Hey Mr. (Madam) President!

Nichols College Announces a Timely Course for Fall 2008!

In fall 2008, Nichols College will offer a timely course that enables students to critically discuss which presidential candidate has the right stuff, called "Hey Mr. (Madam) President: Choosing Someone Who Can Do It Right."

In this exciting, controversial and historically significant election year, Nichols students are being encouraged to be informed players! The 3 credit course will be offered on Monday and Thursday from 12:15-1:30 p.m. and team taught by a Professor Paul Lambert, for an historical and political science perspective, and Professor Mary Trottier, for a management and leadership perspective.

Past U.S. presidential administrations will be examined - those successful and effective and those failing miserably. Part of the analysis will be to identify common threads, examine the problems unique to each president's administration and critically look at the values, beliefs and issues that mattered to the American people during specific times.

The course was inspired by a popular YouTube video of rock star Pink singing a song entitled "Dr. Mr. President."

The course developers challenged students to consider this:

• Jimmy Carter will go down in history as a great humanitarian, but as an ineffective president. As a graduate of Annapolis, he was trained for leadership. He was a successful governor of Georgia. What went wrong?
  
  
• Ronald Reagan was an actor whose acting credits include hosting a serial western called Death Valley Days and playing a professor who babysat a chimpanzee in Bedtime for Bonzo. Today, he is remembered as the president who talked Soviet Premier Gorbachev into tearing down the Berlin Wall. How do we account for his success?
  
  
• Would Thomas Jefferson be revered as one of our great leaders if he were in office today? Could he even be elected if it were known that he was fathering children by his mistress who was also his slave?

Students will apply what they learn to the current presidential campaign and debate the qualities that will be necessary to successfully meet the challenges facing our next president.

Who among the candidates is fit to lead?

For more information, please contact:

Mary Trottier
Assistant Professor of Management
Phone:  508-213-2125
mary.trottier@nichols.edu

or

Paul Lambert
Visiting Assistant Professor
Phone: 508-213-2246
paul.lambert@nichols.edu