Introduction from the Dean
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

I am pleased to submit this 2006 report of activities of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies to you. Our School had another great year, in the classroom, in scholarship, and with our policy mission. As I finish my 11th year as Dean, I continue to be impressed by the productivity and high quality work of our faculty, students and staff.    

During 2006, we taught classes to over 9,000 students, and awarded 19 PhDs, 98 master’s degrees, and 137 bachelor’s degrees. We remain very diverse and very committed to diversity in our classes. The impressive accomplishments of our students and their job placements, as outlined in these pages, are something for us all to celebrate. 

The high reputation ranking of our college in national circles is primarily due to the scholarship of our faculty. They continued to produce at a high level again this year. The faculty and staff published 281 books and papers this year, presented at 303 domestic and international meetings, conferences and invited lectures, served on 48 journal editorial boards, and refereed for 167 different journals. We have now succeeded in recruiting a distinguished economist to hold the W.J. Usery Chair in Labor Studies. 

We added two new endowed chair holds, and in just a year they made great strides in developing our nonprofit program and our experimental economics program. The Nonprofit Studies program is already a major player in the region in terms of training and research, while the Experimental program has developed national recognition as a center of research and teaching. The Fiscal Research Center and the Health Policy Center continue to be the research centers of choice for our state Legislature and Executive, and have gained considerable national visibility.

We continue to be global in our focus. Our students come from all over the world, and the faculty worked in 34 countries this year. The International Studies Program continued its activities of research and teaching in many developing and transition countries, and hosted several prestigious training programs for a wide variety of audiences here on campus. 

In 2006, the total value of outstanding active grants and contracts was $37.3 million.

In summary, 2006 was another very good year, but 2007 will be better. 

--Dean Roy Bahl
May 14, 2007