Fall 2009     Volume 18, No. 1     Full-issue Table of Contents follows the headline story at the bottom of this page

 

Pi Sigma Alpha at APSA '09

 

As has become custom, Pi Sigma Alpha, The National Political Science Honor Society was well-represented and became an integral part of the proceedings at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association in 2009. The theme for this year's meeting, held September 2-6 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was Politics in Motion: Change and Complexity in the Contemporary Era. The meeting was the first in APSA history to be held outside the United States, and attending members of the Society were proud to have played such an active role in this historic event!

On the afternoon of Thursday, September 3rd, the first major Pi Sigma Alpha event occurred with the meeting of the Society's Executive Council at the Fairmont Royal York hotel. The Council heard reports on and discussed the great successes that the Society has been able to achieve over the past year, despite a challenging economy that has presented issues for all honor societies and other academic organizations. Reports from the editors of the Pi Sigma Alpha Newsletter and the Pi Sigma Alpha Undergraduate Journal of Politics were presented; Council members were also provided a brief legal affairs update in which, among other news, it was reported that the Society has formally service marked the name of the Society with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and was in the final stages of the process to perfect a second mark that will provide additional protections to the Undergraduate Journal. Executive Director James I. Lengle, National Office Administrator Nancy McManus and President James Campbell also provided useful reports on Society operations and conditions, which collectively painted a picture of an organization outstandingly poised for future growth, service and value to its members and constituents.

Thursday evening, Meeting attendees were treated to free (as usual) admission to the annual Pi Sigma Alpha Lecture in the Metro Toronto Conference Centre. This year's speaker was Kevin Phillips (photo left), noted author and commentator on contemporary social, political and economic issues. Phillips was a Republican Party strategist who worked for the 1968 presidential campaign of Richard M. Nixon, but who has provided bipartisan commentary and critiques of government and American political parties in more recent years. He is a regular contributor to major newspapers, as well as to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System. Phillips spoke for roughly an hour to a sizeable and appreciative audience about the theme of his latest book, Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism (New York: Viking, 2008). He then answered audience questions and autographed copies of the book that were available for sale at the venue.

 

Photos, below (left to right): a pre-address picture of the lecture podium; Kevin Phillips delivering the Pi Sigma Alpha Lecture as President James Campbell (at head table) and the audience listens attentively.

 

On Friday morning, September 4th, a group of roughly twenty Pi Sigma Alpha faculty advisors and special guests were treated to an "off-official program" event that was finalized in the weeks leading up to the Meeting and announced via the Society's email listserv; the group made its way on a beautiful Toronto morning several blocks south to Osgoode Hall, home of the Ontario Court of Appeals, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and the Law Society of Upper Canada. Executive Director James Lengle and Administrator Nancy McManus welcomed the group on behalf of the Society, and then the group was treated to a tour of this historic, beautiful and important working building by a member of the Policy Secretariat for the Law Society. While the courts at Osgoode Hall were not in session on that day, some members of the tour group later walked over to see motion proceedings of the trial courts which meet in an adjacent building. The tour group included Society President James Campbell and Newsletter Editor and Society General Counsel John C. Kuzenski, the latter of whom had made the arrangements for the tour as a small, additional cultural/historic activity for Pi Sigma Alpha colleagues at the meeting.

   

Photos, above: selected pictures from the Osgoode Hall tour, from left to right, top row to bottom: (1) outside north (main) entrance to the building and its courts; (2) the courtroom of the Ontario Court of Appeals; (3) Pi Sigma Alpha advisors and guests in the Barrister's Dining Room, listening to guide and Law Society attorney Jim Varro.

Later on Friday evening, Pi Sigma Alpha co-sponsored the Reception for Teaching, honoring Political Science faculty from around the country who have been recognized for their outstanding teaching skills. The event filled one of the conference rooms in the Toronto Intercontinental Hotel, and representatives from both the Society and the American Political Science Association made introductory remarks that reminded attendees of the importance of teaching in the profession. The Annual Meeting concluded on Sunday, September 6th, with many Pi Sigma Alpha members attending the entire event and enjoying the panels, book exhibition area and special events that have made the APSA Annual Meeting the preeminent conference for political scientists around the nation and the world. More information about the proceedings at the meeting and the press attention it garnered are available at the APSA home page, http://www.apsanet.org/.

Photos, below: from left to right, first row to second: (1) the peak of CN Tower, North America's (and for many years, the world's) tallest free-standing building on land, downtown Toronto's most notable architectural feature; (2) a view of the lakefront from the Toronto Intercontinental, one of the main APSA hotels; (3) and (4) two pictures of the attractive and informative Pi Sigma Alpha display centered in the main registration and meeting rooms area in the front of the Metro Toronto Conference Centre-- compliments to Administrator Nancy McManus for snagging the Society such a high-profile spot!!

 

                

        

 

Photo credit, all pictures in this feature: John C. Kuzenski

 

 

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