Students from the political science and finance departments presented posters on state budget and policy issues Friday at the Public Policy Symposium.

The student presenters were selected from their classes and asked to pick a topic having to do with the symposium and create a poster to represent it, said Jane Becket-Camarata, assistant professor of political science and chair of the symposium planning committee.

The students chosen from the finance department were asked to pick a city in Ohio and then pick a tax affecting that city and present the city’s overall outlook, said Gloria Purton, a master’s student in public administration and presenter at the symposium.

She picked East Liverpool. “I wanted to choose a city that has been in fiscal emergency and pulled themselves out of it,” Purton said.

Another reason she picked the city is because her father’s family is from East Liverpool, and it’s a beautiful place, she said.

“Decrease in intergovernmental aid has set them into a downfall,” Purton said. “My poster represents where East Liverpool had been, where they are now and whether or not they can have a bright future.”

The bright blue and yellow colors on her poster represent the Ohio River, which East Liverpool is located on, and the bright outlook for the cities future, Purton said.

Anthony Henderson took an analytic approach with his poster.

The senior political science major focused on intergovernmental relations in Ohio and the relations between the federal and state governments.

“It’s like a birthday cake with chocolate and vanilla filling inside,” Henderson said. “Chocolate and vanilla each have their own side, but there is always going to be one part in the middle where they mix.

“That’s where the state of Ohio’s intergovernmental relations is right now: mixed in the middle,” he said.

People need to have a good idea of what the government is doing; otherwise, they can’t be held accountable, Henderson said.

Other posters presented during the symposium focused on topics such as property taxes, school funding and homeland security.

The Public Policy Symposium is an annual event sponsored by the political science and justice studies departments.

Contact College of Arts and Sciences reporter Maureen Nagg at [email protected].