Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. As the new century dawns, the United States faces major social, technological,

Transcription

1 Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As the new century dawns, the United States faces major social, technological, and political challenges. The nation must address the risks of climate change, reinvent the public education system to prepare students for success in the global economy, and better manage the tension between expensive advances and cost controls in medicine. The nation must craft rules and institutions to govern emerging applications of biotechnology. The international policy arena presents equally daunting leadership challenges. There is a need to develop a new generation of public-spirited leaders who can bring about transformational change. The University of Virginia will fulfill this vital mission through the creation of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. The Batten School will forge a new path in American higher education by cultivating leaders who possess the moral vision, analytical capacities, and strategic orientation to meet the global challenges of the 21 st century. The Batten School's mission will be threefold: to provide state-of-the-art training programs in leadership and policy analysis; to foster research on critical public problems such as poverty, education, and health care; and to apply its research in service to the broader community through outreach and public action. Commission/Schools/Batten 1

2 In addition to the general excellence of the University s faculty, its distinctive values and traditions, and its strategic location less than two-and-onehalf hours from the nation s capital, five features will distinguish the Batten School from other schools of public affairs or public policy. Focus on undergraduates. Most public affairs programs focus on training mid-career students who have already committed themselves to public service. The Batten School will do this, but will also seek to nurture public leaders at an earlier stage of their development. The Batten School will establish a "Leadership Scholars Program" to permit undergraduates from all majors to take multidisciplinary seminars on the key policy challenges of the 21st century, including global warming, heath care, and K-12 education. There are also plans for a highly selective undergraduate majors program in public policy. Leadership Training. The Batten School, in contrast to most U.S. public affairs programs, will seek to create future public leaders. Its graduates will possess the skills, capacities, and personal integrity needed to bring about both incremental progress and transformational change. An innovative Master of Public Leadership degree will be offered for mid-career physicians, attorneys, architects, business leaders, and engineers who wish to gain the analytical skills necessary for high-level leadership positions in the public sphere. The School also plans to develop joint degrees with other U.Va. professional schools, including law (MPP/ JD), education (MPP/ MA), and business administration (MPP/ MBA). Commission/Schools/Batten 2

3 Major investment in student internships. While many public affairs programs include an internship component, the Batten School will invest significant resources to ensure that each internship experience provides the greatest possible opportunity for student learning. Breadth of Curriculum. The Batten School curriculum will feature seminars on the development of public policy, law, and moral reasoning--in addition to workshops on the tools of policy analysis and management. Batten School graduates will be equipped to analyze policy issues using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Batten School students will learn not only how certain problems can be solved, but also why these problems are worth solving. Scientific experimentation. Thomas Jefferson believed that experimentation would uncover new ways for public leaders to promote the common good without resorting to coercion, and he believed that public policy should reflect these scientific discoveries. The Batten School will emphasize laboratory and field experiments as a tool of growing importance in policy analysis and evaluation. Masters of Public Policy students will use rigorous experimental methods to study the benefits and costs of environmental regulations, cap-and-trade programs and other policy instruments being considered internationally and in Washington. Over the next decade, the Batten School will seek to take its place as one of the nation s most distinguished public affairs schools. Following a brief period Commission/Schools/Batten 3

4 of leadership by an interim dean, the School will appoint a dean of national distinction who will lead the School during its critical formative period. It will hire a world-class faculty, including economists, political scientists, psychologists, scientists, and others who will bring cutting-edge disciplinary knowledge to bear on pressing societal problems, from education to the environment. It will establish new degree programs, non-degree programs, and courses in public policy and leadership to attract a student body of the highest caliber. The School will establish major new research centers to promote rigorous analysis of crucial public problems. TWO-YEAR PLAN Beginning in 2007, Batten School planners will undertake approval and staffing processes. The co-chairs and members of the Batten School implementation committee will work with the Faculty Senate to create a school review process and will submit a report to the Faculty Senate related to School scope, administrative structure, and implementation. Assuming that the Faculty Senate approves the School, planners will seek authorization from the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV) and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) to establish the Batten School. Assuming that SCHEV and SACS authorize the School, administrators will hire a dean (non-interim), a portion of the proposed faculty, and a supporting staff. Commission/Schools/Batten 4

