Lester G. Seligman, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, died November 2, 2004, in Urbana, Illinois. He had a distinguished academic career, making major contributions to the study of political leadership and especially the U.S. presidency, and played a leadership role in the profession as well. He was widely admired, not only for the excellence of his teaching and research, but also for his indefatigable optimism, good humor, and generous spirit.

On Tuesday, June 20th, the department of political science learned of the death of Professor Gottfried Dietze, a member of the faculty at Johns Hopkins University since 1954. Dietze was born in 1922 in Homburg, Germany, and studied under Carl Friedrich at Harvard University and Alpheus Mason at Princeton University. His most widely read publication was The Federalist, originally published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 1960. Dietze died at his home in Washington, D.C.

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Participants in this track were delighted to see a number of common themes develop during our presentations and discussions throughout the conference. Participants included faculty and graduate students from a variety of subfields who design creative exercises to actively engage their students in learning. With the wide range of simulations that already exist and the growing body of literature addressing the design of new simulations, faculty have significant resources at their disposal to incorporate simulations into their courses. Simulations are so readily adaptable they can accommodate almost any course content or learning objective.

Leon D. Epstein died on Tuesday, August 1, 2006, as the result of injuries suffered in a fall at home two days earlier. He was a scholar of international repute in the realm of political parties, a central figure in the postwar re-creation of the department of political science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, as well as a former president of the American Political Science Association and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.drawing on Bernard Cohen, Charles O. Jones, Frank Sorauf, John Witte, and Crawford Young

The 102nd APSA Annual Meeting will be held in Philadelphia, August 31–September 3, 2006. More than 700 panels will be organized in 47 thematic divisions focusing on the meeting's theme “Power Reconsidered.” In addition to the division panels, program chairs Judith Goldstein of Stanford University and Rick Valelly of Swarthmore College will offer theme panels that focus on the theoretical bases of power and their empirical effects.

“Did anybody ever have a superficial conversation with Jim Button?” The pastor's question, posed to a crowded memorial service at the United Church of Gainesville, elicited smiles and vigorous head shaking. At the reception following the service, several graduate students, junior faculty, and staff members volunteered that they attended the service simply because Jim Button had repeatedly gone out of his way to show them friendship and respect. Both the question and the comments caught the essence of Jim Button. To professional colleagues, he was a path-breaking scholar of minority and urban politics, a pioneer in the academic study of gay rights, school-based health clinics, and the political mobilization of senior citizens. But Jim Button was loved and treasured because of his deep passion for his students, family, colleagues, friends, and for those Americans who had been treated unjustly by history and politics.

Community-based learning (CBL) reflects the principle that political science courses should do more than simply teach students about politics. As participants in the community-based learning track, we believe that courses in our discipline should equip students with the combination of knowledge, skills, and values required to engage in a life of active citizenship. Designing a course that meets these goals is not impossible. Community-based projects include several different types of experiential learning, including: service-learning, community-based learning, and community-based research. We believe that all of these forms of learning about, from, and with the community inspire and encourage students to live an active political life.

Here is a quick look at some of the short courses planned for Wednesday, August 30th at the 2006 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. A complete listing of courses will be printed in the July issue of PS. For further details, and for information regarding pre-registration, transportation, and housing, visit www.apsanet.org. The online preliminary program, which will be released in May, provides information on panel schedules and the latest updates on the meeting.

Virginia May Currey, former Southern Methodist University political science professor, charter member of the Women's Studies Program, and political activist, died of pneumonia on September 22 at the age of 78.

Adiverse gathering of academics convened to discuss Community and Service-based Learning (CBSL). The common bond amongst all was the belief that developing tangible linkages with the community through myriad “service” instruments is critical in producing a holistic educational experience. Our common agreement was that CBSL programs must be well-structured, academically rigorous, and properly assessed and evaluated in order for students to obtain the most out of the experiences. The goal of CBSL II was to address these issues and discuss what does and does not work.

The following are excerpts from an address given at the Commemorative-Celebration Honoring John H. Herz The Graduate Center of the City University of New York March 15, 2006

On July 11, 2006, our distinguished colleague Ross M. Lence passed away. Ross had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in August of 2005, and even in his most difficult moments this last year, he continued to grace our lives with his good cheer and to engage in that activity he most loved, teaching.

In 2005, PS: Political Science and Politics published myriad articles covering a vast range of topics. Symposia alone published in 2005 focused on reviewing the 2004 presidential election, the careers of political scientists who graduated during “separate but equal,” the politics of same-sex marriage, strategizing for department chairs in an era of resource constraints, the nature and political significance of preemption, a guide to publishing your first book, and the changing citizenship theory and practice. Upcoming symposia will focus on Middle East research methods, the editorial cartoon in politics, and the politics of water. And remember, these are only the symposia. The journal's commitment to publishing articles on pedagogy and on the profession, as well as exemplary topical scholarship on a wide array of topics, calls for an equally broad stable of expert reviewers. PS cannot publish such diverse work without the outstanding work (and open-mindedness) of our peer reviewers. The peer review process relies on the professionalism and generosity of those who contribute their time to read and evaluate the work of others. The editors of PS thank the following scholars, who served as manuscript reviewers between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2005.

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George Adams Graham, political scientist and emeritus educator, passed away on February 25, 2005, at his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He was 100. Among Dr. Graham's most lasting achievements will be his work professionalizing and improving governance of the public sector.

Austin Ranney, the eminent political scientist and leading American authority on political parties and elections died, peacefully, at his home in Berkeley on July 24, 2006. He was 85 years old and for a number of years had been battling the debilitating effects of congestive heart failure and diabetes. Ranney's doctoral dissertation, The Doctrine of Responsible Party Government (1954), and his Jefferson Lectures at Berkeley, Curing the Mischiefs of Faction (1975), are major explorations of the role that parties play in the overall scheme of the American political system. The broad-gauged view adopted by these studies, theoretically informed but also rigorously disciplined by wide-ranging empirical study, was typical of Ranney's style of work, which extended to important contributions on democracy and the party system, referendums, presidential primaries, the measurement of party competition, the impact of television on elections, and the recruitment of candidates for public office, among other topics. His collaborators in some of these projects included Willmoore Kendall of Yale University and David Butler of the University of Oxford.

Gilbert Yale Steiner, an accomplished student of social policy and an influential director of the Brookings Institution's Governmental Studies program, died on March 1, 2006, in Washington, D.C., at the age of 81.

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Marjorie Mowlam, who received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Iowa in 1977, died at Pilgrim's Hospice in the United Kingdom on August 19th at age 55 from the recurrence of a brain tumor that had been first diagnosed nine years earlier. In the interval between that diagnosis and her death, she rose to become Britain's most popular politician on the strength of her accomplishment as secretary of state for Northern Ireland in negotiating the Good Friday Accords in 1998. When she subsequently fell from Tony Blair's good graces and was sidelined to the Cabinet Office, her personal popularity only rose further. To Blair's embarrassment, she received a standing ovation at the Labour Party Conference in 1998 in the middle of the prime minister's report to the delegates.