Join us on our mission!
Greetings! My name is Andy Baker, Chair of the Department of Political Science. Our mission is to understand the political world and to equip our students and community with the skills for a lifetime of inquiry and engagement. If you would like to join us in this mission, pledging resources to our programs is an excellent way to become actively involved. Our goals include enhancing our students’ academic experiences through research opportunities and workshop and conference attendance, sustaining and strengthening our research activities, and strengthening connections with our local communities and the broader public. We welcome donations to support undergraduate and graduate scholarships and fellowships, research initiatives, and community outreach at the local, national, and international levels. Please consider contributing to a specific program area (below) or giving to the general political science fund that helps pay for outside speakers, purchase data, and hold events for alumni and our community partners. Please join us on our journey!
How your gift makes an impact:
Students
Your gift helps enable our students to attend national workshops and conferences, conduct research with our top-notch faculty, and be recognized for their achievements.
Research
Our faculty work together with graduate students to plan, conduct and present research on a wide array of questions such as what factors influence citizens to vote, why do people choose to engage or avoid political disagreement, and what factors people's views of climate change. Processes that constitute the research realm include drafting proposals, designing studies, conducting field work, implementing data collection and analyses, presenting findings, and drafting reports and papers. Your gift can help facilitate our students’ involvement in these research activities by providing stipends for field work, expanding access to national surveys and data, and supporting attendance at professional conferences to present research findings and network with other political scientists.