In
2004, I left my position as director of policy and communications
at Chicago Metropolis 2020, a civic group working on
regional growth and planning issues, to join the faculty
at the Harris Schoolof Public Policy at the
University of Chicago. For me it was coming home,
since I received my Ph.D. from the Harris School in
1998. In the summer of 2006, I will be a visiting professor
at Dartmouth College, my undergraduate alma mater.
This
Fall, my courses include:
Analyzing
and Communicating Public Policy
International
Policy Practicum
I
received a M.P.A. from Princeton University’s
Woodrow Wilson School in 1993 and a Ph.D. in public
policy from the University of Chicago’s Harris
Graduate School of Public Policy Studies in 1998.
Below
is an article by Steve Koppes that appeared in a campus
newspaper in 2005 after I was voted "best professor
in a non-core course" by the Harris School student
body.
Charles
Wheelan, Instructor in the Irving B. Harris Graduate
School of Public Policy Studies
Charles
Wheelan is the man with the anti-Midas touch.
By
Steve Koppes
News Office
“If
he touched gold he would turn it to life,” wrote
Princeton University professor Burton Malkiel in the
foreword to Wheelan’s book Naked Economics: Undressing
the Dismal Science, published in 2002.
It
appears that Wheelan applies the same touch to his University
courses. Though he became a Lecturer in the Irving B.
Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies only
last year, students in his Analyzing and Commun- icating
Policy course already have felt his energizing anti-Midas
touch. For one class period each Fall and Spring Quarter,
the students in this course find themselves seated in
the studios of WBEZ-FM at Navy Pier, instead of the
long, narrow confines of the Woodlawn Room in the 1155
Building on campus.
WBEZ
is familiar territory for Wheelan. He is a long-time
contributor both to WBEZ’s 848 public affairs
program and to The Motley Fool, a nationally syndicated
program on National Public Radio covering finance, economics
and business.
But
students do the talking on these WBEZ field trips, not
Wheelan, during an off-the-air version of 848 that culminates
their group projects. “They have to come up with
some policy recommendation,” Wheelan says. “It
could be anything from changing Illinois recycling law
to creating a global fund to providing an incentive
for the creation of a malaria vaccine.”
After
the students have formulated their policy recommendation,
“then they have to sell it. They’ve got
to do a press release. They’ve got to do talking
points. They’ve got to do an op-ed,” Wheelan
says. And the student spokesmen for their respective
groups also field questions from 848 host Steve Edwards,
just as if they were really appearing on his show to
propose their plans.
It
is fun, but it also shows the students there is more
to a good policy recommendation than a good idea, Wheelan
says. “It’s not really worth anything if
they don’t go out and sell it and explain it cogently.”
Wheelan,
who also teaches Analysis of Regional Policy, says he
has been impressed by the idealism and ability of Harris
School students.
“I
don’t know that they fully appreciate how valued
the skills they have are going to be,” he says.
They will be entering a job market that is less well
defined than that for graduates of business or law schools,
so it requires more patience. “It takes longer
for people to find the right places, probably because
they’re going all over the place. To non-profits,
to international institutions, to private banks, what
have you,” he says.
Wheelan
earned his own Ph.D. from the Harris School in 1998.
He was the Midwest correspondent for The Economist from
1997 until 2002, a position he will again fill during
the summer. Then he became director of policy and communications
for Chicago Metropolis 2020, a business-sponsored not-for-profit
group that conducts long-range planning for the region.
Wheelan also is writing a textbook, An Introduction
to Public Policy.
Policy
seems to be the theme that runs throughout Wheelan’s
career. Even as a practicing journalist and former adjunct
lecturer at Northwestern University’s Medill School
of Journalism, he taught policy.
“I
could probably be at a veterinary school and I’d
somehow be teaching about policy,” he jokes.
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