Roger Hagengruber said he hopes to build a stronger strategic collaboration between UNM and Sandia National Laboratories as the new director of the University’s Institute of Public Policy.
Hagengruber, who stepped in as director of the institute in early August, is the senior vice president for National Security and Arms Control at the laboratories and has been an adjunct political science professor for 25 years.
“I believe that the opportunities for the University and Sandia to work together to advance good public policy and good education in New Mexico are many and could be more effectively exploited,” he said.
He said his duties as director include creating a national presence for the University and the laboratories in the area of public policy and analysis in Albuquerque. He said he wants the institute to become nationally recognized as one of the finest quantitative objective polling organizations that produces quality opinion-related research. He said this will be a step in building and strengthening the University and broadening the laboratories’ interactions with public policy.
“I would like to put us on the map,” Hagengruber said.
He said that the Institute of Public Policy, which is a part of UNM’s Political Science Department, began in 1985 and uses methods, such as public opinion polling and focus groups, to obtain public views on a variety of matters.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Hagengruber said the institute has focused on objective polling and research, especially in matters involving technology.
“For instance, they’ve had continued efforts looking at public views of waste management and public views on genetically altered foods,” he said. “A major effort they had been involved with Sandia over the last 10 years is how public views of national security have evolved in the post-Cold War years.”
Hagengruber said the focus of the previous director was the sensitivity of how the public perceives risk, which is a combination of sense of consequence and probability of outcome. He said another part of the institute is its work with various state government organizations as a partner in helping them assess public satisfaction with government services.
He said the institute provides more than $700,000 worth of business, providing quality research information that is objective and nonpartisan in support of understanding public opinion.
“I think the Institute of Public Policy is a very valuable asset to political science and the University,” he said.
Hagengruber said the institute also employs many students. He said those students working at the institute have impressed him with their professionalism.
“I believe that I also will be able to be effective in expanding opportunity and nurturing what is an outstanding staff of people,” he said.
Hagengruber said the institute is a great credit to UNM and he hopes to make it even more of a success for the community, state and University.
