LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- Dr. Frank L. Rusciano of Lawrenceville, professor of political science at Rider University, has been appointed chairperson of the department of political science at the University. He began his new duties September 1.

Rusciano joined the Rider faculty full time in 1982, after serving two years as an adjunct instructor and research associate at Upsala College in East Orange. Prior to entering the higher education realm, he was a research assistant for the National Opinion Research Center in Chicago, IL, from 1978 to 1980.

At Rider, Rusciano specializes in the teaching of American politics, public opinion, and surveys, including specific courses in methods of political analysis, political parties and electoral behavior, congressional politics, and the American presidency. He also speaks to various community groups on these and related topics.

Among his scholarly activities and citations is his selection as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, which allowed him to study public opinion processes in Germany at the Allensbach Institut für Demoskopie and at the Institut für Publizistik of the University of Mainz during the 1985-86 academic year.

Rusciano received his B.A. in government and English from Cornell University, where he was a Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude graduate. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago.

Rider's department of political science is committed to the principle that students should be broadly educated in the liberal arts and sciences. Within this context, the department seeks to provide its students with a comprehensive understanding of politics and the political world, including the relationships of influence and power that exist in societies, the nature and operation of governments, and the consequences of governmental decisions. The curriculum emphasizes the vital interrelationship between theory and practice to provide the student with the analytical and factual bases necessary to think clearly and critically about politics and the political world.