Public Policy Center of New Jersey at MSU to host Epicenter Conference on Dec. 6

The Public Policy Center of New Jersey (PPCNJ) at Montclair State University is hosting its first Epicenter Conference on Tuesday, Dec. 6, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Alexander Kasser Theater. All faculty, staff and students are welcome to attend this program free of charge. The topic is the gubernatorial transition and outlook for the new administration through the eyes of three equal branches of state government. Former Governor Christine Todd Whitman, representing the executive branch; James Coleman Jr., representing the judicial branch; former Senate President John Bennett, representing the legislative branch; and former Assembly Speaker and current State Senator Joseph Doria will participate in a panel discussion. Michael Aaron of New Jersey Network will serve as the panel's moderator.

Last month the PPCNJ agreed to affiliate with Montclair State University. The Center was created in 2001, but it traces its roots back to the founding of a precursor organization, the Center for the Analysis of Public Issues, in 1970 in Princeton. The Center is an independent, non-partisan public policy institute that publishes New Jersey Reporter and New Jersey Heritage magazines, co-publishes The New Jersey Municipal Almanac with the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, publishes books of relevance to New Jersey public policy issues or history, and sponsors highly respected public policy forums and conferences.

The Public Policy Center of New Jersey at Montclair State University, as the PPCNJ will now be known, will allow the University to become a significant contributor to the analysis and discussion of critical public policy issues facing New Jersey as well as a unique source of information about our state heritage. Additionally, the association with PPCNJ at MSU will provide new opportunities for our faculty and students to be actively engaged in these discussions to publish the results of their scholarship in the areas of New Jersey public policy and New Jersey history.