Message from the Executive Director

Friday the 13th

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I have a couple of notes as we rapidly approach the end of the second summer session in Legislative Affairs. How is it that summer is almost over?

First, we have filled Dana Perino's class I referenced in my last note. Due to the high demand for that class, we have added another offering that touches on similar issues: PMGT 265.13, How to Be a Media Specialist (CRN 77462), with Carrie Giddins, Wednesdays in Government Hall 104. Please sign up for this course if you are interesting in media consulting, especially if you were not able to get into Dana Perino's course. I think you will learn a lot.

Second, I will be on leave August 18-28, so if you need to talk to me, let’s meet the first week of the fall semester. I will have limited access to email while I am away from the office, so you can contact me, but it may be a little while before I can return your message. If you need to see someone in the office, I recommend you drop by to see Dr. Steve Billet in my absence.

I hope we all have a good weekend, and that we don’t get washed away by another round of big rainstorms.

Classes, Enrollments and the Fall Semester

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Classes, Enrollments and the Fall Semester

Later today or Monday, we will be cancelling classes that are undersubscribed for the fall term. These classes include a section of PMGT 205 Ethics (Professor Dillon), PMGT 206 Political Leadership (Professor Grosfeld) and PMGT 235 Strategic Management of Issues (Professor Grefe).

We are required to cancel courses when they do not reach the university’s minimum enrollment requirement, so if you are interested in one of these classes, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it immediately. Students affected by these cancellations will have an opportunity to enroll in other open courses.

We are also pleased to announce that Carrie Giddins, a GSPM alumna, will join the school for the academic year as a visiting faculty member, while Professor Dennis Johnson teaches courses at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China as a Fulbright Fellow. She will be teaching a section of PMGT 203 Communications Elements and an advanced communications class set to debut in spring.

Changes at GSPM

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Housekeeping Note: Some changes at GSPM

Two important course announcements for the fall!

One: As you may have seen, SPR program director Larry Parnell has brought on Dana Perino, former White House Press Secretary, to teach a course on a master class in political communications on advocacy, politics and public affairs. We are very pleased to bring in such a high-ranking former official to teach here, and look forward to the course. We have put out info on how the course will run, so please speak with Suzanne Farrand about that if you are interested and meet the selection criteria (current GSPM student with at least 24 credit hours completed and a minimum 3.5 GPA).

Professor Parnell and I have been talking about a series of “master class” offerings and this is the first one. I hope to be able to announce another one for Fall 2011, some time this fall. Our goal is to offer a Master Class like this every fall. If we can obtain outside support to make it into a regular offering, we might even be able to offer them in the spring, too.

Two: As many of you may have heard, Professor Dennis Johnson is off to Jinan University in Guangzhou, China, for the next academic year, where he will serve as a Fulbright Fellow and lecture on American politics. We are very proud of Professor Johnson’s selection, but we will miss him while he is away. His departure, and lots of other work going on here at GSPM, demands reassignment of a couple of courses this fall (and more in the spring, too).

Adjunct Professors Julius Hobson and Mike Cornfield will teach the two sections of PMGT 201: Fundamentals of Political Management, this fall. I appreciate these two long-serving members of our faculty stepping up to take on the assignment. They are both working on adapting the syllabus for the courses and we will get them published as soon as we can. Here is the info on these two sections, from the GW schedule of classes:

• CRN 71388 PMGT 201.10: Fundamentals of Political Mgt (Cornfield, M)
  Monroe Hall 250, Tuesdays, 7:10PM - 09:40PM
• CRN 73398 PMGT 201.11: Fundamentals of Political Mgt (Hobson, J)
  Hall of Government 101, Mondays, 7:10PM - 09:40PM

We also welcome a new staff member, Angela Ferragamo, to the GSPM. She started Monday as our new director of marketing. You can reach her via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you have questions or ideas for us, too. Welcome Angela!