmination of this work was the completion of a major
website accessible by going to HYPERLINK
"http://www.peripresdecusa.org/"
http://www.peripresdecusa.org This work was
done through the Center for Applied Demography and Survey
Research, I was co-PI with with Prof. Ed Ratledge of UD
School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy. Work on this
project required a mammoth effort to research disasters
from May 1953 through December 1964, an era when
declaration records were not saved on computer files. I
also had to do a tremendous amount of work adding
information on the many major disasters and emergencies
declared between 2003 and 2006, including the many
hurricane evacuation declarations for Katrina (some 45
states). Though I was only compensated for one month of
summer work on the project, I invested a very significant
share of my summer and academic year research time to this
project. PERI’s two-year funding support to this project
totals $100,000. The second year project is complete as of
March 31, 2007.
----
I was able to
publish two articles and a book review in the review since
February 2006.
“President Bush
and Hurricane Katrina: A Presidential Leadership Study,”
in
The Annals of Political and Social
Science, March 2006.
“Presidential Disaster Declaration Decisions, 1953–2003:
What Influences Odds of Approval?” with Zoltan
Buzas,
State and Local Government Review, winter 2007,
forthcoming.
I revised in this review year two additional papers that
will appear as chapters in books. One awaiting book
publication has already been displayed on FEMA’s Emergency
Management Institute web site. That paper is:
“U.S. Disaster Policy and Management in an Era of Homeland
Security,” and this work is to be a book chapter in Prof.
David McEntire’s study of disaster management. The full
draft is complete and submitted in this evaluation.
I devoted several months to writing and research of an
article as a chapter in Editor Claire Rubin’s History of
Emergency Management book. My article is entitled,
“A
Political History of U.S. Emergency Management : 1979 to
2001” and that piece
is done in full draft. During the
review period a panel of 13 different scholars submitted
183 comments for revision, which added to the length of the
paper considerably and which required an immense amount of
new effort. Public Entity
Risk Institute will publish this work directly and the
production cycle should make the book available by fall
2007.
I invested two months of effort in preparing a
preliminary proposal to NSF, which
included budget, in which I and Prof. David Wilson are
co-PI’s. Professor William C. Nicholson, of North Carolina
Central University (a historically Black university). Our
proposal is “Culture
and Consensus in the Department of Homeland
Security.” I have
submitted the Preliminary Proposal.
I also participated in drafting a
White Paper proposal to the Department of Homeland
Security. Professor Biliana Cicin-Sain of Marine Policy is
the PI. The work is
entitled, White Paper on Center of Excellence (COE) for
Maritime, Island, and Extreme/Remote Environment Security
Funding Opportunity: DHS-07-ST-061-003, Gerard J. Mangone
Center for Marine Policy, College of Marine and Earth
Studies, University of Delaware, 28 February 2007. My name
and contribution is listed on page 4 of the proposal, which
is submitted in the documents of this review.
I
have worked for much of the year as a
symposium editor for a special
issue of STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT REVIEW, winter 2007
issue dedicated to disaster research and state & local
government. I have
invited our colleague Jason Mycoff to prepare and
article for this issue, though his article, like mine, will
be subject to outside blind refereeing directed by the
journal’s editor.
Zoltan Buzas, one of our most talented doctoral
students, and I have an
article in the volume as well.
SCHOLARLY
SERVICE
I contributed to proposal development on
Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship
(IGERT) Program for Dr.
Sue McNeill of UD Civil Engineering and currently on loan
to the Dean of Arts and Sciences. Had the proposal been
approved it would have provided overhead and support to the
department. Details of that budget would have been worked
out had our IGERT proposal made it to the second round.
I agreed to help Prof. William Nicholson of North Carolina
Central University prepare an
NSF grant proposal that would investigate “Culture and
Consensus in the Department of Homeland Security.”
This project
required more than two months of intensive effort. I
invited our colleague David Wilson to join the team. The
proposal text is included in the Research folder I am
furnishing you for this review. Should NSF approve our
proposal, the College and Department stands to gain summer
funding for faculty, administrative overhead, and funding
sufficient to compensate two research assistants.
