Alex Tuckness likes to do things a little differently.

The associate professor of political science likes his students to think, learn and speak up differently.

After seven years of teaching at Iowa State, Tuckness has been appointed as director for the Public Policy and Administration Program.

According to the ISU Web site, the Public Policy and Administration Program educates and trains students in public policy and management analysis at all levels of government.

Tuckness said he has not done administrative work before, but loves to teach.

“I enjoy interacting with the students,” Tuckness said. “With administration, it’s harder to know because I haven’t done very much of it. There’s always a chance that when I start doing more of it, it might grow on me, but as of now, since I really do enjoy teaching – that’s where my preference is.”

Tuckness’ students say they enjoy his classes. Don McDowell, sophomore in political science, said he got something out of every class.

“He teaches his classes with a heavy amount of dialogue between students, but it would be impossible not to go into his class and not learn something on a daily basis,” McDowell said.

Tuckness said he tries to get the students to “critically engage” the materials.

Shannon Paseka, sophomore in political science, said she had political science 235, Introduction to Ethics and Politics, last semester with Tuckness and it was a lot of work, but said she was well prepared for the final exam.

“He had these one-page papers due every Monday, Wednesday and Friday over the readings to make sure we did the reading, but I didn’t really have to study for the test,” Paseka said.

Paseka said Tuckness would give unique examples to help students understand older political concepts.

Tuckness said he teaches his class in nontraditional ways to get students to think differently about issues.

“I really like to be able to help students see the world from a different perspective and to think critically,” Tuckness said. “In class we take controversial issues and I really try to force students to try to see the other side of the argument from the other point of view.”

Tuckness said seeing the other side of an issue can strengthen one’s own argument.

“So often someone has a position they believe in, and then they have a really weak version of their opponent’s position that’s really easy to knock down,” he said. “What I’m trying to help them see is that if you don’t understand your opponent’s argument, you don’t really understand yours, as well.”

Regarding the administration program, Tuckness said he really wants to help with the teaching aspect. He will be teaching some graduate courses next year.

Michael Whiteford, dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said although some graduate students are gaining a new teacher, undergraduate students will miss out on Tuckness.

“Practically the only downside to all this is that because he’s going to be involved in administration, he probably won’t be doing quite as much teaching, and that is something I feel is too bad for the students, because he is just very good. We would like to clone him many times,” Whiteford said.

Tuckness’ appointment is official on Aug. 1, but will only be the director for one year, or until a new director is hired.

Whiteford said the new director has to make the program his or her primary interest.

“I’m delighted that Alex [Tuckness] is doing it for us next year. He will be a good director, a very good director,” Whiteford said. “I’m very pleased that he agreed to do this. He is extremely hardworking, very capable, excellent researcher, a great teacher.”

Tuckness earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Chicago, his master’s degree at the University of Cambridge and his doctorate at Princeton.