My last few days in Seattle have been very interesting.
It rained all day Sunday and Monday so my adventures by-walking-aound were curtailed a bit, but I still managed to meander to a couple of interesting places in the downtown area.
I had breakfast at a local restaurant named "Lola." I knew I was in trouble when the only omelet they offered was made with octopus. Nope. Not me. Never. Not for breakfast. LOL Nice place though.
As with most conferences it was both a learning and networking opportunity. I met and had several interesting discussions with academics and practitioners from all over the USA and abroad. I liberally gave out my business cards -- you never know when one of those contacts will turn into an opportunity.
I attended more presentations and went through the exhibit area, which was like a candy story for academics...books, books, books. I even found one that I might utilize in the fall in public policy and requested an inspection copy right there.
I had the opportunity to visit with a young lady, Rebecca, from upstate New York, a graduate of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who wants to continue her education in cyber-crime and crime analysis. So, not being one to miss the opportunity to recruit for our school, I gave her soon-to-be Dr. Chris Copeland's contact email. He is without a doubt one of the most gifted and educated persons I know in this area. He can rock some "white hat" hacker stuff.
I also visited with a student from Bhutan who was looking for an opportunity to pursue his MPA degree. Of course, what I really think he wanted was someone or some institution to sponsor him (meaning pay for his education), but he was motivated and interesting.
As my adventures in Seattle were coming to a close, I still heard some great presentations on trust, trust building, competencies and practical uses derived from earning an MPA, an interesting presentation calling for bringing back the bureaucracy (hiring more people) versus growing government through contracting out (and the concomitant issues with inefficiencies and corruption), reducing turnover in the public sector, impacts from Act 10 in Wisconsin (reducing power of labor unions in the public sector) and evidence-based decision making (in other words -- relying on empirical evidence in public administration).
When it comes to utilizing evidence (research, etc.) in public policy making, I have four comments:
1) much of public policy making is VALUE laden, which means a great deal of decision-making is less about what the evidence suggests and more about decision-makers' wants; 2) most public managers/entities are risk averse (can you imagine a city being willing to replicate the Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment today?); 3) research is NOT usually published in places that practitioners are likely to even see it; and, 4) many practitioners are not able to fully utilize research results because of the way it is reported (read this as language and prose).
My trip home was very uneventful, but it started very early on Tuesday morning, 4:30 a.m. in fact. It makes for a very long day, but it was so worth it. Seattle was a great host city and it is a great place to visit.
I want to thank both Tarleton State University for sponsoring my trip and Dr. Alex del Carmen, the Executive Director of the School of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Strategic Studies, in fact, my boss for allowing me to attend my very first ASPA annual conference. Thank you, Alex.
My hope is that next year we can take a group of MPA students from our program to the ASPA Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, March 17-21, 2017. Think about submitting a topic for presentation.
Dr. GM Cox
Asst. Professor
Director, MPA Program
Tarleton State University
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