In early April 2006 I presented a paper on a panel
called,
“The New Role of the Presidency in National Disaster
Management,” on a panel at the American Society for Public
Administration national conference in
Denver. My paper is
“Homeland Security and Disaster Management: New Roles,
Policy, Research, and Strategic Planning.” I am also slated
to speak on a roundtable at the ASPA convention, this one
titled “Security, Hazards, and Disaster Risk Reduction.”
During the review year I completed a FEMA Higher Education
Micro Grant project for Dr. Wayne Blanchard. The
Body of Knowledge project called for
commissioning five academics and practitioners to conduct
surveys across several levels: graduate education,
undergraduate education, associate degree and junior
college level, disaster center research level, and
professional level. It was my job to supervise the survey
work of people commissioned to conduct this survey and it
was my job to write up a final summative report. That
report is available on FEMA’s Higher Education website.
On June 7, 2006, I made a presentation at the Department of
Homeland Security, FEMA, Higher Education conference on a
panel entitled “Cultural Conflict in Homeland Security.”
I spoke on a
Roundtable entitled,
Security, hazards, and Disaster Risk Reduction, at
the
American Society for Public Administration meetings in late
March, early April 2006.
I consulted
with the Disaster Research Center to help them with
proposal development on “Preserving Disaster Statistics,”
though I do not know if they made application to NSF as
they had discussed.
HONORS
I was invited to apply for a one year visiting post at
NSF’s Infrastructure Management and Hazard Response program
by Dr. Doug Foutch. I was honored to have been asked but I
declined the invitation, owing to other obligations I had.
Dean of the College of Marine Studies, Dr. Nancy Targett,
renewed my joint appointment with the Graduate College of
Marine Studies to June 30, 2009.
I was honored to speak at the National Academy of Public
Administration, Annual Society Equity Conference, my
PowerPoint presentation was on “Social Equity Issues of
Hurricane Katrina.” Richmond, Virginia: Virginia
Commonwealth University. February 16, 2007.
Professional
Development
SYLVES’
TEACHING
Course Groupings
Fall 06 POLITICS AND DISASTER POSC456
Fall 06 POLITICS AND DISASTER POSC656
Fall 06 SPECIAL PROBLEM
Spring 06 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY SEMINAR POSC818
Spring 06 PUBLIC BUDGETING POSC455
Instructor Effort:
Fall 06 POLITICS AND DISASTER POSC456-656. I employed
problem based learning with team and individual
presentations.
I used WebCT to
present chapter extracts, team assignments, to manage
student email, to provide rolling reports of student
performance via “What’s My Grade,” to present course
syllabi, assignments, to make special announcements, and to
make available old examinations or quizzes.
I
conducted three exams 70% short answer and 30% essay on
each one. For each exam I prepared a different take-home
essay question for each student in the class, they had the
option of doing that take-home essay or completing the
closed book essay portion of the test.
I was pleased
to have nine graduate students in the course, among them,
seven from our Global Governance program. The graduate
students wrote two sets of exceptionally good papers, one
of which is being published in an academic journal.
There
were almost three times the number of undergraduates in the
class as graduates, but I was fortunate to have a wonderful
group of undergraduates. The undergraduates wrote terrific
final papers.
Fall 06 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION POSC303 is a course I enjoy
teaching. I looked forward to my weekly 2 hour meetings
with Mike G.
I learned much
about Mike and myself in our meetings. Mike works
exceedingly hard, perhaps two or three times as hard as
average students, to master material. We parted friends and
I was happy to make possible Mike’s early graduation.
Mike
did a great job on his “My Ideal Federal Job Search” paper
and average on his first research paper assignment. Mike is
super conscientious.
Spring
06 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION SEMINAR POSC818
is a graduate-only course that enrolled 18. This is one of
my flagship courses and I enjoy teaching and preparing for
it when I get to teach it every other year. This course is
dual listed in Urban Affairs as UAPP818.
