Political Science

Students at two Philadelphia universities say current frontrunner Mitt Romney doesn't turn them on. "He doesn't bring enough enthusiasm to the base," said Michael Wade, a Drexel University sophomore marketing major who heads the school's College Republicans. Ann Marie Hager, a Drexel freshman majoring in political science, said many students are turned off by the system in general. "It concerns me," said Hager. "I definitely see the apathy. " Across town, the College Republicans leader at Temple University is ambivalent about the GOP candidates.

STUDENTS at two Philadelphia universities say front-runner Mitt Romney doesn't turn them on. "He doesn't bring enough enthusiasm to the base," said Michael Wade, a Drexel University sophomore who's majoring in marketing and heads the school's College Republicans. Ann Marie Hager, a Drexel freshman majoring in political science, said many fellow students are turned off by the system in general. "It concerns me," said Hager. "I definitely see the apathy. " Across town, the College Republicans leader at Temple University is ambivalent about the GOP candidates.

During this presidential primary season, the candidates have been questioned in numerous forums by countless talking heads with backgrounds in journalism, economics and law, but seldom by anyone knowledgeable in mathematics or science. This is odd, given the importance the candidates themselves ascribe to education, particularly in science and math. Nobody expects Messrs. Bradley, Bush, Gore and McCain to solve Maxwell's equations or spout out pi to 50 digits, but reasonable answers to a few elementary questions on mathematics and science would nevertheless be reassuring.

Washington can be a subtle place, current evidence to the contrary. Take FIPSE, which is bureaucratese for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. It has $9.5 million to finance programs that claim to improve education at colleges and universities. Since 1972, the Department of Education has pretty much distributed the money as it saw fit. Colleges would submit applications, 1,700 most recently, and the FIPSE bureaucrats would use a peer-review system to decide which ideas might work best.

Jamie Lynn Montgomery, former queen of the Burlington County Farm Fair, moved a step up in the world this month when she became the new Miss Burlington County. But the 1996 Cherokee High School graduate has not drifted far from her roots. During the pageant, Montgomery took top prize after performing a clogging routine, a skill she learned at age 7 with the Burlington County 4-H Cloggers - and the one that helped to propel her three years ago into the role of Farm Fair queen.

"NOT ALL populism is bad," writes Kimberly A. Strassel in the Jan. 29 Wall Street Journal. Presumably, the hoi polloi should be grateful for Ms. Strassel's qualified approval. Apparently, graduating from Princeton in 1994 with a B.A. in public policy and international affairs, as Ms. Strassel did, gives you the intellectual authority to decide which political beliefs of the man on the street are legitimate. The pronouncement by Lady Strassel is risible. Why an Ivy League education imbues you with a greater degree of righteousness than those who lack such education is not immediately apparent to anyone who doesn't have one. The four classic Roman virtues of pietas, fides, collegio and gravitas didn't include any mention of an Ivy League degree or being a Rhodes scholar.

Back when he was just a Princeton political science professor and not the guy who shook up New Jersey's political map, Larry Bartels wrote an essay titled "Uninformed Votes. " "The political ignorance of the American voter is one of the best-documented features of contemporary politics, but the political significance of this political ignorance is far from clear," Bartels wrote in the 1996 essay. His critics now say he could be describing himself. Since moving to New Jersey from Rochester, N.Y., in 1991, he has not voted in any election, has not registered to vote, could not care less who's in or out in Trenton, and has never worked on a political campaign.

As the world waited for China to release the crew of a U.S. spy plane yesterday, students in John Kennedy's political science class at West Chester University were gaining some real-life lessons in the art of diplomacy and global power. There was relief that crew members would be coming home, but also some frustration that it took so long to get them out. And the students were not perturbed by the issue of an apology. "If we're the lone superpower, why does it matter if we apologize?"

Athlete                School          Class          Major Robin England       Rutgers-Camden    Sr.     Economics Victoria Gocht          Temple             So.     Psychology Rebecca Hammond    Swarthmore       So.          Biology Kylie Lipinski          Haverford          Jr. Political science Paige Madison       Penn                Jr.

