The only degree granting academic program in ISR is the Michigan Program in Survey and Data Science (MPSDS), formerly the Michigan Program in Survey Methodology. On Thursday, March 16, MPSDS celebrated its 20th anniversary. 100 members of the program community attended: alumni, current students, staff, faculty, and friends. The festivities began with a reception in the ISR/Thompson atrium and continued with dinner in the Rogel Ballroom in the Michigan Union. The keynote speakers included ISR director Kate Cagney, two former SRC directors, Jim House and Bob Groves (the five most recent SRC directors attended), two alumni of the program, Frost Hubbard (MS 2006) and Rachel Levenstein (PhD 2010), and founding program director, Jim Lepkowski. The speakers recounted the origins of the program within SRC and ISR, especially in the Survey Methodology (research) Program whose mission of conducting research spanning the cultures within SRC (Sampling, Field, and Coding sections) became the training mission of MPSDS; the speakers also emphasized the program’s interdependence with the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland; and they celebrated the program’s growth. Jim Lepkowski recalled that in the first year of the program “we admitted three students; two came;” this year, the program received 103 applications to the MS program, and after the 2023 commencement the program will have awarded 157 MS degrees, 33 PhDs, and 27 graduate certificates. It was unanimous: the future of the program is bright, and it was a very happy birthday party.
Jim Lepkowski speaks at MPSDS 20th anniversary celebration at the Michigan Union
Fred Conrad
MPSDS 20th anniversary celebration at the Michigan Union
Frost Hubbard
Sunghee Lee
SRC’s five most recent directors (l-r): Bob Groves, Trivellore Raghunathan, Matthew Shapiro, Jim House, Bill Axinn
Kate Cagney
Rachel Levenstein