UC Berkeley Extension and the Institute of Governmental Studies Present the 29th Panel on the Presidency

Mark Halperin, Peter D. Hart, Mark Z. Barabak, and Stephen F. Hayward to assess President Obama's first 15 months in office

BERKELEY, Calif., March 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- UC Berkeley Extension, in association with UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS), presents the 29th Panel on the Presidency: Obama Settles In, to be held April 12 on the UC Berkeley campus.

This year's distinguished panel of presidential scholars, analysts, and journalists will analyze President Obama's response to the challenges of his first 15 months in office, including a severe economic crisis, record-breaking unemployment, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, other foreign policy hurdles, health care reform, and issues of race.

Panelists include Mark Z. Barabak, senior political writer at the Los Angeles Times; Mark Halperin, senior political analyst at TIME; Peter D. Hart, chairman of Peter D. Hart Research Associates and leading pollster for the Wall Street Journal and NBC News; and Stephen F. Hayward, the F.K. Weyerhaeuser Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.

"Like all those who have occupied the Oval Office, President Obama is something of a national Rorschach test," said Ethan Rarick, director of the Robert T. Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service at IGS and moderator of the panel. "This year's expert panel will provide varied readings of the inkblot, from liberal to conservative and journalistic to scholarly."

"We are pleased to continue to co-sponsor this popular annual event with the Institute of Governmental Studies," said Diana Wu, dean of UC Berkeley Extension. "This is an important public policy discussion that we are proud to bring to the larger community."

The 29th Panel on the Presidency will be held April 12, 7:30–9 p.m., at 105 Stanley Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. The event is free and open to the public.

The Institute of Governmental Studies is an interdisciplinary organized research unit at UC Berkeley. Founded in 1919, IGS and its affiliated centers spearhead and promote research, programs, seminars and colloquia, training, educational activities, and public service in the fields of politics and public policy, with a strong focus on national and California politics.

Founded in 1891, UC Berkeley Extension is the continuing education branch of the University of California, Berkeley. Extension offers 1,500 courses each year, including award-winning online offerings, free and low-cost public lectures, and more than 60 professional certificates and specialized programs of study.

SOURCE UC Berkeley Extension