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Obama's First Quarter

Cal State Fullerton Professors Discuss U.S. President's Agenda May 5

Keith Boyum

President Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office will be dissected and discussed Tuesday, May 5, by a panel of Cal State Fullerton professors assembled in the university’s outdoor Becker Amphitheater.

The noontime gathering is open to the public free of charge.

The panelists are Jane V. Hall, professor of economics; Stephen J. Stambough, associate professor of political science; and Matthew G. Jarvis, assistant professor of political science. Keith O. Boyum, emeritus professor of political science, will serve as moderator. Scott J. Spitzer, assistant professor of political science, will wrap up the panel discussion with concluding remarks.

“Every president tries hard to set an agenda and to work that agenda, in the earliest part of his administration,” Boyum said. “That strategy seeks to take advantage of any ‘honeymoon’ period of popular support, for every president eventually declines in the poll ratings.

“President Franklin Roosevelt put forth a torrent of proposals meant to battle the economic depression of the early 1930s,” Boyum continued. “It was his ‘hundred days’ of activity following his March 1933 inauguration that now sets the otherwise artificial 100-day milepost for subsequent presidents. President Obama has been especially active in response to the current severe economic downturn and is regularly compared to Roosevelt.”

How Obama’s administration has responded to the country’s financial crisis will be among several topics discussed by the panelists.

The event is sponsored by the university’s Associated Students; the Division of Politics, Administration and Justice; and the Office of Public Affairs and Government Relations.

For more information, call 657-278-7306.

Photos: Available online at www.fullerton.edu/newsphotos

Media Contacts:
Keith O. Boyum, Political Science, 657-278-3454 or kboyum@fullerton.edu
Mimi Ko Cruz, Public Affairs, 657-278-7586 or mkocruz@fullerton.edu