“We want to maintain a detachment from current politics [in FAS]—we don’t want to be too partisan,” says Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield ’53. “There’s a perception that students at the Kennedy School are more on the liberal-left side of things than [students] here.”

Different Strokes

But the deference FAS faculty and students often show for prestigious KSG professors does not always apply to the school’s students.

KSG students often are taking a break in the middle of established careers in politics or policy, while government students are typically laying the foundations for academic careers.

But the schools’ historic separation has not stopped KSG students from routinely cross-registering in FAS classes. And when such different approaches to the same topic collide in the classroom—the more professional and the purely academic—students and faculty are not immune to passing judgments.

“The perception in government is that [Kennedy School students and professors] are not rigorous academics, and the Kennedy School perception is that government is really removed,” says Diaz-Rosillo.

“People who cross-register [in KSG courses] sometimes say they didn’t feel intellectually challenged in an academic sense, and Kennedy School people feel what they learned [in FAS classes] was interesting, but they don’t see how it applies,” he adds.

Many FAS graduate students say these views result from Kennedy School students making poor impressions on classmates and professors when they cross-register in FAS courses.

“They come up here, and they’re not always in it for the long haul,” says Samuel E. Ewing, a government teaching fellow. “They’re not going to become academics, and they’re not always thought to be as gifted in the field.”

“There’s a perception that students are less well-prepared to deal with complex issues in the policy school,” says James H. Fowler ’92, a fourth-year government graduate student. “Kennedy School students are able to communicate, but there’s an ad hoc-ness they have, a lack of scientific rigor.”

Fowler recalls one government seminar—Eaton Professor of the Science of Government Robert H. Bates’ “Politics and Economics of Policy Reform”—which was discontinued after the prevalence of KSG students in the course slowed down discussion considerably.

Bates says he stopped offering the course because his research interests changed, but that the weak background in formal political theory of the eight or nine KSG students—out of 12 in the seminar—made discussions difficult.

“If I were to offer the course again, I’d just make a separate section for the policy students,” he says. “But I would have to teach it too, which is a significant consideration.”

Bates’ colleagues guardedly acknowledge that KSG students are often looking for something different when they cross-register than what FAS provides.

“Sometimes I’ll have to make clear this is about policy analyses, not policy problems,” says Stanfield Professor of International Peace Jeffry Frieden.