Professor Mark H. Moore said that since its 50th anniversary, the Kennedy School has veered from its original programs for government professionals.

“We were close to the zenith of our work at that time,” Moore said, reflecting on the 1987 state of the executive education program, a career development course that he helped found. “The Kennedy School has been drawn back from the professional frontier to a place that’s more comfortable in the world of academia and less useful to the world at large.”

Today, Moore said, “There’s always a pressure on professional schools to look more and more like academic departments.”

Echoing Moore’s belief that graduate schools defend their reputation for academic legitimacy within the University, Professor Alex Krieger, who helped lead some of the Design School’s symposia in 1986, noted that the school has sometimes been viewed as “not scholarly enough.”

In the fall of 1986, the first students enrolled in new Master in Design Studies and Doctor of Design programs, an initial step toward what Assistant Dean for Internal and External Communications Ben Prosky called a new interest in research and “design thinking” that heightened the school’s academic profile.

McCue said, “I felt that the programs we were bringing to the school would allow the school to tackle some of the larger problems that exist in the profession and for society, like housing and sustainability.”

Krieger praised the new degree programs for bringing a more diverse group of students to the school. Now, he said, students and faculty with widely varying backgrounds more frequently address issues like ecology and urbanization together.

The collaborative spirit extended across the University as well. The Design School had established joint degree programs with the Kennedy School and the Law School and had recently begun planning joint courses with the School of Public Health.

Looking back on the mentality that characterized both schools in their 50th year, faculty saw institutions that changed over time.

Prosky said that Gund Hall was designed so that sunlight could enter through its skylights, illuminating students’ drafting boards to enable easier design. This sunlight now creates a glare for the students who work on computer screens. “Who knows?” he asked. “In 25 years, will there be holograms instead?”

—Staff writer Delphine Rodrik can be reached at delphine_rodrik@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Amy L. Weiss-Meyer can be reached at aweissmeyer@college.harvard.edu.