Programs Merge to Form New School

Sept. 5, 2003

School of Public Policy and Public Administration Brings Comprehensive Focus to Disciplines

By Greg Licamele

Almost 17 years after the idea first percolated, the University now boasts a new academic unit — the School of Public Policy and Public Administration — which will guide GW as a national leader in public affairs education and research.

Formed from existing departments and programs, the new school will provide a cohesive banner within the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS) to attract a rapidly growing graduate student body and a bountiful collection of research dollars for faculty and students.

“I think now, for the very first time, this will position the University as a focused player in public affairs,” said Donald R. Lehman, executive vice president for academic affairs.

Under this academic merger, the Department of Public Administration, a bedrock of education for more than 40 years, moved from the School of Business and Public Management (SBPM) to CCAS. The new school will offer a master’s degree in public administration and a master’s degree in public policy, as well as affiliated graduate programs in such areas as telecommunications, philosophy and women’s studies. Another key to the new school is a revised doctoral degree in public policy and administration.

“This will help us to be more visible to our competitors and attract students,” said Kathryn Newcomer, the new director of the school and professor of public policy and public administration. “They will perceive, correctly, that GW is leveraging its resources.”

These resources include a nationally recognized faculty conducting public affairs research in areas ranging from the federal government to non-profit management. Because of its diverse nature, the new school will have its own core faculty, and will also draw from most schools at GW.

“One major strength of the school is the caliber of the outstanding faculty moving over to arts and sciences,” Lehman said. “Their presence, side-by-side with the very productive policy faculty already in CCAS, will make this new school work.”

Of the 46 faculty members listed, more than half hold appointments in other schools such as the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, the School of Public Health and Health Services, and in CCAS departments such as economics, political science, history and philosophy.

“We are all very excited about having the new School of Public Policy and Public Administration in CCAS,” said William Frawley, CCAS dean. “We are already well known in policy matters generally, and have unusual additional strengths in such areas as philosophy and public policy, women’s issues and policy, and environmental and resource policy. I am especially happy to have faculty with such excellent research and teaching credentials join CCAS from SBPM.”

Combining resources and positioning the new school as a public affairs leader is part of GW’s larger plan for selective academic excellence, of which public policy/public administration was chosen as a center of strength. As part of this designation, the school received six additional graduate assistants, salary for a research-grants manager and support money for policy research scholars.

“We are one of the seven centers of excellence within the University, so we know we have the University’s full support,” Newcomer said. “And we are clearly the best school for study of these degrees in the Washington, DC, area. We have more jobs and internships than we can possibly fill for our students.”

Newcomer said students will benefit from this merger because the master’s degrees will no longer be competing with each other.

“We don’t care which degree students choose; we want to make sure they go in the most appropriate degree for their career objectives,” Newcomer said. “We market our degrees as a package. We can consolidate or make interesting curriculum adjustments. There are lots of ways students will be better served.”

The revised PhD program, led by Joseph Cordes, professor of economics, public policy and public administration, and international affairs, will combine elements of the public administration and public policy programs into one terminal degree.

“I think we’re all of the opinion that what we have done is taken two degrees that were quite successful, but bringing them together and producing a product that we think in the long run will be better,” Cordes said.

Cordes expects overall enrollment at the school to hover around 115 this year, with about 15 students pursuing doctoral degrees and the remaining 100 split almost evenly between policy and administration.

Newcomer said applications continue to pour in to these nationally ranked programs. For example, the master’s in public policy received more than 280 applications this year. When it began five years ago, 15 people applied. However, Newcomer noted a new school does not necessarily equate to increased enrollment.

“We want to be very cautious and not bring in more students than we can serve effectively,” she said. “We’re just more competitive and we say no to MPA and MPP students. We do not want to grow the program unless the University provides more faculty resources.”

Hal Wolman, professor of political science and of public policy and public administration, and director of GW’s Institute of Public Policy, was part of the team over the last three years charged with establishing the new school. He said reorganizing programs, especially across schools, is fraught with abundant challenges, but ones that GW overcame.

“I think we amazed not only ourselves, but others who have watched the process at how successful we were in bringing this about,” Wolman said. “I attribute that to the good will on the part of everyone involved.”

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