Political Science and Public Policy

George Taylor, professor of political science, was an invited participant in a roundtable discussion at the Southern Political Science Association conference in New Orleans, January 5-9, 2011.

When it comes to engaged learning, students in the fall semester public administration senior seminar on food and agriculture public policies learned that it doesn’t get any more hands-on than processing chickens themselves, from the final clucks to the customer sales on a small Orange County organic farm.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents in the latest Elon University Poll disagree with the idea of using school vouchers to help parents pay for their children to attend private or religious schools instead of public schools, and nearly the same number believes doing so would weaken public schools.

When the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect on Jan. 1, 1994, its goal was to increase trade between Canada, Mexico and the United States by eliminating tariffs and encouraging investment. Seventeen years later, as part of International Education Week 2010 at Elon University, representatives from the three nations met to offer thoughts on the future of the agreement.

When it comes to closing a nearly $3 billion state budget shortfall for the next fiscal year, more than 6 in 10 North Carolinians support an increase in the sales tax by 1 cent per dollar spent, according to the latest Elon University Poll. More than half of respondents – 56 percent – said they would oppose the elimination of state jobs to address the gap.

Elon University professors Laura Roselle and Joel Karty have been selected as Senior Faculty Research Fellows for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic years.

Most North Carolinians know that Raleigh is their capital city and that Beverly Perdue is their governor, but according to the latest Elon University Poll, fewer than 1 in 5 state residents can correctly name Roy Cooper as their state attorney general, and barely a third could correctly identify both sitting United States senators.

With the 2010 congressional midterm elections less than a week away, only one third of respondents in the latest Elon University poll believed Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr deserves re-election as he fends off Democratic challenger Elaine Marshall.

Associate professor Hunter Bacot joined with leading political scientists in North Carolina on Oct. 19 for a panel discussion on the 2010 elections, an event in Raleigh, N.C., sponsored by the North Carolina FreeEnterprise Foundation.

After an aggressive publicity campaign, the Model United Nations Society at Elon University has seen a recent increase in membership and prominence on campus.