Kennedy School in Transition

Only months after the selection of a widely respected scholar as the new dean of the Kennedy School of Government, the school now awaits the appointment of a new director for its Institute of Politics (IOP), the graduate school's bridge to the real world of politics.

And the selection of a new IOP director, which is expected later this spring, should serve as another indicator of the Kennedy School's future direction in this period of transition.

When the IOP was founded in 1966, its first director, noted presidential scholar Richard E. Neustadt, hoped the institute would one day evolve into a research center focusing on governance questions.

But the same search committee that recommended Attorney General Richard L. Thornburgh for the post just two years ago because of his experience in electoral politics is again looking for someone who will continue to move the school in a real world direction.

The search for a director to replace acting head Shirley Williams, a prominent British politician, comes in the midst of an ongoing debate at the school over the role of practical versus theoretical approaches to teaching public policy. President Derek C. Bok has even gotten involved in the discussion; his recently released annual report insisted that the school re-forge its links to traditional scholarship.

But the question of the IOP's role within the Kennedy School has largely been ignored, and members of the search committee say their main concerns still center only on electoral experience, rapport with students and long-term commitment to the school.

Most of the leading candidates--a list rumored to include former Connecticut Sen. Lowell P. Weicker and former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt--have come to the school in recent months as fellows or visiting scholars to meet with students and faculty, according to Lecturer in Public Policy Hale Champion, the search committee head.

Champion, a top aide to Gov. Michael S. Dukakis who also chaired the search committee which selected Thornburgh two years ago, said the committee would make its official recommendation for the directorship to departing Dean Graham T. Allison '62 by the end of the term.

Weicker, a liberal Republican who lost his senatorial seat last November, said in an interview last week that he would consider taking the job as IOP director, though he declined to add whether he was a top candidate for the post.

During his two-day visit to Harvard as a Heffernan Fellow last week, Weicker met privately with Champion and the IOP's Student Advisory Committee (SAC). Champion declined to comment about his meeting with Weicker, but said that he has also met with several other visitors to the school, including Babbitt.

Babbitt, also a recent Heffernan Fellow, said he is not interested in the director's post, according to SAC Visiting Fellows Chair Loryn D. Dunn '90.

Because the IOP has had four directors in the past three years, search committee members say they are concerned with securing stability for the institute. Williams has served as acting head since last fall when then-Director Thornburgh was reappointed attorney general by President Bush.

The committee, apart from Champion and Williams, includes Neustadt, Democratic National Committee Director Ron Brown, Sen. Robert Dole's (R-Kan.) chief of staff Sheila Burke, former IOP Association Director Nicholas Mitropolis and former IOP Director Jonathan Moore.