ASA Member News Archive

ASA Member News June 2014

Launching a Public Relations Campaign for Statistics: What Better Time Than the ASA’s 175th Anniversary?

In the ASA’s 175th year, the association will launch a campaign to elevate public and media awareness of statistical science and change the public’s perception of statisticians by educating them about the many ways we help solve policy, research, business, and other problems. This feature follows a conversation between ASA President Nathaniel Schenker and Mary Kwasny—the board’s second-year Council of Chapters representative—about the details of the new effort. Read More.

ASA Delivers Statistics Training to Reporters

Twenty reporters attended the first-ever statistics professional development session at the National Press Club (NPC) in Washington, DC. The 90-minute event was cosponsored by ASA and the NPC's Journalism Institute. ASA Past President Sallie Keller, Executive Director Ron Wasserstein, and Bloomberg News reporter Michelle Jamrisko discussed the growing relevance of statistics to reporters, advised attendees to dig deeper into survey and research results to get the complete story, and presented key concepts and terms that reporters should know such as margin of error, sample selection method, response rates, precision, and bias. The session was moderated by Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau Chief Todd Gillman. Statistics training at NPC continued June 14 during a Journalism Boot Camp at which ASA member Rebecca Goldin was an instructor.

Big Data Goes to College

DataFest is an annual competition held early each spring. During the event, teams of up to five students work to extract insights from a large and rich data set. This unique program takes data analysis learning beyond the time constraints typically encountered in a classroom setting. It naturally attracts statistics students, but it also draws majors in engineering, math, computer science, social science, and other fields of study. Learn more about this program and how the ASA is helping.

JSM 2014 & THE ASA’s 175th ANNIVERSARY
Boston, MA - August 2–7

RSS 2014 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Sheffield, UK - September 1–4

2014 ASA BIOPHARMACEUTICAL SECTION FDA-INDUSTRY STATISTICS WORKSHO
Washington, DC - September 22–24

2015 CONFERENCE ON STATISTICAL PRACTICE
New Orleans, LA - February 19–21

MORE EVENTS

U.S. House of Representatives Approves Provision to Make American Community Survey Voluntary

During deliberations on the fiscal year 2015 appropriations bill that includes the Department of Commerce (and NSF), the House approved an amendment by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) to make the American Community Survey voluntary. Five amendments also were approved to shift $133 million from the U.S. Census Bureau to other parts of the spending bill. The House science committee chair, Lamar Smith (R-TX), also succeeded with his amendment to reduce funding for the NSF Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate by $15 million (7%). For more information about Census Bureau developments, see this ASA Community blog entry and this blog entry about NSF budget developments.

House Passes Bill Diminishing Stature and Autonomy of National Center for Education Statistics; Senate Plans Unclear