If you have a position open in your department or at your school that you would like posted on the site, please e-mail a copy of the Position Description or Vacancy Announcement to Jason Fleury. We will have a specific section of the site dedicated to available positions shortly, but for the time being we will post all positions here in the Position Postings item in the News section of the site. Current available positions are as follows:

10/11/01 - State University of New York - Albany
The Department of Public Administration and Policy of the Rockefeller College is seeking applicants for at least one rank-open, tenure-track faculty position in Public Administration/Management beginning in September 2002. A tenured appointed may be considered. The specific areas of interests are open, and include public and nonprofit management; policy implementation; public budgeting and financial management, and politics and administration and law. All applicants, however, should have a demonstrated capacity for strong research and teaching on the public service and/or public policy. Applicants should also hold a Ph.D. or equivalent degree or anticipate completion of their degree by August 2002.

09/18/01 - University of North Texas
Two (2) openings for tenure-track positions at the Assistant Professor level beginning Fall 2002. Primary teaching responsibilities for both positions are in the Master of Public Administration program with occasional teaching of undergraduate courses in public administration or in the baccalaureate program in emergency administration and planning. One position requires teaching courses in human resource management and at least one of the following areas: government management, strategic planning and management, or non-profit management. The other position requires teaching courses in diversity issues in public/emergency administration and at least one of the previously listed areas. Candidates must be able to combine excellent teaching with a productive agenda of research and community service.

08/28/01 - University of Illinois at Chicago
Opening is for an Assistant/Associate Professor in the Graduate Program in Public Administration at the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago. This position is open to candidates whose primary area of teaching and research is in organization theory, information systems, or human resource management.

While asking around for back issues of Periscope, I spoke to Al Hyde and learned that the newsletter at one time was published under a different name. Although Al couldn't remember the original name of the newsletter, he did relate an interesting story about how the name Periscope came to be, and I thought I would share it with all of you:

"We did the name change for marketing purposes -- wanted to give the newsletter its own visibility in 90-91, about then. The title actually came out of the U.S. State Department in 1976-77. That was the name the personnel department's policy group (they were called PER) gave to their internal newsletter sent out each week to all the different units within the Department. I was a member of that group and always thought the name for the newsletter was cool - So, a decade later my little SPALR group took over the newsletter- we chose this name." -- Al Hyde

If you have a position open in your department or at your school that you would like posted on the site, please e-mail a copy of the Position Description or Vacancy Announcement to Jason Fleury. We will have a specific section of the site dedicated to available positions shortly, but for the time being we will post all positions here in the Position Postings item in the News section of the site. Current available positions are as follows:

09/18/01 - University of North Texas
Two (2) openings for tenure-track positions at the Assistant Professor level beginning Fall 2002. Primary teaching responsibilities for both positions are in the Master of Public Administration program with occasional teaching of undergraduate courses in public administration or in the baccalaureate program in emergency administration and planning. One position requires teaching courses in human resource management and at least one of the following areas: government management, strategic planning and management, or non-profit management. The other position requires teaching courses in diversity issues in public/emergency administration and at least one of the previously listed areas. Candidates must be able to combine excellent teaching with a productive agenda of research and community service.

08/28/01 - University of Illinois at Chicago
Opening is for an Assistant/Associate Professor in the Graduate Program in Public Administration at the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago. This position is open to candidates whose primary area of teaching and research is in organization theory, information systems, or human resource management.

In the wake of yesterday's unspeakable attacks on New York and Washington, SPALR would like to extend our hearts and prayers to those whose lives were personally affected by the tragedy. We would also like to express our deepest gratitude to those men and women serving in the New York Police and Fire Departments who have risked their lives to assist the people of New York. We thank the men, women, and children who waited in three- and four-hour-long lines just to give blood so that someone they've never met in a city they've never been to might have the chance to go home to his or her family. We say thanks to all of the government and civilian employees, agencies, organizations, and citizens who have donated food, money, and time to the search and rescue efforts at the Pentagon and in New York. Words cannot express the pride we should all feel as public servants as we watch the people of this country come together without regard to personal, political, cultural, or religious differences to offer to put aside their lives so that their fellow Americans can have the chance to go on with theirs.

