Professor Gary Wyckoff’s public policy students worked in teams this semester to meet the challenge of devising effective yet feasible policy proposals for education reform. They presented and defended their projects to a panel of alumni who work in education on May 12.

In a Huffington Post essay titled “The New Washington Economics,” Government Professor P. Gary Wyckoff questioned the financial soundness of the sequester.  In the March 21 posting, he addressed the economic reasons why the sequester may be quite detrimental to the economy while not reducing the deficit significantly.

The national media highlighted Hamilton College in multiple ways throughout 2012 by focusing on faculty research and expertise, featuring opinion pieces, and announcing new endeavors and special student projects. From The Today Show to NPR’s All Things Considered to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the college was visible in the media across the country.

Using examples from today’s political landscape, Professor of Government P. Gary Wyckoff examined elements of critical thinking in an essay titled “What Exactly Is Critical Thinking,” published by InsideHigherEd in its Oct. 11 edition. “As I prepared for the start of classes this fall, I tried to pinpoint the critical thinking skills I really want my students to learn,” wrote Wyckoff.  “And as I listened to public debates on everything from tax policy to Obamacare, five essential thinking skills seemed to be missing, again and again.”

The New York Times published a letter to the editor written by Professor of Government P. Gary Wyckoff as the leadoff response to “Class Matters. Why Won’t We Admit It?” in its Dec. 22 editorial section titled “Reducing Inequality in Our Schools.” He compared our current educational policies as being “like a requirement that all children clear the same height in the high jump, regardless of their stature.”

The Levitt Center has recently published the spring 2011 edition of Insights, the academic journal that features the best undergraduate social science research papers written by Hamilton students.

Five students in the Hamilton College Public Policy department posed a question at the outset of their thesis presentation on May 2: are the columnists you read and talking heads you watch better than a coin flip?

Hamilton College attracted the media’s attention quite often this year in feature stories and news reports. Among the areas most often addressed by the media in covering Hamilton were topics related to the admission process.

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio in Albany will feature a reading by Professor of Government and Director of the Public Policy Program P. Gary Wyckoff on Thursday, Oct. 7, as part of the public radio station’s Academic Minute. The program normally airs each weekday at 7:37 a.m. and 3:56 p.m at 90.3 FM in the Clinton area but because WAMC is in its fall fund drive, the Academic Minute will not air at its usual times. Instead, it will be played as a floating module throughout the day.