Newt Gingrich was an upstart minority whip in the House of Representatives. O.J. Simpson was best known as a Hall of Fame running back. Nobody had ever heard of Forrest Gump. And the Kennedy School began its search for a new dean.
Indeed, it has been quite a long transition between permanent leaders at the Kennedy School--19 months will have elapsed between the beginning of the dean search in May, 1994, and the arrival of Joseph S. Nye Jr. in December, 1995.
In many ways, instability is the norm for the school--the Kennedy School has been in between deans almost half of the time since President Neil L. Rudenstine took office in 1991.
Nye's appointment offers an opportunity to break that pattern.
Administrators and faculty say they are confident that Nye will provide long-term stability to the Kennedy School administration. As a result, the new dean will face decisions and tasks critical to the school's future as soon as he takes over.
Right now, Nye is busy working 14-hour days and trekking around the world in his current capacity as U.S. assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs. In a telephone interview from his office at the Pentagon, he says that the demands of his job--including three more trips to Asia and another three to Europe--will leave him unable to devote much time to the school this fall.
But faculty and administrators are already pointing to a number of issues that will be on Nye's plate when he arrives in December.
The Campaign
Last year's dean search was the third in five years for the Kennedy School.
Robert D. Putnam resigned unexpectedly in May, 1991--after just two years on the job--to return to academia. Six months later, Albert Carnesale was named his permanent replacement.
But Carnesale's tenure was also short-lived. When Rudenstine unexpectedly found himself without a provost in the spring of 1994, he Since then, Carnesale has spent two summers and an entire academic year shuttling back and forth between Mass. Hall and Littauer. And even though most observers praise him for donning both hats for so long. Carnesale admits he has only been able to spend about 30 percent of his time on the Kennedy School. As a result, he said last spring, he has been unable to do as much of the fundraising he would have liked. Indeed, one of the first issues on Nye's plate will be the ongoing capital campaign. The $125 million effort is the most ambitious in the school's history, and school officials disagree on whether the campaign has lost momentum during the interim period. Stanton Professor of Urban Policy and Planning Alan A. Altshuler, who completed a two and a half year term as academic dean this summer, says the campaign efforts slowed down somewhat after Carnesale became provost. "There's no question that the school has lost a certain amount of momentum during this year and a half," he says. "I think Carnesale has not abandoned the ship, but obviously, he's been somewhat diverted, and there are a good many potential donors who have been waiting to see what will happen to the school. There's always a certain degree of skittishness when you're in transition." Other Kennedy School officials disagree. They say that the $66 million raised thus far is right on schedule--and indeed, the fraction of the total goal that has been raised is on par with that of other schools in the University. Almost all parties agree that Nye will able to pick up momentum quickly as he gets acquainted with his new post. They argue that his years of experience in the public sector coupled with his distinguished academic record will appeal to contributing alums. "He has credibility in many constituencies," says Holly T. Sargent, associate dean for external affairs at the Kennedy School. "People have read his work, so he's a scholar. And he appeals to traditional friends of the Kennedy School." But Nye is not stepping up to the daunting task without experience. He has had to raise funds in each of his previous major administrative posts: associate dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and director of both the Center for Science and International Affairs and the Center for International Affairs. Mission When Carnesale took over as dean in 1991, most faculty members agreed that the school's next phase would be one of consolidation after years of growth. Many faculty members agree that phase is over, or that the need for a focus on consolidation is receding. Some officials say the most important contribution Nye can make to the school will be a step beyond: redefining the mission of the school. Nye himself points to the importance of vigorous discussion and debate about the role of government in the modern world. Asked to identify his top priorities for the coming years, Nye lists only one: focusing the school's resources to answer "the larger question of what's the role of government in our society and imperatively in modern societies today." "There is a great amount of anxiety and lack of clarity, both nationally and internationally," Nye says. "The school is the right place to provide the forum for clarifying that debate." Nye declines to offer specifics about how to promote that kind of discussion, but says he would never leave a job as interesting as the one he holds now if he didn't believe strongly in the importance of that debate. Back in Cambridge, faculty and administrators are already discussing ideas about how to redefine the school's mission. Several faculty raise the question of what the school's role must be when the mood of the nation has turned so sharply against government. "At least since the current Congress has been moving in the direction of less government, we're producing a product for a Other faculty members call for increased use of resources to confront the changing international scene. "The early emphasis of the Kennedy School, understandably was on the American economy. Internationally, most [work] was done in a Cold War context," says Dillon Professor of International Affairs, Emeritus Raymond Vernon, a friend of Nye for more than 25 years. "But that's over now, and now we confront a world that is experimenting in all sorts of variants of social safety nets, health care, business-government relations. And each of them is a sort of laboratory." Others say that while the school's focus needs to be retooled slightly, no major changes are in order. But no matter where the debate heads, Kennedy School officials say that Nye is an ideal person to foster it. "I think he's someone who can promote that dialogue, because he's thoughtful, he's thought real hard about government, he's not an ideologue," says Julie B. Wilson, a member of Rudenstine's advisory committee and secretary of the Kennedy School. "I think the forum at the Kennedy School ought to be open for all perspectives to test their ideas, and I think his own personal thoughtfulness and style set their own tone." As if refdefining the school's mission were not task enough, Nye also faces the chronic problem of a lack of diversity in the faculty. According to figures provided by Kennedy School spokesperson Steve Singer, there are only two women and four minorities among the school's 43 tenured professors. Most members of the school agree that diversity on the faculty is a problem. But almost all faculty interviewed--black or white, male or female--say that the school has made strides in recent years, and that any imbalance in gender and race numbers is not for lack of trying. Back in Town? Nye says he has not had a chance to talk extensively with faculty and administrators since he became dean-designate. He was unable to be in Cambridge for the August 20 announcement of his appointment; the deaths of three diplomats near Sarajevo, all of whom were his colleagues, demanded that he be in Washington. In late August, he gave a speech before a national security program at the Kennedy School, an event he says was planned before he agreed to become dean. He spoke with some key faculty members and administrators, including Rudenstine, after that speech. Nye says he plans to return to Cambridge to meet with faculty and students at some point in the middle of October.
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