Edward B. Shils, 89, who was associated with the University of Pennsylvania for nearly 60 years as a student, teacher and administrator, died Sunday at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania of injuries sustained in an automobile accident Oct. 31. He lived in Penn Valley. After graduating from Simon Gratz High School in 1933, he enrolled at Penn and earned three degrees in succession: a bachelor's degree in economics in 1936; a master's degree in political science in 1937; and a doctorate in political science in 1940.

BOSTON - Massachusetts may account for about 2 percent of the nation's population, but when it comes to nurturing White House dreams, the Bay State is a political boomtown. Since 1960, at least half a dozen Massachusetts politicians have launched serious campaigns for president, while a handful of others have toyed with the idea. Three captured their political party's nomination and one, John F. Kennedy, went on to occupy the office. The difference this election cycle is that the politician aiming to be the fourth major-party nominee from Massachusetts in the last five decades is a Republican, Mitt Romney.

Chris Bonneau ?is an associate professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh The Pennsylvania legislature recently held hearings on a measure that would strip voters of the ability to directly elect judges. Support for the measure is based mostly on erroneous claims, and the alternative the legislature is considering - so-called merit selection, often called the Missouri Plan - could be far worse than its members believe. If the bill passes, the public would vote on a constitutional amendment that would vest the appointing power in the governor, who would have to appoint judges from a list of nominees generated by a nomination commission, and those nominees would then face confirmation by the Senate.

Mark I. Siman, 63, of Mount Laurel, who retired in 2001 as a New Jersey deputy attorney general, died of complications from a broken hip Saturday, March 17, at Virtua Marlton, the regional medical center. Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Siman graduated from Haddon Township High School in 1967, earned a bachelor's in political science at Temple University in 1971 and a law degree from Georgetown University in 1974. He began work with the office of the New Jersey attorney general shortly after being admitted to the bar. His brother-in-law, Michael Himowitz, said in a phone interview Monday that in his legal work Mr. Siman was most proud of "his work defending women's reproductive rights" and of his pro bono work for the National Women's Law Center.

STUDENTS at two Philadelphia universities say front-runner Mitt Romney doesn't turn them on. "He doesn't bring enough enthusiasm to the base," said Michael Wade, a Drexel University sophomore who's majoring in marketing and heads the school's College Republicans. Ann Marie Hager, a Drexel freshman majoring in political science, said many fellow students are turned off by the system in general. "It concerns me," said Hager. "I definitely see the apathy. " Across town, the College Republicans leader at Temple University is ambivalent about the GOP candidates.

Students at two Philadelphia universities say current frontrunner Mitt Romney doesn't turn them on. "He doesn't bring enough enthusiasm to the base," said Michael Wade, a Drexel University sophomore marketing major who heads the school's College Republicans. Ann Marie Hager, a Drexel freshman majoring in political science, said many students are turned off by the system in general. "It concerns me," said Hager. "I definitely see the apathy. " Across town, the College Republicans leader at Temple University is ambivalent about the GOP candidates.

MILFORD, Mich. - His fine old boyhood home in the Palmer Park neighborhood of Detroit has since been bulldozed as a drug den, but Republican Mitt Romney reminisced about how fine it was, back when Woodward Avenue was paved with gold - well, spray painted, actually, for a parade celebrating the auto industry. That was before his dad, George, was governor of Michigan. "Detroit was the pride of the nation," Romney said the other night. "I know they still have the parade of cars every year.

"An old man sat on the sidewalk, placed a hat in front of his crossed legs, and a sign next to them that read: 'I am blind. Please help me,' " my student began. An Egyptian psychologist, Professor Saleh, along with two other visiting professors, was taking English lessons funded by a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The professors were to publish in an American journal during a nine-month stay in the United States, and I was to help them make sure their writing was appropriately polished.

Shelley Adler, the widow of former Democratic Rep. John H. Adler, will seek her party's nomination to run for the seat her husband lost in 2010, she announced Monday. The lawyer and former Cherry Hill councilwoman hopes to run as the Democratic candidate in the recently redrawn Third Congressional District, which covers much of Burlington and Ocean Counties. She would likely oppose Republican Jon Runyan, the former Eagles player, who defeated her husband and faces his first reelection bid. Adler, 52, said she had considered becoming a candidate "for the last couple of months.