Campbell Institute News

“Donald Trump has come in and has had just a blizzard of executive orders and other kinds of actions that have had serious impact in the federal government, the relations between the major branches of government and have had effects that have trickled down into Syracuse,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.

“We see that with Pope Francis when he talked about the environment and taking care of the planet. That's had a pretty profound influence, although he didn't tell people who to vote for or particular agenda items that nations ought to adopt,” says Margaret Susan Thompson, associate professor of history and political science.

“Resettled Refugee Parent and Young Adult Perspectives on Mental Health After the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic,” co-authored by Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Robert Rubinstein, was published in Discover Mental Health.

“Addressing the Triple Trauma of Factors Leading to Perinatal Health and Mental Health Consequences in Two Upstate New York Communities,” co-authored by Maxwell anthropologists Robert Rubinstein and Sandra Lane, along with Ph.D. student Kiara Van Brackle, was published in Behavioral Sciences.

Robert Shetterly visited the Maxwell School recently to talk about his portrait series, a sampling of which is on display in the foyer. 

“The strategy is going to be walking a tight rope. You've got folks in the Freedom Caucus on the Republican Party in the House that want deeper cuts and more reassurances that these cuts are actually going to happen. And you've got moderate Republicans in the Senate that are worried about those cuts,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.

“The U.S. has long used tariffs to collect revenue, aid manufacturing and exert power,” says Andrew Cohen, professor of history. “But I can’t think of a trade war initiated so randomly in a time of peace and prosperity.”

Senator Booker's speech is intended to “bring attention to the threat that Booker and Democrats argue that Donald Trump poses to the health of American democracy and the welfare of the American public and be a rallying cry for other Democrats to act boldly with whatever means they have,” says Shana Gadarian, professor of political science.

“In my experience from the standpoint of having served as an appointee in the Pentagon and as secretary of the Navy, using such an unsecured channel to coordinate plans is unheard of and would never have occurred in previous administrations,” says University Professor Sean O'Keefe.

“She's playing the game a little bit differently—the resistance game,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science. “She doesn't want to be seen to be an ally of Donald Trump and his administration,” he says. “She also has to worry about her left flank and being seen as too liberal.”

The damage caused by the administration’s actions extends far beyond the professors whose studies have been halted, says Shana Gadarian, professor of political science. “This is potentially a direct harm to people who are, for example, waiting for a cure for cancer or a genetic disease,” she says.

A panel of scholars recently delved into the power of the presidency, the role of the courts and the rule of law.

“This is one of the most unsettling, tragic pieces of news yet,” says Sean O’Keefe, University Professor and member of the presidential management program’s inaugural class. “This is a firing of convenience. They are looking for a headcount reduction; there is nothing qualitative about this.”

“Lots of the fights that they have picked—especially Musk’s out-of-control, rampant destruction of federal agencies from within—a lot of those fights they are not going to win in court,” says Thomas Keck, Michael O. Sawyer Chair of Constitutional Law and Politics.

“Military and surveillance tech aren’t bad or unethical as such. Instead, supporting national security and doing so in the right way is incredibly important. And supporting national security is, in fact, arguably the ethical thing to do," says Johannes Himmelreich, assistant professor of public administration and international affairs. 

“ I thought that [Pete] Hegseth, the defense secretary, was the most problematic overall, of all the ones that stayed in the process. I think given that Hegseth has made it through, that tells me that the other ones are likely to make it as well,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.

Before 1934, Congress—not presidents—had power over tariff rates and negotiations, says Andrew Wender Cohen, professor of history. But Democrats had an enormous majority around the New Deal era and passed the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934, granting the president the right to negotiate tariffs in certain cases, Cohen says.

The way the administration has framed its raids is an attempt to shape public perception by driving the narrative that “immigrants are criminals” who “don’t belong in the United States,” says Shana Gadarian, Merle Goldberg Fabian Professor of Excellence in Citizenship and Critical Thinking.

The associate professor of political science is part of a three-person team that will investigate the conditions that make international refugee law effective.

“Because there's some evolutionary benefit in groups, I think one of the ways that politicians are quite effective at making people fearful is to make them fearful of groups that are different than themselves,” says Shana Gadarian, professor of political science and associate dean for research.