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Student honored in national political science contest
3:02 p.m., Sept. 20, 2006--The national political science honor society, Pi Sigma Alpha, under the umbrella of the American Political Science Association, has chosen senior Jonathan Olmsted of Meriden, Conn., as a runner-up in its national Best Course Paper competition. This is the first time a UD student has been recognized. Pi Sigma Alpha has 621 chapters on college and university campuses nationwide, and each chapter across the nation is invited to submit one paper, written as a course assignment. Olmsted's entry was entitled “The Effect of Economic Conditions on President Bush's Approval,” written last year for a political science data analysis course taught by Janet Johnson, associate professor of political science and international relations. “I applied statistical and mathematical procedures to the project, looking for evidence of a relationship between how well the economy was doing versus President Bush's popularity,” Olmsted said. “The conventional wisdom is that the public rewards politicians and presidents when the economy is good and punishes them when it is bad,” Olmsted said. “Public opinion polls indicate the economy is the public's most important priority. However, I was surprised that my research showed the economy was not a major factor in President Bush's ratings, but other issues, such as the war on terror or homeland security, may have played more important roles.” In his paper, Olmsted wrote: “It remains indisputable that public opinion polls have recorded 'The Economy' and/or 'Economic Growth and Jobs' as the most pressing national priorities. No evidence exists in this study to suggest that these stated priorities have overwhelming influence on presidential approval ratings.” Olmsted, who is in UD's Undergraduate Research Program, spent the summer on campus doing the statistical groundwork for his senior thesis on exploring the quality of representation in the U.S. Senate and how senators represent the wants and needs of their constituencies. Olmsted, whose adviser is Jason Mycoff, assistant professor of political science and international relations, gives the research program high marks for the opportunities it provides. At UD, Olmsted is president of Students in the Public Interest, a nonpartisan group dedicated to getting different groups together to talk about issues and also to combat political apathy. Next year, Olmsted said he hopes to attend graduate school. Article by Sue Moncure |
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