The Political Science Department hosts and administers the Public Policy Workshop, in collaboration with the Economics and Sociology Departments. This facility is located in Eliot 110, with an adjacent office that is sometimes used by research assistants.
The PPW serves primarily as a research laboratory, but also serves as a computer facility, teaching facility, and gathering place for social scientists. The PPW has a number of dual-boot Intel Mac workstations, a printer, and a scanner. It has a wired conference table and a projector for meetings and small classes. Specialized social scientific software is installed at the PPW, including geographical information systems, time series, network analysis, and most statistical software packages. Students also have substantially more storage space available on PPW computers than on their home space on the Reed computer system.
The PPW is not an IRC, and is not a part of the College computer system. It is, therefore, not open to anyone, but only to authorized users who have been granted access. Access is authorized by the Director, on application to the PPW Manager, whose name and e-mail address are posted on the door to Eliot 110. Card access is limited to social science students and faculty.
The PPW is open 24 hours on an honors system basis. Occasionally, the PPW is used for other purposes, such as classes. Students should consult the bulletin board as to times the PPW is available for use. The PPW Manager handles all special scheduling of the PPW authorized by the Director. Nevertheless, special scheduling is infrequent, so the PPW remains a good place to work on papers, etc., without interruption.