O’Neill School Dean Siân Mooney named NAPA Fellow

Posted on September 24, 2020 by Leslie Wells

Indiana University O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs Dean Siân Mooney poses for a portrait at Indiana University Bloomington on Friday, Aug. 9, 2019.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The National Academy of Public Administration today (Sept. 24) announced that 45 leaders in the field of public administration have been selected for the 2020 Class of Academy Fellows.

Among them is Indiana University O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs Dean and Professor Siân Mooney, who joins an extensive list of O’Neill School faculty who have previously been awarded the honor.

Induction of the new Fellows will occur during the annual Academy Fall Meeting, which will take place virtually November 5-10.

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New dashboard will allow comparison of states’ COVID-related executive orders

Posted on September 14, 2020 by Leslie Wells

It’s been more than six months since states first began quarantines due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, research from O’Neill IUPUI is shedding new light on the many executive orders enacted to mitigate the spread of the virus.

O’Neill assistant professor Peter Federman, former O’Neill faculty member Cali Curley (now at the University of Miami), and a team of student research assistants began the project in March. A grant from the Office of the Indiana University Vice President for Research helped get the project off the ground, and the O’Neill School provided matching funds. Thus far, they’ve collected and coded more than 1,500 executive orders.

“We’re really focused on tracking and pulling out the critical pieces of information that are impacting people’s lives,” Federman says. “We’re bringing all of it together and providing a simple way for people to understand what’s really happening, without having to read through 60-page orders in legalese.”

In October, they’ll launch their first public dashboard tracking executive orders, from the time when states first started closures until they began to reopen. The idea is to have all the information in one easily accessible place that serves as both a resource on state actions and a record of how state laws are changing because of COVD-19.

“There are a lot of executive orders that touch every aspect of life, well beyond COVID,” Federman says. “This project tracks how the state policy and legal environments are changing as the pandemic stretches on and as states move between reopening and closure.”

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Marion County’s minority residents face barriers to home loans

Posted on September 8, 2020 by Leslie Wells

Family holding a paper cutown of a house in their hands

Minority residents in the United States have historically been met with discriminatory lending practices. For example, redlining denied credit and other financial services to residents in nonwhite neighborhoods. New analysis from the IU Public Policy Institute finds inequities still exist when it comes to home loan lending.

“Owning a home is one of the most important ways families can build wealth and increase their financial security,” says Joti Martin, a policy analyst at the IU Public Policy Institute. “Yet for far too many families of color, the dream of homeownership may still be out of reach because of inequities in home lending practices.”

Martin recently led a team of analysts who examined home loan denials in majority-Black neighborhoods in Marion County, Indiana.

About 1 in 5 people in Marion County live in a neighborhood where most residents are Black. People in these majority-Black areas often face barriers to homeownership, including lower incomes and higher poverty rates. They also face challenges when trying to secure a loan to buy a new home or improve or repair their current home.

The county’s homeownership rate sits at 54 percent but dips to 42 percent in its majority-Black neighborhoods—even though homes in these areas are typically cost less than the average Marion County home.

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Grant to help study impact of COVID-19 on jail populations

Posted on August 31, 2020 by Leslie Wells

Not long after 2020 began, COVID-19 began taking over headlines around the world. Cases of and deaths from COVID-19 were rising in the United States. Eric Grommon was following those headlines—but he also was watching something else.

Grommon, an associate criminal justice professor at O’Neill IUPUI and the interim director of the Center for Health and Justice Research at the IU Public Policy Institute, was paying close attention to how the virus could affect people behind bars.

“Jails have the potential to amplify the spread of the virus,” Grommon says. “They manage vulnerable populations with higher rates of chronic medical conditions, psychological distress, and substance use disorders.”

To slow the spread of COVID-19, leaders across the country ordered court systems to reduce jail populations. Grommon says part of the reason for that decision was that it is impossible for jails to adhere to social distancing recommendations because they often operate near capacity. He also points out that because jail populations turn over quickly, asymptomatic and positive cases could easily flow between jails and communities as the population changes.

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Intergroup Dialogue: the difference between debate, discussion, and dialogue

Posted on August 24, 2020 by Leslie Wells

Do you know the difference between debate, discussion, and dialogue? Understanding the differences can help you have better conversations that lead to social and self-awareness.

By Tamra Wright, Lecturer and Intergroup Dialogue Facilitator, O’Neill IUPUI

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “people fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”

To combat fear—an emotion so powerful in its ability to paralyze and divide—we must communicate through meaningful and sustained dialogue. The most important conversations are often the hardest to have. It’s easier to avoid them, especially if the topics are sensitive and uncomfortable. But avoidance does little to quell the fears that exist when it comes to communicating across differences and engaging in difficult conversations.

To have those conversations, it’s important to first understand the difference between dialogue, discussion, and debate. This is especially critical as students return to college campuses and online platforms, where they will no doubt encounter challenging topics.

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