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Greetings, thank you all for coming. Today is your dean’s final state of the school address.

Today the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL), a joint initiative between the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and Vanderbilt University, announced the most effective lawmakers of the 115th Congress (2017-18).

Brian N. Williams was in elementary school when a white classmate asked him something he would never forget. “He said, ‘When you die, will you go to the black heaven or the white heaven?’” Williams recalled. Williams, an African-American, didn’t know how to respond.

In E.M. Forester’s novel, A Room with a View, there’s a sign with a quote that hangs outside of a character’s wardrobe. “Mistrust all enterprises that require new clothes.” The business world has traditionally been one such “enterprise.” But the days of shoulder pads and oversized blazers—as unforgettable as they were—appear to be drawing to a close. For Melina Flabiano (MPP ’13), this represents an opportunity to reimagine workwear for the modern-day professional woman.

For Batten student Ben Stolz (MPP ’20), leadership can mean different things to different people, but the one unifying aspect is that leadership requires a certain level of passion.

On the last day of fall classes, while other students prepared for the onslaught of exams, seven student teams from the Batten School traveled to the Pentagon to present their semester-long projects to officials from the Department of Defense (DoD).

Batten Professor Bala Mulloth thrives in different cultures. “I was born and raised in Mumbai, studied in New York City, then worked in Budapest, Hungary, and for the past four years, I have lived in Charlottesville,” said the professor of Social Entrepreneurship.

“We hope that our elected leaders are better than we are,” said Jeff Bergner during Monday’s Batten Hour. “We elect these people because we think they are smarter, better educated, have more money and more connections and are perhaps more virtuous than us. But has this ever been true?”

When it comes to discussing issues of policymaking—especially what constitutes good policymaking—Batten students are rarely shy. For the co-founders of Batten’s newest student organization Courageous Conversations in Policy (CCP) Chloe Cohen (MPP’20) and Brandon Velez (BA’19), courage is a necessity when addressing today’s most controversial topics.

This week, the Batten School hosted two events as part of UVA’s Community MLK Celebration series to commemorate the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Andy Pennock is not your typical breed of professor. The father of four young boys (two sets of fraternal twin boys, aged three and five), teaches five courses per year and yet somehow finds the time and energy to publish a leading textbook on writing for public policy and an op-ed on education policy.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – On Thursday, Jan. 24, the Batten School and UVA’s Center for Politics brought together a diverse group of political figures for the 20th annual American Democracy Conference as part of the ongoing National Symposium Series on Democracy.