Michael P. Riccards
Encyclopedia
Michael P. Riccards is an American
political scientist
, writer
, and professor
. Riccards has been the president of three American colleges and has written extensively on public policy
, the American political process
, and the history of the American presidency
. His book The Ferocious Engine of Democracy was praised by Bill Clinton
. He currently serves as executive director of the Hall Institute for Public Policy - New Jersey.
Riccards grew up in New Jersey and received his bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. in political science from Rutgers University
; he finished his formal studies in 1970. Riccards was named a Fulbright Fellow to Japan
in 1973 and a Henry Huntington Fellow in California
in 1974. In 1975, he joined Princeton University
as a National Endowment for the Humanities
Fellow in religion. His main interests were political socialization
and political behavior
; he used stage theory
in his research to learn how children get their political and later religious values.
In 1976, he was named the dean of the merged college of Arts and Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Boston
. As an administrator, he increased the numbers of minority students in the arts and sciences, and helped create a minority pre-med program. Five years later, he became provost
and academic vice president at Hunter College
of the City University of New York
. Riccards worked to re-establish sabbaticals for faculty, which had been abolished systemwide during the 1970s. He revamped the school-deaconal structure, and created the college's first doctoral programs. He also taught political science for three years.
Riccards became president of St. John's College
in Santa Fe
, New Mexico
in 1986. He worked to build a new library for the school, and served on the New Mexico Council for Humanities. In 1989, he left for the presidency of Shepherd College (now Shepherd University), a liberal arts
college in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia
. Riccards established a new science and technology building built with Federal funds, and planned the Senator
Robert C. Byrd Center as part of a renovation of the library. Riccards also served on the National Skill Standards Board
.
In 1995, Riccards became president of Fitchburg State College
in Massachusetts
, which had difficulties with low academic standards and low dormitory occupancy rates. He raised academic standards in the school's much-criticized teacher education program and started a leadership program for students, including classes in leadership. Riccards convinced then-Governor William Weld
to support construction of a new physical education
building and committed it to community use. He also backed a new science complex to help re-develop the city of Fitchburg. The college named its baseball field for Riccards in 2007.
After leaving Fitchburg State in 2002, Riccards became the College Board
’s Public Policy Scholar in Residence in Washington, D. C., and was the College Board's representative to both the National Governors Association
and the National State Legislatures Association. He backed the creation of an Advanced Placement course to celebrate the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education
; the course was put on the Board’s website. Riccards also visited the assistant superintendent of the District of Columbia Public Schools
to advocate Board programs aimed at high school predation; prior to Riccards' visit, the College Board had little patience and no success with the school bureaucracy. Riccards wrote a history of the College Board, and successfully lobbied Congress to increase its Advanced Placement subsidy to $25 million. Riccards' efforts with Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs
to help veterans enroll in CLEP
courses were also successful.
After three years at the College Board, Riccards moved back to his native New Jersey and became the first executive director of the Hall Institute of Public Policy - New Jersey
in Trenton.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
political scientist
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, and professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
. Riccards has been the president of three American colleges and has written extensively on public policy
Public policy
Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...
, the American political process
Politics of the United States
The United States is a federal constitutional republic, in which the President of the United States , Congress, and judiciary share powers reserved to the national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments.The executive branch is headed by the President...
, and the history of the American presidency
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
. His book The Ferocious Engine of Democracy was praised by Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
. He currently serves as executive director of the Hall Institute for Public Policy - New Jersey.
Riccards grew up in New Jersey and received his bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. in political science from Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
; he finished his formal studies in 1970. Riccards was named a Fulbright Fellow to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in 1973 and a Henry Huntington Fellow in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in 1974. In 1975, he joined Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
as a National Endowment for the Humanities
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
Fellow in religion. His main interests were political socialization
Political socialization
Political socialization is a concept concerning the “study of the developmental processes by which children and adolescents acquire political cognition, attitudes and behaviors”. It refers to a learning process by which norms and behavior acceptable to a well running political system are...
and political behavior
Theories of political behavior
Theories of political behavior, as an aspect of political science, attempt to quantify and explain the influences that define a person's political views, ideology, and levels of political participation...
; he used stage theory
Stage theory
Stage theories are based on the idea that elements in systems move through a pattern of distinct stages over time and that these stages can be described based on their distinguishing characteristics...
in his research to learn how children get their political and later religious values.
In 1976, he was named the dean of the merged college of Arts and Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Boston
University of Massachusetts Boston
The University of Massachusetts Boston, also known as UMass Boston, is an urban public research university and the second largest campus in the five-campus University of Massachusetts system. The university is located on on Harbor Point in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States...
. As an administrator, he increased the numbers of minority students in the arts and sciences, and helped create a minority pre-med program. Five years later, he became provost
Provost (education)
A provost is the senior academic administrator at many institutions of higher education in the United States, Canada and Australia, the equivalent of a pro-vice-chancellor at some institutions in the United Kingdom and Ireland....
and academic vice president at Hunter College
Hunter College
Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
of the City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
. Riccards worked to re-establish sabbaticals for faculty, which had been abolished systemwide during the 1970s. He revamped the school-deaconal structure, and created the college's first doctoral programs. He also taught political science for three years.
Riccards became president of St. John's College
St. John's College, U.S.
