IOP Director Leaves Legacy of Change

When David H. Pryor retires from his position as director of the Insitute of Politics (IOP) on June 15, he will have left a lasting mark on an institution he led for two years.

Throughout his tenure, Pryor’s campaigned to democratize the IOP. In November 2000, in his most controversial move, Pryor disbanded the institute’s existing student leadership committee and restructured it from scratch.

The move took students and staff by surprise and drew criticism from the existing student leaders. As Pryor opened up the institute’s power structure to general elections, he said he was motivated by a desire to end political infighting and aloofness that he felt had come to dominate the IOP.

“We think it has opened the door to hundreds of new students,” Pryor said of the changes. “We are absolutely thrilled at the results.”

Today, the members of the institute’s governing Student Advisory Committee (SAC) are elected by the IOP’s student membership.

At the time many of the IOP’s student leaders said they were dismayed by Pryor’s move. But those who stayed and now head the institute’s student government say they applaud the changes swept in by Pryor’s initiative.

“The new system is more transparent,” said SAC president E. Clarke Tucker ’03. “It has institutionalized student input with a steering committee and an IOP grants board. It allows for as many students as possible to be involved.”

Pryor’s tenure was marked by this controversy and the former Arkansas senator says it’s doubtful his retirement will be quiet either.

“I’m going to try, this time, to retire,” he said. “I’ve tried several times and haven’t quite been able to.”

With his son Mark Pryor running for U.S. Senate from the family’s home state this fall, the elder Pryor says he’ll be heading back to the campaign trail.

“I’m going to buy me a pickup truck and distribute ‘Mark Pryor for Senate’ signs all over the state,” he said. “And I’m going to have a lot of fun.”

Students said they will miss a man who was known for his enthusism and friendliness, as well as for the changes he brought to the IOP.

“I can’t think of a single factor that has improved and affected the insitute more than Senator Pryor,” said IOP treasurer Joshua I. Weiner ’03. “He is a pleasure to work with. I really can’t say enough about him.”

A selection committee under Warren Professor of American History Ernest J. May is currently meeting to determine Pryor’s succesor, but as of now the committee is not commenting on the selection process, according to students at the IOP.

Tucker said he considers Pryor a good model for an effective and open IOP director.

“The quality most important in a new director is to be as accesible to students as Senator Pryor,” he said.

Under his tenure, Pryor said he also tried to draw a wider campus audience to IOP events. This fall, for example, former president and fellow Arkansas-native Bill Clinton spoke at the IOP. His speech drew more than 6,000 spectators to the Gordon track.

“It was a huge, enormous, succesful day, not only for the president but also for students,” Pryor said.

Looking back on his tenure, Pryor said he was also proud of events held at the ARCO forum during the past two years, calling the Montogmery bus boycott and the Cuban Missile crisis forums “magic moments.”

He said he was also optimistic about new programs started under his directorship, including the IOP’s book club and its fall voter registration drive.

Pryor said he feels “it’s time to go home” to Little Rock, Ark., where he once served as governor.

“When interviewed for this position in spring 2000, I said at that time that I would commit to a two year period,” said Pryor, who previously served as a fellow at the IOP. “It’s also time to have a younger person in this job.”