Jack DeSario

Professor of Political Science

Office: Chapman Hall, Rm 346

Phone #: (330) 823-3261

           E-Mail: desarijp@muc.edu              

Dr. Jack DeSario is Professor of Political Science and  Director of the Legal Studies Minor at Mount Union College. Dr. DeSario has a Ph.D. in Political Science from S.U.N.Y.-Binghamton, and a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University. Over the past 15 years DeSario has practiced law, run numerous political campaigns, was appointed Chairman of the Ohio Ethics Commission, and has served as a political analyst for WUAB-TV and WKYC-TV Channel 3, in Cleveland, Ohio.

Dr. DeSario utilizes these experiences to provide his students unique educational opportunities and insights. For example, when teaching his course -- Campaign and Elections -- he requires students to contact actual campaigns and to devise their own campaign strategies, speeches, and commercials. To facilitate these efforts, Dr. DeSario brings candidates for congress, state office, and the judiciary to campus. In addition, professional campaign advisors, pollsters, and media consultants display their work for his class.

Dr. DeSario has developed and directs the Legal Studies Minor Program at Mount Union College. As part of this program he established a Pre-Law Club which is very popular among the students. This organization has hosted a number of significant guest speakers including Court of Appeals judges, county prosecutors, law professors, municipal, members of the U.S. Congress, and Deans of law schools. Dr. DeSario has been able to establish an extensive internship program and has placed students in prosecutor's offices, sheriff's departments, law departments, the Governor's Office, the National Legal Foundation, and the U.S. Congress. Dr. DeSario has also established a study abroad program with the University of Essex in Great Britain. Mount Union students have taken advantage of this program to receive credit for law and social science classes while in England. The graduates of this program have been placed and graduated from Georgetown, Syracuse, Case Western, & Ohio State.

As part of Dr. DeSario's Introduction to Law and the Legal System class, he takes students to observe trial and appellate court proceedings. In addition, he requires each student to read two current U.S. Supreme Court decisions and present their own briefs and analysis of these cases to the rest of the class. These presentations are made within the context of the vigorous debate promoted by the Socratic method, similar to the approach utilized by most law schools. Over the past few years, the graduates of the Mount Union Legal Studies Program have significantly increased their academic achievement while attaining some of the highest LSAT scores in the country.

Dr. DeSario has published a number of books and articles in the areas of law and government. Among some of his publications are: "Ohio Ethics Law Reforms: Political and Legal Implications" in Akron Law Review; "The Future of Affirmative Action: The Legal Imperative" in Cleveland State Law Review; "The Americans with Disabilities Act and Refusals to Provide Medical Care to Persons with HIV/AIDS" in John Marshall Law Review; "Alcohol-Related Traffic Deaths and the National Minimum Driving Age" in Health Matrix; "The Legal and Political Relationships Between Bureaucracy and Congress" in The Ohio Journal of Economics and Politics; Local Government Information and Training Needs in the 21st Century - Quorum Books, Westport, CN; Managing Local Government, Sage Press, Newbury Park, CA; International Public Policy Sourcebook, Greenwood Press, Westport, CN; and Citizen Participation and Public Decision Making, Greenwood Press, Greenwood, CT. He has also co-written Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action and the Constitution: New Challenges Facing Public Human Resource Management.