Online webinar platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams have enabled public discourse at an unprecedented scale. But when hundreds of people join a meeting, the flow of feedback—often reduced to rapid-fire chat messages—becomes chaotic and overwhelming.

On April 11, nine UC Riverside graduate students presented their research at the 11th annual UCR Grad Slam Final for a chance at $5,000. The event was hosted by UCR’s Grad Division and was held on campus at the School of Business.  Grad Slam is a University of California-wide speaking competition in which graduate students get three minutes to describe their research to judges and an audience of peers, faculty, staff, friends, and family. 

Much has happened in the two-plus months since Donald Trump reclaimed the presidency, with a start-and-stop trade war, cuts to federal research funding, and uncertainty re. the U.S. role in the Ukraine-Russia war. We asked polling and survey expert Andy Crosby, a UCR School of Public Policy professor, to weigh in on how voters are processing the developments. 

For one whirlwind week in Washington, D.C., a select group of 18 UC Riverside public policy students found themselves in the thick of global affairs—learning firsthand how the gears of diplomacy turn in the nation’s capital. This opportunity came through the launch this academic year of the Robert Heath Global Policy Scholars Program, a collaboration between UC Riverside and the American Academy of Diplomacy, which is led by UCR alumnus and former U.S. ambassador Ronald Neumann.