The Vanderbilt Department of Political Science has made great progress in the past few years.  Our faculty has been renewed -- in the last five years we have added 15 exciting new faculty members who are distinguished by the excellence of their teaching (our faculty frequently win College and University teaching awards) and their excitement about their research.  Many of our faculty are in constant demand by the media and other external agencies for their expertise and analyses of the world about us.

Our group of undergraduate majors has continued to be one of the largest in the University and to demonstrate increasing excellence in their academic performance, their acceptance in to distinguished graduate and professional schools, and their winning of university-wide awards and leadership positions.  We have also built a strong group of graduate students with a great esprit de corps who enrich our departmental programs and participate eagerly in the research programs of our faculty as they prepare to assume positions as the enxt generation of outstanding Political Science teachers, scholars, and researchers.

On the research front, the Department of Political Science has made progress that is not only unprecedented for the department, but for all the social sciences and humanities at Vanderbilt and beyond.  Through the efforts of its faculty, it has received literally millions of new dollars to support cutting edge research on democratization, rule of law, and political campaiging.  These new and expanded initiatives strengthen the department's existing scholary strengths in political theory and philosophy, internattional relations, and American and comparative politics.  Thisresearch funding and scholarship greatly expand the department's national and international reputation and provide valuable knowledge that can be used by policy makers.  It also allows our faculty to be the better teachers that Vanderbilt expects as they transmit the excitement with which they approach their research to the students who take their courses. 

To take the next steps leading to even greater advancement that will solidy the department's achievements and reputation as one  of the nation's best, we need the support of our friends and alumni.  We have a number of existing endowed funds that greatly enhance our ability to recognize and award our best students and organize visits and lectures by distinguished visitors.  But compared to our competitor and peer departments, the department has very few named or endowed professorships, for example.