Leslie C. Eliason, associate professor in the Graduate School of International Policy Studies (GSIPS) at the Monterey Institute for International Studies (MIIS), passed away on April 12, 2004 after a short illness. She was only 44.

APSA Council meeting final minutes.

Pendleton Herring, a pioneering student of American politics and influential foundation executive, died at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, on August 17, 2004, at the age of 100. He had two successive careers, first as a leading political scientist, then as head of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), a capacity in which he played a major part in fostering the burgeoning of the social and behavioral sciences in the post-World War II years.

On December 6, 2004, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the Canadian Embassy to the United States inaugurated the Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy in the World. The lecture, named for one of the great democratic scholars and public intellectuals of the 20th century, is an important new forum for discourse on democracy and its progress worldwide. The inaugural lecture was given by Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brazil and one of Latin America's most distinguished social scientists and statesmen. His lecture will be published in the NED's Journal of Democracy.

Representative John A. Boehner (ROH), Chairman of the House Committee on Higher Education, supports President Bush's proposal to increase the maximum Pell Grant by $500 over the next five years as well as raise the amount students can borrow from federal student loan programs. While college lobbyists and policy makers are pleased to applaud the president's proposed improvements, they are disturbed at how the proposals will be paid for. In part, these changes will be paid for by canceling the Perkins Loan Program, a popular program among low and middle class families. Colleges would also be expected to return the federal share of the money used to fund Perkins Loans. The president's proposed budget will also end several popular programs that help motivate and prepare low income students for college.

After more than four decades with the New School, Jacob Landynski passed away on July 29, 2003. Born in Gateshead, England, on May 6, 1930, he received his bachelor's degree at Brooklyn College in 1958 and his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1963, studying under Carl Swisher. His teaching career at the New School began in 1962, and he served for a period as chairman of the political science department. His major work, Search and Seizure and the Supreme Court was published in 1966 by the Johns Hopkins Press. Other works followed. His students and friends valued his contributions to scholarship and his kind and gentle manner. The following are tributes by Michla Pomerance and Louis Fisher.

APSA is thrilled to invite its members back to the politically charged atmosphere of Washington, D.C. in 2005. After a heated election-year, Washington is ready to host the country's largest meeting on political science issues, which last came to our nation's capital in 2000. Both the Annual Meeting and Washington have grown significantly in five years, with D.C. offering several new museums, majestic monuments, and even baseball!

With its mission broadening and budgets tightening, APSA has continued to operate efficiently and responsibly, and fiscal year 2004 ended within budget and with a growth in net value. In the fall of 2003, the Council made the decision to approve a deficit budget of $43,000. This planned deficit allowed the Association to tap into its reserves to implement an extensive technology plan that included transforming the APSA web site and upgrading the headquarters' aging cabling and network infrastructure. APSA accomplished these projects—and a number of others—and managed to finish the year ahead of budgeted costs, with a deficit of less than $2,000 from programmatic and general operating activities. APSA also ended the year with a significant increase in its net assets.

The academic job market for political scientists has been relatively strong in recent years, with job listings in the last several years outpacing those in the 1980s and 1990s. The number of jobs posted for academic year 2003 was the highest in over 20 years. Listings for last year, AY2004, dipped from these recent highs. But early numbers of listings in AY2005 seem to have rebounded and are greater than those for corresponding quarters in the last few years. In AY2004, 920 positions were listed with the association, compared with 1,123 the year before. The 2004 level still exceeded all openings posted annually during the 1990s. Total numbers of academic jobs listed with APSA are charted in Figure 1.

It has always been my dream to become a politician. After finishing school I looked for a place where I could get an education in such matters. At this time, my country was still a part of the Soviet Union. During my research I discovered that there was a Department of the History of the Communist Party at Tashkent State University, the aim of which aim was to prepare future politicians. One of the requirements for admittance was a letter of reference from the Komsomol (the young communists) Committee in Tashkent. I tried to do my best for the Komsomol—I was very active, participating in several different Olympiads and winning three of them—and finally I got what I wanted. I passed all my exams, presented the letter of recommendation, entered University, and started to study all aspects of the History of the Communist Party.

