Maxwell School News and Commentary

John P. White '64 M.A. (Econ)/'69 Ph.D. (Econ), deputy secretary of defense in the Clinton administration who also had served during the Carter presidency as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget and as assistant secretary of defense for manpower, reserve affairs and logistics, died Sept. 3 at an assisted living center in Great Falls, Virginia.

Merril Silverstein, professor of sociology and Marjorie Cantor Endowed Professor in Aging, was elected to the Sociological Research Association (SRA), an honors society of sociology scholars dedicated to excellence in research. The SRA was founded in 1936 and membership invitations are extended to a limited number of sociologists each year, based on their long-term careers of distinguished research. 

“Regional music lives on in India because it embodies a wide range of values pertaining to community, locality, rituals and gender,” says Carol Babiracki, director of the South Asia Center at the Maxwell School. “Regional performance is a bellwether of social and cultural identity-formation and of processes of change.”  

“Mentoring reinforces positive decision-making, increases self-esteem and helps young men become more productive individuals,” says former Detroit mayor David Bing '66 B.A. (Econ). “Decreasing the high school dropout rate [whose national average is 40 percent among African American males] increases job readiness.”