Remarks by Dean Atwood
November 14, 2007
Our strategic goal as a college is to "inspire, educate and support innovative leaders to advance the common good in a diverse world." This mission statement was adopted on January 20, 2006, by the graduate faculty. Today, I want to shine a bright spotlight on the words "innovation" and "leadership." I want to challenge you to help us define these words in the context of our public affairs education mission and to look into the future.
One cannot exaggerate the vital importance of our mission. Indeed, one can confidently assert that our ability to educate and inspire the next generation of public leaders has great social consequence. We cannot do this alone, of course, but, as in the past, this college, and the University of Minnesota, possess the great potential to lead by advancing new concepts in learning and innovative research that address the problems we face on this globe.
This is not a new role for the University of Minnesota. Our former colleague, Professor George Warp, has traced this University's commitment to public affairs leadership back to the very first President of the University of Minnesota, William Watts Folwell. In his inaugural address in 1869, Folwell said that it was the University's obligation to teach public affairs. He emphasized the need for "special instruction of our public servants."
Folwell not only advocated for public affairs education, but he also taught courses on the subject. In his paper on "Education for Public Service," Warp said, "[Folwell] was not only the first president of the University of Minnesota, but also the University's first professor of public affairs."
This University established one of the very first schools of public affairs, created in 1936 in the College of Liberal Arts. Only the Maxwell School at Syracuse and Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School can claim a similar hallowed history. Reflecting on the impact of our school, the Institute's first dean, Harlan Cleveland, once wrote: "Minnesota's contributions to U.S. national leadership have been disproportionate to its population."
When the Regents created an independent college and named it after Hubert H. Humphrey, they were identifying an already respected program with a highly regarded international leader. This event, honoring Vice President Humphrey as he faced the end of his life, brought an outpouring of support from around the world. We benefit to this day, as we provide stewardship for the fourth largest endowment of all the nation's public affairs schools.
Humphrey gave this school more than just a financial boost, he imbued the institution with his indomitable spirit. He wanted a living memorial, one that would not only prepare future leaders, but also one that would be a forum for active debate on the policy issues of the day; and an academy that would produce the best research and non-partisan advocacy based on that research.
That is the legacy to which we are committed, and for which we are responsible. Everyone affiliated with our school, faculty members, fellows, staff, alumni, members of the advisory council, deans and students - should feel the weight of our history and the spirit of those who have gone before us as we contemplate the future potential of this place.
It has been a great honor to serve this community as dean for the past five years. We have challenged each other to create a stronger institution and we have made great progress. Today, our student body is larger and stronger than ever before. Our faculty has grown in size and stature - we have retained our best and recruited new stars. We have attracted new Senior Fellows with superb intellectual skills and highly impressive practical experience. Our professional staff also has been transformed and is one of the strongest assembled on this campus.
I would like to focus today on the future and the role this institution can play both in shaping the next generation of leaders as well as the policy and planning solutions society so desperately needs.
I ask each of our six Areas to project their thinking beyond the horizon. Ask yourselves what significant policy and planning issues the world will face in the year 2020. I would like Area chairs to lead an in-depth discussion to define the teaching, research and outreach efforts we should be undertaking to get out ahead of the curve.
Much of what I am asking already is the subject of deep thought by many of you. Research already is under way that will help us define this agenda. Yet, we can do much more to integrate our research by collaborating with colleagues with shared interests, but with different disciplinary perspectives, both within Areas and across Areas. The new journal Innovations calls this "the singular insights of many minds."
We all know that public affairs has changed significantly in the past 15 years. Politics and attitudes toward government has been a part of that. But there are other major factors as well: technology; globalization; migration patterns; an environmental challenge that threatens the earth itself; and the growing gap between rich and poor.
Public affairs education should be the most dynamic of the professional programs. If it does not respond to the social and political context within which our graduates will serve, it will quickly become irrelevant. Today's "context" is more challenging than ever before. Our graduates must be made to feel comfortable crossing sectoral, national and cultural boundaries.
