February Faculty Meeting

The faculty discussed the possibility of forming a small PhD program with the School of Government that would focus on applied research for state and local governments. The discussion has been ongoing since last December. The program would not divert Public Policy faculty’s resources, but there would be some areas of overlap with the PhD program in Public Policy. It would increase enrollment in some of the core courses and would offer the department an opportunity to grow. No decision was made on this issue.

The faculty also discussed the “UNC Tomorrow," a plan to engage UNC with North Carolina’s problems. This is a high profile plan with a business model of accountability. However, it is unclear how this will affect the department. The plan is not clearly linked to resources yet, and the department is already involved in such applied research.

Furthermore, the faculty discussed the Strategic Plan for the department that they will be working on in the coming year. They will be working on a mandated self-study process. In the coming months, the faculty will focus on and refine the central questions to be examined. There will also be an external review committee to evaluate the program, and the faculty will be able to invite people to participate in that committee. They will be putting together a slate of potential candidates in the next meeting.