Chip Taylor

Notice of likely blog output reduction

Classes start today.

That means that from now to early December bloggage will most likely be reduced to a level even lower than my meager summer output. Hopefully, some of my classes will stimulate some blog postings.

I'm taking some interesting classes, three of which are kind of related -- or least cover complementary subject matter. There's PO ST 904, Policy Studies Seminar I. It covers the aspects of the policy process model: agenda formation, typologies of public policies, policy adoption, evaluation, the role of institutions, etc. Then there's PO ST 822, Policy Analysis and Political Choice. I don't have a syllabus and I can't access the course description right now, but from looking at the required texts it appears to cover the roles of the president, congress, bureacracy, interest groups, and media in the adoption and implementation of public policy. It looks like 822 and 904 are complementary in the topics they cover. I'm also taking ECON 821, Public Choice, which covers much the same subject area -- the actions of elected officials, bureaucrats, interest groups, and voters -- but from an economistic theoretical aspect. Last week I had the opportunity to talk about this schedule with Dr. Robert Smith, a political science professor who teaches the Org Theory class I'll take in the spring. He said those three classes would "present an interesting educational opportunity" since they do cover related material. I just need to be careful to keep straight what models and theories are presented in each, so that each professor knows I learned what he taught.

Those three courses make up seven credit hours, as PO ST 904 is only one hour. I'm rounding out the Policy Studies Program's insane, in my opinion, requirement that grad assistants take a minimum of 12 hours with an econometrics course (this is an elective beyond my core quantitative requirement) and a masters level political science course in federalism and intergovernmental relations. So I should have an interesting semester. I'm having the time of my life.

This is probably a good time to acknowledge all the support (financial, emotional, you name it) I get from my wonderful wife, Carolyn. One of my professors in my masters program told me that a grad student should always have one thing that is more important than his classes. It helps you keep perspective he said. Carolyn is that foundation for me. She is a real treasure.