Christina Seda (’09, third from left) is now a 1L at Yale, and wanted to share this great moment with the PubPol majors back home at Trinity! Her small section traveled to DC to observe a Supreme Court oral argument, where they were especially fortunate to have the chance to meet Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Thanks for keeping in touch, Christina, and best of luck on your first semester exams!
Suzy Wang (’13)
For Professor Bangser, teaching at Trinity College was a lucky coincidence. After serving as general counsel for nine years at a large nonprofit organization created by the Ford Foundation and later as President of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving for sixteen years, Professor Bangser happened to be having lunch with President Jimmy Jones, who suggested that he speak with Professor Fulco about teaching a course on the nonprofit sector. At the time, Professor Bangser had not thought seriously about teaching, though he had years of experience speaking on public policy issues and has always tried to give back to others in the field.
The Winding Path that Brought him to Trinity
When he graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Williams College, Bangser had a strong interest in public policy and debated whether to pursue a law degree or a Master’s degree in public policy. In that era, a law degree was seen as especially useful for people moving in and out of the public sector, and Bangser eventually decided to obtain his J.D at Columbia Law School. After completing law school, Professor Bangser practiced law for a little more than three years at a large firm in New York City, mostly in the areas of litigation and special topics such as federal election law. He then moved on to his position as general counsel for the large nonprofit organization that the Ford Foundation had set up to conduct demonstrations, pilot programs, and rigorous evaluations of education, job training, housing, and human services programs. Over time, Bangser became senior vice president of the organization, and found himself spending less time lawyering and more on project management and policy issues. After nine years, he became President of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, where he remained for sixteen years. Since stepping down as President of the foundation, he has shared his experience by providing consulting to foundations and other nonprofit organizations, and by teaching two courses—Inside the Nonprofit Sector and The Real World of Policy Implementation—at Trinity.
Professional to Professor: Strengths and Challenges
As an adjunct professor who has spent the bulk of his career outside of academia, Professor Bangser aims to offer particularly relevant practical experiences and specialties that complement the expertise of regular, full-time faculty. He is very cognizant of one challenge he and other adjunct professors face: being able to decouple the language and assumptions about what they and their peers know from the policy issues they wish to present, so as to explain their experiences clearly to an audience of liberal arts students, rather than fellow practitioners. In both of his classes, Professor Bangser therefore emphasizes the quality of students’ analysis, written work, and oral presentation skills, in addition to using case studies to explore policy issues through a practical lens. The essence of public policy, as Professor Bangser describes it, is the need to make difficult choices among often competing objectives or perspectives in a political context. Multiple pressures and incentives motivate decision makers’ choices, and Professor Bangser structures his classes to take these interests and tensions into account.
On Law School
Professor Bangser reflects the sentiment of many professors in the Public Policy & Law department: law school is just one of the many options for students in the major. Although he did ultimately decide to go to law school, Trinity students who are interested in careers in the public or nonprofit sectors should also consider degrees in fields such as public policy, public administration, or even business (since many MBA programs now include concentrations that are relevant to these careers). As Professor Bangser demonstrates, life is unpredictable, and as young adults, it is important to explore all the options available to us.
We are proud to announce that Herman Brito (2012) was chosen this week as a semi-finalist for the National Football Foundation’s Scholar Athlete Award. The award is given to an athlete who shows passion and talent in football, has an outstanding academic record, and is a campus leader. Herman is now one of 127 nominees, 16 of whom will receive a post-graduate scholarship. Results will be announced on October 26 by the NFF. Congratulations and best of luck to our fellow Bantam in the final round!
Learn more about the award process here.
Mary Sullivan (’13)
*This essay is the second installment of a point-counterpoint on Ethanol- see its companion piece here.
“We must face the prospect of changing our basic ways of living. This change will either be made on our own initiative, in a planned way, or forced on us with chaos and suffering by the inexorable laws of nature.”
-President Jimmy Carter on the oil crisis, 1976
The United States’ oil crisis is old news, and yet our generation has thus far been most proactive in working to prevent the consequences President Carter spoke of decades ago.
Cheap oil has been the driving force behind much of the economic development of the past two centuries. Our excessive demand for oil stems primarily from the belief that we need it. It is the concept that as a country, we will fall behind in the economic rat race if we don’t obtain the as much oil as possible and sell it to the highest bidders. Today’s bidders include you and I, and every other American who drives a vehicle, owns a toaster, or pays taxes. Even if we want to disregard the disastrous effects that burning fossil fuels has on the environment, the economic stagnation, and the social and political upheaval that tears allies as well as citizens of one nation apart, there remains one unfixable problem with oil. We’re going to run out- and whether it happens in 2015, or 2045, the date of peak oil consumption is imminent. If we proceed down our current oil-centric path, we will soon wake up to find our lives changed permanently.
Experts estimate that the year 2045 marks the longest amount of time we can continue our current lifestyle before Americans will be consuming more oil than can be supplied. If you’re under fifty, this is within your lifetime.
