Admissions Numbers

Reflecting a change in administrative direction, the admissions office has admitted fewer students directly from college into the MPP program this year.

In a May interview with The Crimson, KSG Dean Joseph S. Nye said he wanted to decrease the percentage of students admitted directly from college from 20 to 15 percent in an effort to make classroom discussions more pragmatic and less theoretical.

Although Associate Dean and Degree Program Director Joseph J. McCarthy noted that the school's central administration cannot do more than simply advise the admissions office of a direction in which it wants to move, the advising has produced marked changes: only 14 percent of students in this year's class are under the age of 22, according to KSG publications. In addition, McCarthy said that the average years of work experience in the MPP class increased from 1.8 last year to 2.8 this year.

McCarthy said that the KSG wanted to retain a group of students coming directly from college in part because many of the school's minority students come through a national program which draws heavily on undergraduate students. Sponsored by private foundations, the Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) provides training and stipends to minority students who want to pursue degrees in public policy.

"Most [PPIA] students come directly from college to here and other schools [of government]. We want to increase minority representation in our student body, so we certainly would not want to too greatly diminish" the number of students accepted directly from college, McCarthy said.

This year's MPP class is 8.3 percent African-American, 10.3 percent Latino and 12.2 percent Asian, according to figures provided by the admissions office.

The MPA class is 12.5 percent African-American and 6.3 percent Latino. About 50 percent of the students are international, McCarthy said.

According to McCarthy, outreach to minorities remained a top priority of the school.

"We want to reach populations that we haven't reached, seek them out where they are," McCarthy said.

In addition to targeted recruiting at historically black universities, KSG representatives said they plan to advertise in national publications which have high minority readership, as well as in black and Latino sorority and fraternity newsletters.

A Sad Farewell

Marjorie S. Lucker, who was an assistant dean and registrar at the KSG for 14 years, died this summer at the age of 66. She had been at the Kennedy School since 1983 and was promoted to assistant dean a year later. Her responsibilities were expanded to include student services in 1990.

Lucker will be replaced in her capacity as registrar by Judy F. Kugel, who previously served as the director of career services for the two-year programs.

Kugel will be succeeded at the career placement office by John H. Noble, formerly the director of Duke's Career Development Center.