Appointment of Ex-Governor Marks New Educational Purpose for IOP

The decision to appoint a popular two-term governor as director of the Institute of Politics (IOP) is part of a calculated effort to encourage students to consider careers running for elective office rather than those involved in behind-the scenes politicking.

In the past, the 20-year-old IOP has been headed by veterans of the backroom-world of politics but the first director of the Institute has mapped a plan which he hopes will inspire more Harvard students to campaign for public office.

By selecting Richard Thornburgh, ex-governor of Pennsylvania who was constitutionally required to resign this January, the IOP has made a "change of emphasis" to "encourage students who are preparing themselves to take a fly at elective office," said Littauer Professor of Public Administration Richard Neustadt, a leading presidential scholar and key member of the selection committee.

The IOP should assist the "small band of students and graduate students who already take politics seriously and who find wherever they go the disdain of their peers," said Neustadt, who was the first director of the IOP and a former aide to President Harry S. Truman.

The Kennedy School, which counts very few elected officials among its alumni, has been criticized for preparing a generation of bureaucrats rather than students who are able to influence public policy by running for public office.

The Institute's caretakers are hoping that Thornburgh will be able galvanize student interest in politics, and convey the political savvy that is necessary to gain and hold political office.

Neustadt doubts that such knowledge can be taught in the classroom.

"I don't think that encouragement should comethrough the curriculum, but we have to take itseriously, and the IOP is the way to do it,"Neustadt said.

Administrators at the Kennedy School describethe appointment of a Thornburgh as a departure forthe IOP, which has known only three otherdirectors. These directors had focused on thebehind-the-scenes administration of government.

The IOP runs a fellowship program and invitesspeakers to Harvard. It has also sponsored many ofthe K-School's centers. Most recently, it backedthe creation of the Shorenstein-Barone PressPolicy center.

Its first two directors were dedicated membersof the academy, Neustadt and Warren Professor ofAmerican History Ernest R. May. Later, Moore, whohas held senior positions in government, ran theInstitute for 12 years. Moore left the IOP whenPresident Reagan named him ambassador-at-large, incharge of refugee affairs.

"The people pursuing causes have more [faculty]encouragement and support than students who havethe crazy idea to run for political office,"Neustadt said yesterday.

Neustadt crafted a memorandum for the committeeurging it to look for a successful politician torun the Institute and be a lightening rod for thestudents considering elective office. Thornburgh"symbolizes in his person the things that ought tobe encouraged," Neustadt said.

Neustadt compared Thornburgh to MassachusettsGovernor and current Iowa tourist Michael S.Dukakis who, in between stints as the state'schief executive, worked for the IOP in itsprograms for state and city officials.

"It was very good for the community and ourschool to have him among our school; someone whohad faced the hazards and the responsibilities ofhaving a governorship. That worked well, wefigured we should try again," Neustadt said.

Thornburgh, however, comes from the Republicanparty, and Dukakis is a Democrat. Critics havesaid that by picking a Republican during theReagan era, the IOP evidenced the politicalconsciousness that allows the graduate school toget jobs for their graduates.

Neustadt said those charges were "silly," andsaid that the IOP has always sought people whobelonged to the mainstream.

"We wouldn't want this man to come here andpretend that he was not a Republican, or that thatfact were not important in his getting elected. Animportant part of politics is having convictions,"said the lifelong Democrat, who added that were heliving in Pennsylvania he would not have voted forThornburgh.

The students who are serious about politicswill "have to get by their partisanship, becausean awful lot of the work of politics is notideological, but practical and ethical," Neustadtsaid.

"There isn't any other set of legislativebodies [in the world] that exercise more power.The people who do this are damn important, I don'tfeel I should apologize for treating them as so,"Neustadt said.One of Richard Thornburgh's new duties willbe to preside over the IOP Forum (picturedabove).