April 11, 2006

NORMAN – Scholars, researchers and practitioners ponder the question, “Is it enough to manage the public business in a way that achieves the highest efficiency and effectiveness – or must we also manage in a way that enhances social equity?”

As part of the eighth annual Bellmon Lecture in Public Policy, Philip Rutledge, emeritus professor of public and environmental affairs and political science at Indiana University, will give a free, public presentation titled “Social Equity and Governance – Some Reflections of a ‘Pracademic.’” The lecture will begin at 3 p.m. Tuesday, April 18, Suite A3/5 of the Thurman J. White Forum Building, College of Continuing Education, 1704 Asp Ave. A reception will follow.

About five years ago, the National Academy of Public Administration established a new Standing Panel on Social Equity in Governance to provide guidance in the area of public administration, also referred to as public governance. Rutledge, who recently stepped down as the founding chair of the academy’s Social Equity Panel, has said that many agencies sense a need for a set of social equity indicators that might provide measurable standards in achieving fairness, justice and equality in the outcomes of domestic and international public policy, and will offer some of his insight in this area.         

The Bellmon Lecture in Public Policy honors one of Oklahoma’s most distinguished public figures, Henry Bellmon. Bellmon was elected the state’s first Republican governor in 1962. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1968 until 1980 and was elected to a second term as the governor of Oklahoma from 1986 through 1990.

The lecture is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Political Science and the College of Continuing Education. For additional information on the lecture and to respond, contact Jos Raadschelders in the Department of Political Science at (405) 325-6620 or raadschelders@ou.edu. For accommodations on the basis of disability contact Debra Corley at (405) 325-5643 or dcorley@ou.edu. Free, public parking is available on the south side of the Thurman J. White Forum Building. University personnel may park in the gated lots on the north side of the building.