Media cameras lined the back of an Eggers Hall conference room early Friday afternoon as Jason Furman spoke to an audience about economic policy in President Barack Obama’s administration.

Though the media made up a large portion of the audience, their presence wasn’t originally part of the plan.

Officials from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs decided to close the event to the media at Furman’s request. The assistant to the president for economic policy and principal deputy director of the National Economic Councilwas going to remain off the record for the entire lecture.

But after controversy surrounded the original decision, The Post-Standard reported Thursday afternoon the university had reversed its decision to keep the media from attending the event.

Leonard Burman, a professor of practice in public administration and international affairs in Maxwell who invited Furman, said in an email the choice to ban the press from attending was a “miscommunication on my part.” He declined to delve further into the decision process.

The decision to close the lecture to the press was considered surprising to some at Syracuse University.

For Roy Gutterman, an associate professor of communications law and journalism who also runs the Tully Center for Free Speech, Maxwell’s initial choice didn’t make much sense.

“I can’t understand why a policy-maker at the highest level of government wouldn’t want to have an audience that would include the press,” Gutterman said before the event was opened to the media. “There’s no better way to get your message to the public than having the press there. From a pure public policy standpoint, I can’t understand this. From a free speech, from a free flow of information standpoint, it’s also vexing.”

Despite the controversy,Furman’s hourlong speech and Q-and-A went off without a hitch. He received several laughs when he quipped about how it’s unfortunate he has become obligated to begin every speech by saying the economy has hit tough times.

He later discussed the three major economic agendas of the current administration. He called them the structural growth agenda, the immediate jobs agenda and the deficit agenda.

Furman also noted that to create jobs, the administration has to assist by creating certain initiatives.

Furman argued it takes a proactive government to create jobs for its citizens. He used a fiber optic cable as an analogy for creating connections between various job initiatives.

“When we got the Recovery Act, we thought, rather than just digging a hole in the ground, we should lay fiber optic cable because of our broadband initiative that the president has,” he said. “Then, the fiber optic cable should be connected up to a doctor’s office as part of an improvement in health information technology initiative.”

Furman later proudly noted that job initiatives are one of the reasons the economy has seen 35 straight months of job growth, including 6.1 million new jobs in the private sector.

Tyler Mitchell, a sophomore political science major, said he learned from Furman’s economic perspective.

“His point is about cutting the deficit,” Mitchell said. “His focus is on more of the long-term effects, rather than the short-term effects.”

Published on February 25, 2013 at 1:05 am

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3