With that perspective in mind, let’s consider our options. There are a number of alternatives to using fossil fuel, including biofuels. Biofuels are created from a wide range of vegetation (primarily corn) and can be used in the same way as fossil fuels, but have the great advantage of being renewable. A biofuel that has been given serious consideration as a petroleum alternative is ethanol.
In addition to being a renewable source, Ethanol has several other benefits. First, Ethanol production yields several by-products, or substances other than fuel that result from production. Unlike the by-products of nuclear energy production, the by-products of Ethanol production are environmentally friendly and can be refined or sold as-is to offset the cost of Ethanol production. Ethanol’s by-products can be used to make feed for dairy cattle or other farm animals, corn oil, corn starch, sweeteners, vitamins, citric acid, lactic acid, pharmaceuticals, films, solvents, pigments, fibers and CO2. Furthermore, Ethanol can be produced in a manner (known as “wet-grind milling”) that wastes no part of the corn kernel.
A second benefit of Ethanol production is the capital that can be derived from the construction of Ethanol production plants. As demand for Ethanol increases, more milling plants will be necessary to meet this demand. This would result in immediate, though temporary, increase in capital and employment. Once built, these facilities would also require labor to maintain plant production. Therefore, Ethanol production is both environmentally and economically friendly.
Third, Ethanol is a relatively clean burning fuel. In addition, this clean burning does not come at the cost of energy yield; Ethanol yields 25% more energy than the energy invested in its production, meaning it has a net energy gain. Relative to the fossil fuels it replaces, greenhouse gases are reduced by 12% by the production and combustion of Ethanol. This is because Ethanol is used as an oxygenate to reduce automotive emissions. It is compatible with conventional automobile engines when blended with gasoline to create E10 (gasoline with up to 10 volume percent Ethanol). In flexible fuel vehicles, Ethanol can be blended with gasoline up to 85 volume percent Ethanol (E85). Ethanol allows gasoline to burn cleanly, reducing the amount of non-methane hydrocarbons, (NMHC) as well as carbon monoxide (CO) that the vehicle produces, both of which are damaging to our atmosphere. Ethanol is also carbon neutral, meaning that when burned, it returns to the atmosphere only the amount of carbon that was absorbed through the corn as growing plants.
Like any other energy option, Ethanol has its weaknesses. For instance, opponents claim that corn is a major food source and should be used to feed people. While it is true that corn is a food source, we must not overlook the fact that many foods are used in alternative products. Corn is used in plant fungicide for weed prevention, insect repellent, varnish for wooden floors, cosmetics, and antibiotics. Corn is also used as an adhesive in many plastics, and even in different parts of automobiles. With the advances of technology we have today, we have continuously awarded developments that embrace multiple uses of a product. If we contest the “proper use” of corn, we challenge not only corn’s use in Ethanol, but also its use in a vast array of other nonfood products.
Critics also maintain that corn prices are skyrocketing, and that if used in this way, harvests face depletion. However, the worst-case scenarios depict a situation in which corn supplies will only be low until the next harvest, rather than completely exhausted. Corn is renewable, after all, which is what makes it so preferable to the limited supply of fossil fuels.
Increase the demand for Ethanol, and an increase in corn prices will be sure to follow. As with every market fluctuation, this is good for one party, and bad for another. Namely, this increase in the price of corn aids the struggling farmer rather than the consumer. As a country, we have to decide what type of market exchanges we are willing to sustain and endorse. Although this increase in demand would certainly shift a monetary burden to the consumer, we must determine whether or not the benefit in going forward with this process outweighs the cost to the consumer. With prospects of an increase in capital and employment, cleaner air and a cleaner environment, as well as safer national security resulting from a decrease in reliance on foreign oil, we must strongly consider Ethanol as a viable option to replace fossil fuels.
No one product is the sole solution to the damage that has already been done to our environment. While Ethanol undoubtedly has its flaws, we must at least consider this a transitional product lest we come to know the chaos that President Jimmy Carter predicted would result if we are unwilling to change.
Zoe Bartholomay (’11)
From left to right: James Geisler ('14), Michael Galligan ('11), Zachary Green ('11), Stephen Gruendel ('11), Andres Delgadillo ('13), Zoe Bartholomay ('11), Mary Sullivan ('13), and Leslie Ahlstrand ('12).
For the first time in its young history, the Trinity College mock trial team qualified for and competed in the final round of nationals in Des Moines, Iowa. A young team with few resources, Trinity Mock Trial was projected to win not a single ballot. This past weekend, the team not only came home with ballots, but a top-ten title.
The team faced Notre Dame, UC Santa Cruz, Macalester, and Northwestern, finishing out the tournament with a record of 4-3-1.
In addition, Zachary Green (’12) won individual recognition as the highest ranked defense attorney in the nation, and an All-American Attorney.
The team would like to thank our parents, our coaches- Pamela Levin Cameron, George Cameron and Joeseph Rossetti- and especially Mr. and Mrs. Jim Hubbell III, who showed us true midwestern hospitality in Des Moines. We would also like to thank our mentors, Professors Cabot and Fulco, as well as President Jones for their continued support and encouragement.
Below are the rankings from the tournament. Congratulations, team!