How can we better prepare our students for what is coming? Does the answer lie in:
- new forms of game theory;
- a better understanding of systems dynamics;
- the development of intercultural competencies;
- innovative methods for policy analysis;
- a deeper understanding of the connections that create healthy societies -- e.g. the connection between economic growth and equity; the connection between the environment and sustainable development; the connection between health and climate change; the connection between good governance and economic growth.
Some among us have debated whether we are a professional school or a graduate school. We ask ourselves about the proper role of faculty and the academic qualities that will serve our mission. Is it to contribute to the theoretical knowledge base of a particular discipline, or, should we operate in the context of research that can be applied - in the realm of the practical? This is a useful debate, but only if it gets us somewhere.
My conclusion is that we are a professional school with graduate school standards. Our research should expand the theory our disciplines require, it must also incorporate the insights of other disciplines and then consider carefully the realm of practice. Practice - whether in the world of government, non-profit organizations, politics, or policy - teaches us much about the applications of facts and the importance of contextually-based analysis, action and reflection.
We face many challenges in our society. One that relates to our mission is the impending retirement of baby-boomers from the public sector. The majority of current managers at the federal, state and local governments came from this generation. In Minnesota state government the average manager is 58 years old.
Non-profits face an equally daunting challenge. A recent study by the Bridgespan Group stated that 640,000 new leaders will be needed in large non-profits if current dynamics of transitions and growth remain constant.
I am very pleased that our faculty in many of the Areas have identified this challenge and are dealing with it actively. We are strengthening the way we teach "reflective practice," (to use a term coined by Donald Schon); to support the development of practicum-based courses, such as the board-service courses offered by Professors Sally Kenney and Melissa Stone; and to draw upon teaching cases and simulations to illustrate conceptual material.
We are also beginning to work with public affairs professionals throughout their careers:
- Public and Non-Profit Leadership (PNLC) has developed training programs for State Senate staff, the United Way and the Minnesota Department of Transportation. This Center has led an effort to create a capacity at the Institute that will better enable us to serve public affairs professionals. I want to recognize the energetic and creative leadership of Professor Jodi Sandfort in this effort.
- The Center for Politics and Governance Policy Fellows program now provides a solid professional development program for Minnesota's future leaders in their mid-careers. This program has been both broadened and deepened. The Area's Center for Democracy and Citizenship continues to work with new immigrants at its Jane Addams School and both students and graduates as they pursue the "public achievement" agenda.
- The Planning and Policy Area through its State and Local Policy Program is teaching community developers from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
- The Center for Science, Technology and Public Policy has held conferences on web-based citizen engagement, bio-fuels and nanotechnology - all with experts and professionals interested in the policy implications of these new technologies.
- The Social Policy Area, through its Center for Women and Public Policy has been training young women in the art of politics, and recently held a retreat for women legislators. The Wilkins Center, continues to help a variety of organizations understand the problems associated with racial disparities and discrimination. And the Center for School Change is helping administrators of schools confront the achievement gap.
- Our Masters of Public Affairs program for mid-career professionals offers a degree opportunity for mid-career professionals and has began to include government officials from India in its program.
- The Global Policy Area's Humphrey International Fellows Program offers mid-career professionals of other nations an opportunity for leadership growth. This program has been reinvigorated under Sudha Shetty's leadership.
- We are also working more closely than ever with the Carlson School of Management, overseeing the development of an exciting new Center for Integrative Leadership at the University of Minnesota, and creating a joint MBA-MPP degree and a non-profit management major.
These efforts are a vital part of our mission, central to the professional school we are. When we say we "inspire, educate and support innovative leaders...," we are talking both about our students and about public servants beyond the classroom. We are serving the needs of society as a whole.