As I'm sure most of you have noticed, there has been a significant delay in the publication and shipment of the Review of Public Personnel Administration. ROPPA until recently was produced, printed, and published by the University of South Carolina, but is now handled by the University of Georgia and Florida State University. The two schools have contracted with Sage Publications to handle the business aspects of the journal, including all publication responsibilities. It is this transfer of responsibility that has caused the lag in publication. However, the final pieces are now falling into place and Volume 21-1 is at the printer. We hope to be able to ship 21-1 in the next 3-4 weeks with the remaining three issues of Volume 21 shipping every 4-6 weeks thereafter until we are back on schedule early next year. We will post updates on this site as things progress. If you have any specific questions about your ROPPA subscription, please contact Jason Fleury.

The Review of Public Personnel Administration, sponsored by the Section, has issued another Call for Papers. This Call is for a symposium entitled "Burning the Candle at Both Ends and in the Middle: Balancing Work, Life, Children, and the Elderly." The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2002; persons interested in submitting a paper should e-mail their manuscript in Microsoft Word format to both Meredith Newman and Michele Hoyman. For more information, please view the official Call for Papers.

This is the second Call for Papers issued by ROPPA that is currently in effect. The other Call is for a symposium entitled "Human Resource Management in Nonprofit Organizations." The deadline for submissions is December 15, 2001; persons interested in submitting a paper should e-mail their manuscript in Microsoft Word format to Meredith Newman. For more information, please view the official Call for Papers.

After speaking with a number of Section members, we have decided that it would be beneficial to try and maintain an online database of available positions in the field of HR. However, we will need your help on this. If you have a position open in your department or at your school that you would like posted on the site, please e-mail a copy of the Position Description or Vacancy Announcement to Jason Fleury. We will have a specific section of the site dedicated to available positions shortly, but for the time being we will post all positions here in the Position Postings item in the News section of the site. Current available positions are as follows:

08/28/01 - University of Illinois at Chicago
Opening is for an Assistant/Associate Professor in the Graduate Program in Public Administration at the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago. This position is open to candidates whose primary area of teaching and research is in organization theory, information systems, or human resource management.

As of the current issue (Spring 2001), Periscope will no longer be available in printed form. The newsletter will continue to provide the same high-quality information and articles on Section activities and important issues in public administration, but now will be available only in electronic form on this web site. Anyone wanting hard copies of articles published on the site should e-mail Charles Gossett and include the name of the article, author, and issue in which it appeared.

Welcome to the redesigned and updated Periscope Online - the home on the web for the Section on Personnel Administration and Labor Relations of the American Society for Public Administration.

You will notice that we have a totally new look. We feel that our new, more modern design serves to perpetuate the Section's ongoing mission to provide current, cutting-edge trends in the fields of personnel administration, labor relations, employee's rights, and related fields.

You may also notice that the new site displays the words Look Around in the upper right corner. We have decided to use this simple phrase as our driving force for the site and for the Section. With so much going on right now in the world of public human resource management, it is imperative that we remain constantly aware of what is happening around us. Without taking the time to step back and look at the big picture, we will lose ourselves in the details and forget the people that we serve.

That said, if you have any comments about the new design, problems with the site, or technical questions regarding the site, please e-mail webmaster Jason Fleury. For administrative questions about the Section, requests for information, and any other non-technical issues related to the site, please refer to the Contact Us section for phone numbers and e-mail addresses of other Section personnel who can assist you.

Thank you for visiting Periscope Online. While you are here, please visit the sites of our online partners, read the current issue of Periscope, learn about the Section, and review the wealth of information related to current issues, trends, and problems in public human resource management that we have put at your disposal. We invite you to stay for a while, relax, and above all, to look around.

The Review of Public Personnel Administration, sponsored by the Section, has issued a Call for Papers for a symposium entitled "Human Resource Management in Nonprofit Organizations." The deadline for submissions is December 15, 2001; persons interested in submitting a paper should e-mail their manuscript in Microsoft Word format to Meredith Newman. For more information, please view the official Call for Papers.