Hi, I'm Steve Fetter, dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland.

It's been an exciting year here in College Park. As the university celebrates its 150 th anniversary, the School of Public Policy is marking its 25 th . In that short time, we have emerged as one of the most innovative policy schools in the nation.

Located inside the Capital beltway, our faculty and graduates are influencing policy every day. Students have close access to a multitude of internship and career opportunities, and state, national, and international policy leaders.

Understanding that in today's world, local and global issues can no longer be separated, we are also the only Washington area public policy school that combines domestic policy and international affairs into one school. Students and faculty move seamlessly between domestic and international issues.

Being here at the University of Maryland gives us another advantage… We're the only Washington area policy school embedded in a major research university. That means our faculty and students benefit from interactions with highly-ranked programs in economics, government, education, business, criminology, engineering, and the sciences, to develop policy ideas that will make a real difference in the world.

Our Washington area location also helps us bring in newsmakers for our Brody public Forums. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein shared a 30-year perspective on Watergate with a packed house. This summer, the Brody Forum held a debate for candidates in Maryland's hotly contested senate race.

Our location also has helped us attract a faculty of leading scholar-practitioners… people who both develop the theory and understand its real world applications.

We had wonderful news last October about one of those faculty members, when Thomas Schelling was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in economics. He introduced concepts that have elucidated many of the major policy issues of the last 50 year, from nuclear deterrence and racial segregation to drug addiction and global climate change.

A number of outstanding new faculty have joined us in the last year…

…Kenneth Apfel, former commissioner of the Social Security Administration…
…Carol Graham, who heads up our new international development specialization…
…Carol Pearson, the new director of the Burns Academy of Leadership…
…Randi Hjalmarsson, who brings expertise in the economics of crime…
…and international finance and trade expert Shang-Jin Wei.

We have expanded opportunities for students with a range of needs and interests.

Our new Masters in Engineering and Public Policy program offers students both the expertise of our faculty and that of the university's highly ranked Clark School of Engineering.

We now offer an Executive Master of Public Management Program in downtown Washington, near many federal agencies.

Our Maryland Leadership Institute brings culturally diverse undergraduate students from across the United States to the School to help them prepare for graduate study and careers in public policy and international affairs.

Our graduates are good indicators of our success. The school's distinguished alumnus this year was David Mitchell, Secretary of Safety and Homeland Security for the State of Delaware. Maria Balinska is editor for world current affairs at BBC News in London… and Kori Schake has been appointed distinguished professor of international studies at West Point.

I've been on the faculty of the School of Public Policy since 1988. I'm as excited about our future now as I was then. We're attracting more and more top level students--- from 58 incoming students two years ago, to nearly 100 this year.

Our goal is to be recognized as one of a handful of premier public policy programs in the world. We are well on our way.