Our students are demanding even more engagement with local communities through courses, capstones and projects, and they themselves have taken the initiative. The West Bank CHANCE program grew out of public engagement efforts between our students and the Cedar Riverside neighborhood. Thanks in large part to the efforts of recent graduate Andie Martinez, Assistant Dean Bobbi Cordano, Sherri Holmen, Sarah Martyn and other members of PASA, this project has now engaged all the West Bank colleges, the Center for Integrative Leadership, Augsburg College, and the community.
A course on community-based research and engagement has been created and is teaching students about research tools, community information needs, cross-cultural communications, policy change and organization building. Today's students want the professional tools and the knowledge of theory that is essential to understanding, but they also want the opportunity to take action. They even want the opportunity to fail, and to learn by doing so.
In the Spring we will have another assembly, but there will be no long speech by the dean. I would like the six Areas to present their ideas for the challenges of the future. I would like them to tell us what the needs of public affairs education will be in the year 2020, and what the needs of society in their policy or planning Area will be at that time.
For example, in the Global Policy Area, where will globalization in all its manifestations have taken us by 2020? What will be the role of international organizations and international law? How much further will sovereignty be diluted? Will we have finally met the Millennium Development Goals and to what extent will poverty, ethnic and religious strife have contributed to destabilization and the erosion of democratic institutions? What are the antidotes to these negative phenomena?
In the area of Science, Technology and Public Policy, what will be the positive breakthroughs that will help us capture the benefits of information technology, nanotechnology, climate science, bio-fuels and other alternative energy sources and medical technology? What policy choices need to be made to contain the negative side-effects of technology and to accentuate the positive elements?
In the Politics and Governance Area, what changes in the system are possible to contain the influence of money in politics and to restore faith in government? How does the new technology enhance our democratic processes, from voting to political participation to citizen involvement to influencing our legislators?
In the Regional Planning and Policy Area, what will our cities and rural areas look like in 2020? Will urban areas continue to be distinguished by segregated sub-units? How will land-use and transportation planning enhance our lifestyles? Will low-cost housing contribute to integration and upper mobility, or the opposite? What are the crucial indicators for future community development and how will we engage the public and their representatives in shaping these decisions?
In the Social Policy Area, one must ask whether we will be living in a more or less equitable society in 2020? The body of knowledge accumulated by the post-docs in our race-gender initiative should shed light on this question. Will we finally have a more realistic and enlightened immigration law? How will our experiment with welfare evolve and will it contribute to or detract from our democratic fabric? What will be the status of our labor force, and our healthcare and education systems?
Finally, in the Public and Nonprofit Leadership Area, what will we have learned about cross-sectoral collaboration? Will our graduates have the capacity to cross boundaries? Will they have filled the demographic leadership gap adequately? What will the relationship be among governments, and the private and non-profit sectors in 2020, and how can we influence that relationship positively on behalf of the common good? Will we be producing graduates who practice integrative leadership?
Perhaps these questions are too obvious. Many are related to inquiries already underway. I ask the Areas to be as creative and forward looking as possible. In the Spring, we will invite the public, including our Alumni Association and Advisory Council to hear what you have to say.
If we take these issues seriously now, the Humphrey Institute has an exciting opportunity to shape the future of public affairs education and the future of our global society. We have an opportunity to be known as a school that produces both innovative research and innovative leaders. Our college is one of the top-ranked public affairs schools in the country, but rank is a one-dimensional indicator and, as we know, a terribly subjective one.
More important than a ranking is the impact we make on public affairs in general. I want to see our students as the future public service leaders. I want to see Humphrey Ph.Ds teaching in public affairs colleges around the country. I want to see this college, its faculty, fellows and graduates, defining the public policy and planning agendas of the future.
I believe we are ready to take this leap; we are ready to push the envelope; we are ready to create the future state of the art for public affairs education. Thank you for the role you have all played in getting us to this point in our impressive history.
Inaugural 2002 address to the Humphrey Institute community | 
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