“Joe, in his own work, his own scholarship, in his own life basically, he’s successfully been outstanding in both those dimensions,” Putnam said. “We are clearly...in a more distinguished place intellectually than we were when he took over.”
While dean, Nye himself continued to be an active scholar.
He published The Paradox of American Power last year and earlier this month won an award from the American Political Science Association for the body of his academic work.
“He just made it an enormously energetic place,” Ramsey Professor of Political Economy Richard Zeckhauser said. “He brought large numbers of interesting people here—as faculty, as fellows, as students. He brought intriguing programs. He sort of put electricity into the air.”
Three years ago, Nye created the Visions of Governance Project, annual faculty conferences that have led to the publication of six books.
“Now that’s he been here, we actually have substantive research product to show, as a faculty that’s been working together,” said Lawrence, who contributed a chapter to one of the books.
The increase in faculty, research and centers did not come without cost. For several years the school ran planned deficits to finance its growth, a strategy that backfired after the economy took a turn for the worse in 2001.
The school ran a deficit of $5.9 million in 2002 and eventually had to cut 47 administrative and adjunct faculty positions to return to the black. In 2003, after pledging to cut its deficit in half, the school actually ran a slight surplus.
KSG Executive Dean Bonnie Newman said Nye instituted improved fiscal management procedures, and several professors said the success allowed Nye to step down with his reputation intact.
“Presumably had he decided to step down earlier, his legacy would have been decidedly mixed,” Lawrence said. “By contrast, today, he was very good at making the school grow and he proved to be good at tightening its belt.”
Lawrence said Nye leaves a school that has completed its growth phase and is now “basically positioned in a lot of areas.”
Nye, who quipped that being a member of the faculty was the best job at Harvard “because you have all the irresponsibility,” said he looks forward to returning to research and teaching.
He has taught on the Harvard faculty since 1964, with several hiatuses for government work. Before he returned to Harvard in 1995, he was assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs and chair of the National Intelligence Council.
Summers said he will select a committee to advise him on the search for Nye’s replacement in the next few weeks.
The selection of the new KSG dean will be Summers’ fifth in his just over two years as Harvard’s president.
—Staff writer Elisabeth S. Theodore can be reached at theodore@fas.harvard.edu.