I basically
assigned one book for every two class sessions. We used
Chasek et al.’s book entitled Global
Environmental Politics and Durant,
Fiorino, O’Leary’s Environmental
Governance Reconsidered, plus
Eckersley’s The Green
State. These books
gave half the course and international thrust. I think the
three Global Governance students in the course appreciated
this.
I
used WebCT to great advantage in this course and it is of
particular help for once-a-week 3 hour courses.
This
course required three major papers. I was thrilled that the
class had several older and experienced environmental
activists, one a career-long California organizer of the
Nature Conservancy. Most of the students in the course are
Environmental and Energy Policy graduate students.
The
toughest to read and comprehend, and the book that drew the
most criticism was Karen Eckersley’s The Green
State, which is a
social constructivist take on the compatibility of
democracy and environmentalism. To say Eckersley’s book is
abstruse is an understatement. I ended up writing summaries
of the final half of the book in order to make it
understandable to about half the class, the other half
grasp what it said. This probably hurt my course
evaluations as this book came at the end of the course.
However, I made it clear that books like Eckersley’s
The Green
State are commonly
assigned in graduate seminar at many major U.S. and
European universities.
Spring 06 PUBLIC BUDGETING POSC455 is a course I enjoy
teaching but which is a tough draw for students, as many
expect it to be quantitative.
I employed
problem based learning with team and individual
presentations. In many sessions I asked students to make
short presentations on portions of the assigned readings.
I
used WebCT to present chapter extracts, team assignments,
to manage student email, to provide rolling reports of
student performance via “What’s My Grade,” to present
course syllabi, assignments, to make special announcements,
and to make available old examinations or quizzes.
This
course demands that students memorize over 100 terms. My
key word lists and glossaries and article extracts helped
them prepare for tests given in the course.
I conducted
three exams 70% short answer and 30% essay on each one. For
each exam I prepared a different take-home essay question
for each student in the class, they had the option of doing
that take-home essay or completing the closed book essay
portion of the test.
I assigned
three books in the course.
I bonded with
several students in the course. I wrote letters of
recommendation for several.
Advisement and
additional variables:
I served on Ruth Norman’s thesis defense committee. I
continue to serve as advisor to Environmental and Energy
Policy student Carol Luttrell. I also served on Nick
Galasso’s MA thesis defense committee.
I have written letters of recommendation for graduate
students Robert Alfano, Ruth Norman, Joseph Pereira, Sarah
Schuld, Matt Webb, and Neil Roosman.
I also wrote letters Daniel LoFaro, Lauren Ross, Ingrid
Albaugh, Chris Campbell, Chris Byrne, Paul Connelly, Nicole
deBrabander, Rachel Eisinger, Jeff Engle, Elizabeth
Hopkins, Joseph Neutzling, Rick Nietubicz, Bradley Smith,
Caroline Spangler, and Melissa Turner.
I
continue to provide advisement to the pool of
undergraduates assigned me, which I understand, numbers 45.
Besides academic advisement, many of these students are
seeking career advice.
Contribution
to Political Science and IR Department’s Mission:
I used WebCT intensively in all my courses in the review
period. I continued to use it in my Spring and Fall
semester 2006 courses. I believe that my professional
development efforts will help the department’s
undergraduate program, provide more automated services to
our students, and relieve department staff of a significant
number of clerical activities that would be necessary were
I not using WebCT in my courses.
SYLVES
ON-CAMPUS SERVICE ACTIVITIES
This was a strong year of departmental service for me, as I
know it must have been for many others in the department.
Over the spring of 2006, I worked with you and my
colleagues in the Academic Performance Review of the
department.
In January 2007
Prof. Biliana Cicin-Sain invited me to join her in
preparing a pre-proposal to Department of Homeland
Security, paired with the General Dynamics
Corporation.
