J. Patrick Piskulich
Associate Professor
Political Science

Patrick Piskulich has been actively engaged in service since his arrival at Oakland University in 1990. This year he agreed to step in as interim MPA director. He has not taken on a “custodial” role as MPA director and has instituted several reforms of the program, which resulted in increased student enrollments and the introduction of higher admission standards. He serves as adviser to the 80+ MPA students, supervises the vast majority of capstone projects, serves as faculty adviser to Pi Alpha Alpha (the MPA honor society), has recruited and mentored new part-time faculty to teach in the program and has conducted normal assessment activities. As an added benefit to our MPA students, Piskulich has introduced Saturday course offerings for selected electives and pre-requisite courses. The MPA director position in any year is an important service activity, but this year is also the year for data collection that is part of the self-study review. He has organized, rationalized and systematized the collection of student data that is part of our re-accreditation review and has made it possible for the program to avoid requesting a delay in review. In addition to his work as interim MPA director, Piskulich previously served 12 years as internship director for the department placing students in internships in Lansing, Washington and throughout southeast Michigan. He authored the self-study for the Department of Political Science’s program review in 2003 and has authored a number of the department’s assessment reports. As director of the Public Affairs Research Laboratory he has conducted applied research for area governments and nonprofit organizations. PARL provides students first-hand experience in applied research and is an important mechanism for community outreach efforts by Oakland University. Most recently, Piskulich conducted citizen surveys for the local governments of Auburn Hills, Rochester Hills and Oakland Township. His dedication and service have made the department, college, university, and surrounding communities a better place to live and work.