By Loch K. Johnson
The proposal for a new School of Public and International Affairs has attracted considerable attention among those on campus and beyond who seek to improve the state of governance and civic education in the United States. The rising complexity of public affairs, the decline of citizenship (reflected in lower voting rates and rising distrust of government), and the need to foster a global outlook provide the university with an important educational opportunity. The school will offer new degrees in international affairs and public policy, along with a more extensive interdisciplinary curriculum.
Organizationally, the school will be located in a separate college with three departments (political science, public administration and policy, and international affairs), along with the Center for International Trade and Security and the Center for the Study of Global Issues. The school will also include the Criminal Justice Studies Program, administered jointly with the College of Arts and Sciences; the Institute for Nonprofit Organizations, administered jointly with the School of Social Work; and the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, administered jointly with the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach. U.S. News & World Report recently ranked our master’s degree in public affairs No. 5 in the nation, behind Syracuse University, Harvard University, Indiana University and Princeton University. Like many other distinguished universities, these four already have separate policy schools. The national trend is toward free-standing policy schools and, if we wish to excel, this is the direction we must take.
Faculty groups have studied the SPIA initiative for over four years, beginning with informal discussions in 1997. The administration found merit in the concept and suggested that the idea be circulated among campus leaders. Fifty-six prominent individuals—deans, faculty and students—enthusiastically endorsed the notion of an in-depth study on the possibilities for a new school. In April of 1999, Provost Karen Holbrook formed an SPIA Planning Committee comprised of faculty from several of the campus programs that the initiative sought to bring into closer alliance. The committee, which I was asked to chair, included members of the Franklin College Senate and the University Council.
The planning committee met weekly for seven months, discussing the proposal widely on campus as well as with legislators and other leaders in Georgia and Washington, D.C. In October, it issued a unanimous report (available on the Web: www.uga.edu/spia). The faculty most affected by the proposal, the department of political science, held a vote on the initiative (by secret ballot) and the result was 33–1 in favor. Throughout 2000, committee members met with groups across campus to review the initiative, including the strategic-planning committee, the self-study review and the Student Government Association. The provost brought in a panel of distinguished outside reviewers who wrote a report strongly endorsing the creation of the new school. Leaders of the planning committee also met periodically with the dean of the Franklin College.
In September 2000, committee members met with the Franklin College Senate to review the initiative. The senators raised a number of thoughtful questions which the planning committee has addressed in further meetings and correspondence. Some senators expressed concern that the funding for the new school might draw down the Franklin College’s own budget. In response, the committee emphasized that the budget projections in its report anticipated chiefly private endowments and some state appropriations, not funding from the Franklin College. No one wants to see harm done to any existing college.
Some questioned the advisability of separating political science from the college, yet universities are organized in many ways. Political science is located in schools of public affairs, in schools of business, in schools of the social sciences and in other variations. The important point is to maintain full student access to the political science curriculum. Last month, the committee and the dean of Franklin College worked out an arrangement to continue offering the A.B. degree in political science in the college after the school is established—an approach analogous to UGA’s A.B. degree in economics, located in the College of Business. Other senators raised questions about whether all students would have access to courses in the new school. The answer is yes: every course currently available will remain accessible to every student, along with new courses and degrees. As well, the school will spearhead efforts to remove antiquated barriers to interdisciplinary cooperation, forging new joint degrees and creative faculty partnerships.
A comprehensive, interdisciplinary school will attract more and better students, enhance the visibility of the public affairs curriculum, increase our fund-raising abilities, and allow us to compete with the top universities. The planning committee has responded to critiques in a spirit of comity. We have attempted to accommodate faculty and student suggestions while retaining the basic goals of the original proposal so widely endorsed around the campus. We have tried to set our compass and point the course toward the creation of an education in public and international affairs that will be second to none. The people of Georgia deserve nothing less.
[The SPIA proposal will be reviewed by the Franklin College Senate on Jan. 25. It is expected to go before University Council Feb. 22 after review by the Curriculum Committee and the Executive Committee.--Ed.]
Loch Johnson is Regents Professor of Political Science.
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