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Evans School of Public Policy & Governance

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Evans School Researchers to Document Approaches to Equity in COVID-19 Economic Recovery Programs

This summer, Evans School Associate Professor Crystal Hall, and recent alumni Puja Kumar (MPA ’20) and Sehej Singh (MPA’20) will work with the U.S. Office of Evaluation Sciences (OES) and Small Business Administration (SBA).  In this work, they will work with a set of local governments around the country to understand how they are incorporating considerations of equity into the design and implementation of their COVID-19 grant and loan programs for small businesses. 

Evans School Research Team Releases Phase 2 Business Plan for a State-Created Public Cooperative Bank

The reports were prepared in response to state budgetary provisos directing a study of the feasibility of a state-created public cooperative bank. This Bank would assist members manage cash and investments more efficiently and establish a sustainable funding source of ready capital for infrastructure and economic development.

Charmila Ajmera (MPA ’20) Recognized in 2020 Husky 100

The Evans School is proud to recognize its newest member of the Husky 100 Charmila Ajmera, whose passion, leadership and commitment inspires us to make a difference on campus, in our communities, and for the future.

Charmi was selected based on her ability to embrace innovation and novel ways of thinking, to seek understanding of and engagement with diverse communities, to lead proactively, and to take on her bright futures with enthusiasm, savvy, and fortitude.

“Charmi is a natural leader,” writes Evans School Senior Assistant Dean of Students Carrie Evans. “Other students look to her for guidance, direction and support.  She is remarkably strategic, astute and tactical in how she has sought to build a successful and effective coalition of students, faculty and staff working collaboratively towards shared goals on critical issues pertaining to race, equity and inclusion.”

Charmi contributes to the Evans School community in many ways, including as a leading member of the student-led Curriculum Advocacy Team. The Curriculum Advocacy Team has been instrumental in engaging with faculty to more effectively integrate race, equity, and inclusion as a core element of their syllabi, course delivery, and approach to teaching. This work has been transformative for the Evans School, and Charmi has been at the forefront.

In Charmi’s own words: “I am humbled to be recognized as one of the Husky 100 and so proud of the work that the Curriculum Advocacy Team has done in partnership with Evans students, faculty, and staff. This is hard, generational work to change public policy education (and public policy!) to center equity and to be intersectional, anti-racist, and anti-oppression. COVID-19 and all of its repercussions are revealing just how vital it is to center equity in policy and what tremendous losses we suffer as a society when we don’t. We have a unique and powerful opportunity to set the curve for how public policy institutions all over the country think about who – and how – they serve. I am honored to help further this vital work.”  

The Husky 100 recognizes UW juniors, seniors and graduate students who are making the most of their Husky Experience, as demonstrated by the ways in which they fulfill the five program criteria. This year’s selection process was highly competitive, with more than 1,800 nominations and more than 600 applications from all three UW campuses.

Study: Underrepresented Minority Students at Public Universities Has Not Kept Pace with Demographic Trends

A new study, by Evans School Professor Mark Long and Evans School 2017 MPA alumna Nicole Bateman, now at the Brookings Institution, showed that in states that have banned affirmative action, the share of underrepresented minorities among students admitted to and enrolling in public universities has steadily lost ground relative to changing demographic trends among those states’ high school graduates.

While prior research has looked at the immediate effects of affirmative action bans, this study evaluates the long-term changes, including the effects of admissions strategies that universities have implemented as alternatives. California, Texas, Washington, and Florida banned affirmative action in the late 1990s, and were followed later by Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma.

Results from the study indicate that alternative policies—such as automatic admission for a certain top percentage of students from each high school (which leverages de facto racial and ethnic segregation of high schools), inclusion of socioeconomic factors in admission decisions, increased outreach and financial support for low-income students, and the elimination of admission preference for the children of alumni—have not been able to fully replace raced-based affirmative action.

“While the share of underrepresented minorities among enrolling undergraduate students has increased since the implementation of alternative policies, this growth is slower than the growth of underrepresented minorities in high schools,” said Long, a professor of public policy and governance at the University of Washington. “When the changing demographics of state high schools are considered, the underrepresentation of Black, Hispanic, and Native American youth in the higher education system is worsening, not improving.”

“Alternative policies and administrative decisions have, so far, been unable to fully replace race-based affirmative action,” Long said.

The researchers note that improvement in many of the underlying conditions that generate underrepresentation in colleges—such as differences in household income, test scores, and incarceration rates—has occurred, but at a slow pace.

“The very slow rate of progress in these underlying conditions is surprising and concerning,” Long said. “For example, if the past 20 years is a guide for future progress, it will take over a thousand years for the Black-White gap in median household income to close. It’s clear that university leaders and state policymakers cannot rely on improvements in the underlying conditions to solve underrepresentation in higher education for many decades to come.”

“University administrators need to rigorously evaluate their policies and be mindful of practices that show promise,” said Long. “They should be challenged to do more and do better.”

“But we should also recognize that many of the underlying conditions are outside of the control of these administrators,” Long added. “If we expect flagship public universities to reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of their states, then policymakers must work harder and better to alleviate these pre-college disparities and improve college readiness for underrepresented students.”

The study was published this week in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association. Read their full announcement.

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Distinguished Practitioner Akhtar Badshah is set to publish Purpose Mindset: How Microsoft Inspires its Employees and Alumni to Change the World

Dr. Badshah is working on his manuscript Purpose Mindset: How Microsoft Inspires its Employees and Alumni to Change the World, to be published by Harper Collins Leadership series in the fall of 2020. The book traces the evolution of Microsoft’s employee giving campaign from its modest beginning of raising $17,000 in 1983 to raising $181 million in 2019, outlining the impact this giving has had on thousands of nonprofits around the world.  Through stories of Microsoft leadership, employees, and alumni the book amplifies how these individuals have extended their growth mindset and developed their purpose mindset to make the world a better place.   

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