St. John's College is a liberal arts college with two U.S. campuses: one in Annapolis, Maryland and one in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Founded in 1696 as a preparatory school, King William's School, the school received a collegiate charter in 1784, making it one of the oldest institutions of higher...
in Santa Fe
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
in 1986. He worked to build a new library for the school, and served on the New Mexico Council for Humanities. In 1989, he left for the presidency of Shepherd College (now Shepherd University), a liberal arts
Liberal arts
The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...
college in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
. Riccards established a new science and technology building built with Federal funds, and planned the Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Robert C. Byrd Center as part of a renovation of the library. Riccards also served on the National Skill Standards Board
National Skill Standards Board
The National Skill Standards Board was a coalition of community, business, labor, education, and civil rights leaders. It was tasked with building a national voluntary system of skill standards, assessment, and certification to enhance the...
.
In 1995, Riccards became president of Fitchburg State College
Fitchburg State College
Fitchburg State University, also known as Fitchburg State, is a four-year public institution of higher learning with a compact urban campus, located in the city of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Fitchburg State University has over 3,500 undergraduate and over 1650 graduate/continuing education...
in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, which had difficulties with low academic standards and low dormitory occupancy rates. He raised academic standards in the school's much-criticized teacher education program and started a leadership program for students, including classes in leadership. Riccards convinced then-Governor William Weld
William Weld
William Floyd Weld is a former governor of the US state of Massachusetts. He served as that state's 68th governor from 1991 to 1997. From 1981 to 1988, he was a federal prosecutor in the United States Justice Department...
to support construction of a new physical education
Physical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
building and committed it to community use. He also backed a new science complex to help re-develop the city of Fitchburg. The college named its baseball field for Riccards in 2007.
After leaving Fitchburg State in 2002, Riccards became the College Board
College Board
The College Board is a membership association in the United States that was formed in 1900 as the College Entrance Examination Board . It is composed of more than 5,900 schools, colleges, universities and other educational organizations. It sells standardized tests used by academically oriented...
’s Public Policy Scholar in Residence in Washington, D. C., and was the College Board's representative to both the National Governors Association
National Governors Association
The National Governors Association , founded in 1908 as the National Governors' Conference, is funded primarily by state dues, federal grants and contracts and private contributions. NGA represents the governors of the fifty U.S. states and five U.S. territories The National Governors Association...
and the National State Legislatures Association. He backed the creation of an Advanced Placement course to celebrate the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...
; the course was put on the Board’s website. Riccards also visited the assistant superintendent of the District of Columbia Public Schools
District of Columbia Public Schools
District of Columbia Public Schools is the traditional public school system of Washington, D.C. in the United States.- Composition and enrollment :...
to advocate Board programs aimed at high school predation; prior to Riccards' visit, the College Board had little patience and no success with the school bureaucracy. Riccards wrote a history of the College Board, and successfully lobbied Congress to increase its Advanced Placement subsidy to $25 million. Riccards' efforts with Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs
United States Department of Veterans Affairs
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs is a government-run military veteran benefit system with Cabinet-level status. It is the United States government’s second largest department, after the United States Department of Defense...
to help veterans enroll in CLEP
College Level Examination Program
The College Level Examination Program is a group of standardized tests that assess college-level knowledge in several subject areas. Many colleges grant credit to students who meet their minimum qualifying score. Qualifying scores vary by school but are typically 50...
courses were also successful.
After three years at the College Board, Riccards moved back to his native New Jersey and became the first executive director of the Hall Institute of Public Policy - New Jersey
Hall Institute of Public Policy - New Jersey
The Hall Institute for Public Policy - New Jersey is a nonpartisan, non-profit think tank that focuses on public policy issues in New Jersey. The institute was founded in 2005 by George E. Hall, a finance executive and philanthropist. Hall hired Michael P. Riccards, a former college president, as...
in Trenton.
Books
- Riccards, Michael P. (2004). The Myth of American Mis-education. Global Publications, New York. ISBN 1592670393.
- Riccards, Michael P. (2003). The Ferocious Engine of Democracy, Updated: From Theodore Roosevelt through George W. Bush. Cooper Square Press, New York. ISBN 0815412576.
- Riccards, Michael P. (2002). The Papacy and the End of Christendom: The Leadership Crises in the Church from 1500 to 1850 (Binghamton, N.Y.: Global Publications, Binghamton, NY. ISBN 9780972491815.
- Riccards, Michael P. (2001). The Odes of DiMaggio: Sports, Myth, and Manhood in Contemporary America. Global Publications, Binghamton, NY. ISBN 9781401014063
- Riccards, Michael P. (1998). The Presidency and the Middle Kingdom: China, the United States and Executive Leadership. Lexington Books, Lanham, MD. ISBN 0739101293.
- Riccards, Michael P. (1998). Vicars of Christ: Faith, Leadership, and the Papacy in Modern Times. Crossroad Publishing Company, New York. ISBN 082451694X.
- Riccards, Michael P. (1987). A republic, if you can keep it: the foundation of the American presidency, 1700-1800. Greenwood Press, New York. ISBN 0313254621.
- Riccards, Michael P. (1973). The Making of the American Citizenry: An Introduction to Political Socialization. Chandler Publishing Company, San Francisco. ISBN 0810204711.
- Byron W. Daynes, Byron W., Pederson, William D., and Riccards, Michael P. (eds.) (1998). The New Deal and public policy. St. Martin's Press, New York. ISBN 031217540X.
Articles, papers, and opinions
External links
- Hall Institute of Public Policy
- Michael P. Riccards' blog at PoliticsNJ.com