 Good afternoon and welcome I'm Susan Collins the Joan and Sanford Wildean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy And it is my great honor to welcome all of you here today To hear from one of the nation's most distinguished and influential economists Stephen Levitt We're so pleased that several of the university's executive directors and deans could join us today I'd like to welcome them and thank them for coming You'll see that in your program President Schlissel's name appears and indeed he had hoped to be here to introduce our speaker and to share his thoughts on This occasion as the Ford school marks its 100th year, but earlier today Unfortunately, the president was called away on University business He sends his apologies and his greetings in particular to all of our alumni who are here and his very best wishes for all of us As we celebrate the Ford school centennial And so in his place, I'm very pleased to welcome the provost of the University of Michigan Martha Pollock Thank you so much for joining us. We're delighted to have you here Well, our school carries the name of President Gerald R. Ford a man celebrated for his decency his integrity his commitment and to public service and his lifelong Love of his alma mater the University of Michigan Well to a president Ford sons will be with us this weekend for a celebration and I'm also delighted to welcome both Mike and Steve Ford Well, the Ford school hosts many public events We view it as part of our mission But today's gathering is really special and quite unique because today we celebrate the centennial of our founding We celebrate 100 years of policy education here at the University of Michigan in this room There are hundreds of members of the extended Ford school community students faculty staff Alumni friends in particular nearly a hundred alumni who have returned here to Ann Arbor with their families to mark this very special occasion However, there are others in the room who may not be quite as familiar with our school and the field of public policy And so I'd like to spend just a moment talking about that Well at its core the Ford school's mission is to improve human lives. That's what public policy is It's the scaffolding of society and in so many ways the life that we live today Is a result of policy decisions that were made 10? 30 a hundred years ago Public policy was instrumental in delivering America from the Great Depression in rebuilding Europe from 1946 in radically reducing disease in this country providing safe food and clean water and It expanding civil and human rights Undertakings like these took time and they took collaboration They shaped the world that we have inherited with its many freedoms and choices They were actions that were rooted in the simple principle the commitment to decency Well the Ford school is actually a product of the activism of the progressive era of a century ago And then in the late 1960s we were the first to bring rigorous scientific methods to bear on deeply rooted Social problems Well now as we look around us the technological and the demographic shifts are really dramatic and they are changing society around us speed scale Scope all of those things working together are making our world increasingly interconnected and they're changing things at breakneck speed In short, it's a new order of complexity and too often that complexity results in paralysis Entrenched partisan ideologies have already paralyzed much of government particularly at the federal level So what's the antidote the antidote to that challenge? Well the exact skill set that we teach at the Ford school the skill set that our alumni put to work in the world for 100 years skills that harness complexity Analyzing complicated data sets evaluating benefits and costs Speaking and writing clearly and persuasively thinking critically and compassionately and recognizing multiple perspectives Crafting and then enacting solutions where others may see only dead ends So that's our curriculum the professional toolkit that our students take into the world in the blur of the present one thing We think is absolutely clear and that is that what we teach here is ever more and will be in urgent Demand not just in the public sector, but in business finance Non-profit and academia as well And so our centennial celebrations are certainly about our past milestones and achievements But they're very much also about the future our world's future So today we also are Excited to publicly be launching the Ford schools ambitious part of the victors for Michigan campaign and over the next five years We will raise three million dollars to support students to unleash the creativity of our faculty and to catalyze real and lasting change in the world The generosity of so many friends and donors will lay the foundation for the schools next century and with their support Your support we will carry that torch forward into a world that we can't picture yet And we'll harness that complexity and improve human lives And so to our alumni our faculty students and our staff I hope you take great pride in what we have all worked together to build today together We step forward into our next century. Thank you And now it is my honor to introduce provost the provost of the University of Michigan Martha E. Pollock Professor Pollock is also a provost Pollock is also professor of information in the school of information and Professor of computer science in the College of Engineering Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming Martha Pollock Good afternoon and like Dean Collins. I convey President Schlissel's regrets I know he really did want to be here today and Sends his best to all of you and his thanks. I like him. I want to thank all of you for being here I especially want to thank the alumni who've returned for the Ford school centennial celebration I know that all of you are putting your Michigan degrees to work every day Improving lives here in Ann Arbor in Detroit in Washington DC and in cities around the globe and you're really an amazing Amazing part of the Ford legacy So I want to thank you for making a difference and thank you especially for remaining engaged with your school and with the University The Ford school with its outstanding educational programs its strong network of alumni and leadership positions and its deep commitment to research and action Is probably the best literal manifestation of our University's motto leaders and best and when talking about the Ford school We should also remember the word first Thanks to those who preceded us Michigan was the first University to offer degree programs in the areas of public administration and public policy Disciplines that have long since been recognized as crucial to American society They were true pioneers in that respect and today the Ford school continues to be pioneers on the leading edge of public impact on The analysis of complex problems and in applying the very best minds to finding solutions to those problems It's home to renown research centers stop students and world-class faculty Earlier this month I was very honored to be able to congratulate Ford schools own Robert Axelrod a professor of public Political science and public policy on his selection by President Obama for the National Medal of Science He'll receive that medal in the White House in November and as I know many of you know This is the nation's highest honor for achievement in the field of science and engineering and it's particularly unusual and Wonderful for a social scientist to receive it As political science chair Jesse S. Reeves said back in 1914 the University has a distinct opportunity To offer public service to the people and I am proud to join you the alumni of the Ford school as we work to realize this opportunity in 2014 and beyond Now it is my distinct pleasure to introduce today's guest of honor and keynote speaker Stephen Levitt is the William B. Ogden distinguished service professor of economics at the University of Chicago He is our renowned scholar author and cultural icon who has hailed for raising the profile of the science of economics His 2005 book Freakinomics. Okay, how many people have read Freakinomics? Yeah, look at that Spent more than eight years on the New York Times bestseller list and it led to a blog and a movie of the same title In a popular New York Times profile. Dr. Levitt was described as quote a Populist in a field that is undergoing a bout of popularization and the Wall Street Journal has characterized him I love this as the Indiana Jones of economics His most recent book is titled think like a freak Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome me help. Please join me in welcoming dr. Stephen Levitt