Five doctoral students get degrees Five LBJ School students successfully defended Ph.D. dissertations last semester, becoming the largest class to graduate in the program's six-year history. Stephen Becker, Maureen Berner, Reid Cramer, Alberto Levy, and Judith Mariscal all earned their doctorates in December. Ph.D. Program Coordinator Chandler Stolp said 27 students have enrolled in the program since its inception, and three had finished prior to this year. "It's more than just a ripple," Stolp said of this year's unusually large block of graduates. "We're not going to have that many (graduating at once) for a long time." Stolp said the Ph.D. program is intended to remain small--the aim is to enroll approximately five new students a year. Students in the program must pass written and oral exams as well as propose, write, and defend a dissertation. The newly published dissertations are on a variety of topics. Becker's dissertation dealt with education policy in Texas; Berner's was in budgetary decision-making; Cramer looked at aspects of urban policy; Levy wrote on electric utility regulation policy; and Mariscal studied the privatization of the telecommunication industry in Mexico.

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