I served on, and continue to be a member of, the
Department’s Graduate Committee and though I
volunteered to serve on the Undergraduate Committee, I have
not been listed as a member of the latter. I chair the
Public Policy and Administration field and I am the
assigned faculty mentor of Jason Mycoff. I thoroughly enjoy
working with Prof. Mycoff and I was happy to be of modest
help to him in getting one of his articles into
State and
Local Government Review for a symposium
I edited. However, I feel awkward claiming any credit as
Prof. Mycoff’s mentor, as I know Prof. Pika has worked with
him at least as much if not more than I.
I also served as the
Department’s representative to the University Faculty
Senate in the spring evaluation period of
2006.
April 17, 2006, I was the featured speaker at the Spring
Contemporary Issues Series of the School of Urban Affairs,
hosted by Ed Freel. There I gave a two hour presentation on
the politics and policy issues of Hurricane Katrina.
Since July 2006 I have attended monthly meetings and have
done considerable work on the
Provost’s Committee to Develop a Disaster Studies Graduate
Program. Dr. Sue
McNeill has chaired the monthly, and sometimes twice a
month, meetings. Our charge is to develop a full fledged
Master’s and Doctoral degree program in Disaster Studies.
At this point my Politics and Disaster course is one of
four required courses in both degree programs.
I have also invested considerable effort and time in
interviewing Disaster Research Center
candidates, three of
them, over the fall and winter. I have attended their job
talks, gone to lunch with each of them at the B&G, and
given them tours of town and the campus.
SYLVES
OFF-CAMPUS SERVICE ACTIVITIES
I was especially honored to be invited to John Carroll
University (Cleveland) in late March 2006, during UD’s
spring break, as the annual
Woelfe Seminar speaker. My talk was
entitled “President Bush and Hurricane Katrina: A
Presidential Leadership Study.” The nighttime presentation
was attended by 300 people, plus the entire John Carroll
Political Science Department. Prof. Dean Birch hosted my
visit. I can supply you my PowerPoint presentation of that
talk. This may be worthy of mention to Dean Apple, though
it does not fit any of the categories on his award list.
I spent three days in Ballston, Virginia at
National Science Foundation reviewing proposals as a peer
reviewer in late March 2006. In this
capacity I led discussion on five proposals, served as a
recorder on five proposals, and acted as a
reader/commentator on another 20 proposals.
Over the course of the review period I was sent two NSF
proposals to review, and this work did not require a trip
to NSF headquarters.
In the summer of 2005 I was asked to join the Emergency
Management Accreditation Program’s [EMAP]
Disaster Public
Education and Information Working Group. EMAP is funded by
FEMA but is a private organization responsible for
accrediting emergency manager education programs across the
U.S. I continue my service to EMAP.
I am on the editorial boards of four journals:
Editorial Board
member for Policy
Studies Review and
Review of
Policy Research.
Editorial Board member for Journal of
Homeland Security and Emergency Management
Editorial Board
member for State &
Local Government Review, I was thanked
by name in Vol. 38, #1, 2006 for my help in reviewing five
articles that were part of a symposium.
Editorial
Board Journal of
Emergency Management
I
reviewed manuscripts for The Journal
of Politics, State & Local Government
Review, Journal of
Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Canadian
Studies Journal, and Policy Studies Review.
I helped Ms. Stephanie Aldrich of WHYY TV-12 prepare
material for a broadcast on October 13, 2006 on Hurricane
Katrina and its implications for Delaware.
I completed a survey assessment of doctoral programs for
the National Research Council (see notice).
Professional
Off-Campus Community Service
I
continued to service on the
Environmental Advisory Panel (uncompensated)
of the
Valero Refinery at Delaware City, DE. We meet
monthly to review, question, and critique matters of
environmental health and safety at the plant as well as
serve the interests of the communities that surround the
facility. I have done this work for over three years now
having served through ownership changes from Motiva, to
Premcor, to Valero. My service also includes presentations
to the Community Advisory Panel of Valero.
I attended the Disaster Roundtable to the National Academy
of Science on Citizen Involvement in Preparing for a Flu
Pandemic, October 2006, held in Washington, DC. I sought no
reimbursement from the department for this trip.
Thank
you for your interest in my work of the past review year.
Most sincerely,
Richard T. Sylves
Professor
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