The Administrative Committee consists of the president, president-elect, treasurer, and four other Council members whose main duties include preparing agendas for Council meetings and annual business meetings and acting on behalf of the Council to dispose of policy issues deemed of insufficient weight to require decisions by the Council.

In spring 2002, APSA President-Elect Theda Skocpol appointed this Task Force on Graduate Education, representing a variety of institutions, political science subfields, scholarly backgrounds, and methodological viewpoints. She asked its members to report on ways to strengthen graduate education in political science. The Task Force quickly concluded that no single structure of graduate training could be appropriate for the wide range of institutions offering graduate instruction in political science, and that departments must decide for themselves what programs best suited their capacities and interests.

This is the third annual report that I have submitted since assuming the editorship of the APSR in September of 2001. In my initial report, I characterized 2001–2002 as a start-up year for the new editorial office, greatly complicated by the September 11 attacks and the disruption of mail service by the anthrax threat, but highlighted by major procedural and outreach initiatives and by a massive upsurge in submissions. My second report described a year of beginning to settle in to a more “normal” operating mode, of undergoing an intensive internal review and instituting new procedural refinements as a consequence, and of experiencing a further, and unexpected, increase in submissions. The main theme of my third report is one of stability—continuity with, rather than major departures from, the situation described in last year's report. I think it is accurate to say that during the past year we functioned in normal operating mode rather than making it up as we went along, as often seemed to be the case during the early going.

Perspectives on Politics opened for business on June 1, 2002, and has published two complete volumes of four issues each. My first full report as editor covered submissions and, where possible, their disposition from June 1, 2002, through July 31, 2003. This report covers the succeeding year, ending on July 31, 2004.

APSA Annual Meeting attendees widely report that they found the 2004 meeting a positive experience, felt welcome at the meeting, learned things that will inform them professionally, and enjoyed the conference overall. Most attendees also felt they had sufficient opportunities to network and that the meeting met their expectations.

The Asian Pacific American Caucus (APAC), a related group of APSA, was established in 2000 to promote research on Asian Pacific American (APA) politics and address concerns of APA students and scholars in the profession. Currently, the group has about 150 members, who are connected by e-mail listserve. APAC was a driving force for the publication of the PS symposium on APA politics in September 2001, and the creation of the APSA Committee on the Status of Asian Pacific Americans in the Profession in 2003. APAC works closely with the status committee, although the latter functions as an official APSA committee and a separate entity.

Paul Y. Hammond+

This past spring, with the approval of APSA President Susanne Rudolph and under the guidance of President-Elect Margaret Levi, a subgroup of the APSA Council formulated a set of recommendations for the Association with regard to its “public presence”—or activities that sought to raise the public profile of political science research and illustrate its utility for larger public debates. The intent behind the recommendations was to guide the development of resources for the media and broader public in specific areas that were of direct relevance to the 2004 U.S. elections. The group's recommendations resulted in the reorganization of APSA staff to create a new position: Director, International and External Relations.

Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society, is pleased to announce the winners of its 2004 Chapter Activity Grant Competition. This annual competition is the largest of Pi Sigma Alpha's programs for chapters and members. In 2004, a total of $55,000 was given in grants. The National Office congratulates the members of Pi Sigma Alpha who wrote the winning proposals, and wishes success to their chapters as they carry out the activities.

As a former assistant producer for BBC News' Middle East bureau in Jerusalem, I brought an intimate awareness of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the office of Rep. Howard Berman (CA-28), where I've been working as an APSA Congressional Journalism Fellow. I chose to work for Rep. Berman because of his outstanding reputation as a thoughtful and vigorous legislator in foreign affairs. As a senior member of the International Relations Committee and ranking member of the Middle East and Africa Subcommittee, Berman is directly involved in setting policy on the issues I've covered as a journalist for years.