SU Poverty and Inequality Presentation Features Center for American Progress' Rachel West April 26

SALISBURY, MD---Salisbury University hosts the presentation “Poverty and Inequality: Student Perceptions” 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 26, in Teacher Education and Technology Center Room 153.

Students in Dr. Adam Hoffman’s Methods of Empirical Political Analysis class present findings from a survey of SU students about their perceptions of poverty and inequality. Key issues from the survey included belief in the American dream, financial (in)security, views and solutions about poverty, and views on economic inequality.

Following their discussion, Rachel West, associate director for the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress, keynotes the event, delivering the talk “The Inequality/Poverty Nexus and Public Policy.”

According to the non-partisan center, based in Washington, D.C., one in eight Americans currently lives in poverty. Millions will spend at least one year in poverty during their lives, and the poverty rate in the U.S. is far higher than that of many other developed nations.

Previously, West was an economic policy researcher at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California, Berkeley, where her work focused on minimum wage policy and public assistance programs. She also has worked as an economist for the U.S. Department of Transportation and as an intern at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

Her presentation is made possible by a grant from the American Democracy Project, an initiative of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU).

Sponsored by SU’s Institute for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement (PACE) and Political Science Department, admission is free and the public is invited.

For more information call 410-677-5045 or visit the SU website at www.salisbury.edu.