New Wilson School program PRIOR to address N.J. regional policy issues

While the University assists and interacts on a regular basis with communities beyond the gate, faculty and students will soon have an established academic program through which to effect change.

Last Wednesday, the Wilson School announced the establishment of the Policy Research Institute for the Region, a new program within the Wilson School that will concentrate specifically on regional policy issues. Administrators named Karen Jezierny, currently an associate dean for admission at the Wilson school, as director of the new institute, effective January 1.

Though many logistical details of the program have yet to be worked out — as of now, it is not even certain what specific policy areas will be studied — Jezierny appears to have a clear vision for the mission of the institute.

"This is obviously something we are starting anew, but we have the opportunity to marry the research resources of the University with the policy needs of the state," she said.

"The question is how can we contribute," she continued. "How can we make inroads that have to do with policy in this region?"

University administrators characterize the institute as matching desires that already exist on both sides of the "town-gown" divide. They say it will not only allow students and faculty, whose research will be central to the institute, to explore policy, but it will also allow New Jersey area residents to tap into the University's resources for support and direction.

"At Princeton, our view is so broad, our reach is so deep, we can overlook sometimes the opportunities to do teaching and research in our own backyard," Jezierny said. Students and faculty working with PRIOR will investigate and develop policy in areas ranging from specific transportation and traffic flow problems to broader environmental and public education concerns. And state and regional leaders will be able to enlist University support and resources as a means of solving their own policy questions.

Both Jezierny and Wilson School Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter said the New Jersey region is appropriate for such policy study because the issues it faces are similar to those faced in many places around the nation and world.

"New Jersey is a laboratory for many other states," Slaughter said. "There are great data sets, and there is essentially a local microcosm of many of the topics we study."

Members of the Board of Trustees, Slaughter and President Tilghman — who is a co-chair of Prosperity New Jersey, a state organization geared toward linking academic and commercial resources to support economic growth — first voiced interest in launching a program that would allow the University to take a more active role in its community's affairs, similar in some ways to the University's now defunct Council on New Jersey Affairs.

"My own belief, as a school of public and international affairs, is that public service begins at home," Slaughter said. "So things that had been, things that were and things that were possible all came together quite quickly."

Jezierny said she is hopeful that the "convening power" of the school's reputation will draw in experts capable of advising on the topic, even in areas where University research is unable to address a specific issue.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

"I am a realist enough to know that we won't be able to solve every problem we take on, but we have a lot of credibility to convene experts outside of the University to address issues we can't take care of ourselves," she said.