5 SIX-YEAR PLAN Over the next six years, the Batten School will continue to increase the size of its faculty and staff. It will also establish new programs for undergraduate, professional, and graduate students. Undergraduate Students Five-Year Master of Public Policy Program (BA/MPP). This program (already approved by SCHEV) will be moved into the Batten School and will permit talented undergraduates to obtain the MPP in five years rather than the normal six. The course of instruction will blend skills-based professional training with liberal-arts education. Students will begin each year of study with a summer retreat held at the Miller Center in which they will have small-group meetings with prominent public leaders. The program will include both Domestic and International Policy tracks. Leadership Scholars Program (LSP). This program will be open to undergraduates from any major. Students will complete a concentration in public leadership after first completing a program of two or three classes related to effective leadership in a democratic society and then writing a research paper or completing a policy internship or leadership project. Guest speakers and special events will create a sense of community among the participants and will tap into the strong interest of U.Va. undergraduates in public service. Commission/Schools/Batten 5

6 Undergraduate Major in Public Policy (Domestic and International Tracks). The Batten School will establish a highly selective undergraduate majors program. Students will be admitted initially to the College of Arts & Sciences and will apply to the Batten School during their second year at the University, as students now do for admission to the McIntire School. Upon successful completion of the program s requirements, students will receive a bachelor s degree in public policy with a concentration in either domestic policy or international affairs. Professional Students The School will establish an innovative, one-year Master of Public Leadership (MPL) degree -- a new degree not currently offered at any other top-ranked U.S. research university -- for mid-career physicians, attorneys, engineers, and other professionals who wish to broaden their skills and potential. Graduate Students Master s of Public Policy. This will be a program primarily geared toward students with one to four years of work experience and who seek careers as policy analysts, program directors, environmental planners, or public managers in government (or with non-profit or private firms engaged in publicprivate partnerships). The U.Va. MPP program will include both Domestic and International Policy tracks, and will offer the opportunity for students to Commission/Schools/Batten 6

7 complete joint degree work with other U.Va. professional schools. Master s in Foreign Service or Global Affairs. This program will be targeted at students who seek foreign service and related international policy careers with government, non-governmental organizations, and international consulting firms. Post-Doctoral Program in Public Policy. This small, residential postdoctoral program in public policy will strengthen the research base of the School and provide the human capital for externally funded research projects. It will also help to attract and retain first-class faculty in the School. It will be much more cost-effective to operate than a formal doctoral program. The program will be open both to students who earned their doctorates at Virginia and to postdoctoral students from other research universities. TEN-YEAR PLAN Over the next decade, the Batten School will continue to grow it faculty, staff, and student body. The Batten School will be a relatively small professional school, but comparable in size to other distinguished public policy programs at leading public research universities, with an estimated enrollment of 390 students 225 undergraduates and 165 graduate students. It will have 18 fulltime faculty members and will draw on a half-dozen other faculty from schools and departments across the University. Commission/Schools/Batten 7

8 In the broadest sense, the Batten School has the same threefold mission as the rest of the University: teaching, research, and public service. What is distinctive is how the School will discharge that mission. First, in providing educational programs for leadership and public policy, the School will not simply incorporate best practices from other leading schools of public and international affairs; rather, it will develop new degrees, pedagogies, and educational tracks designed for 21 st -century students. The School will emphasize continuous improvement and rigorous assessments of whether the students are learning what the faculty thinks it is teaching. Second, the School will foster research on critical public problems. It will bring together economists, political scientists, psychologists, ethicists, scientists, legal scholars, and others to produce scholarship that will provide the knowledge base for the public leaders of the 21 st century. The School will launch several research centers in critical areas such as education, health, energy, biotechnology, or international policy. These research centers will help attract outstanding faculty and students to the School and will raise its visibility both within the United States and abroad. The research centers will be funded through foundation grants, private donations, and contracts. The final component of the School s long-term mission is to serve the broader community through outreach and public action. The School will serve as a laboratory for the development of innovative policy solutions and as a platform for sustained dialogues, strategic partnerships, technical assistance, and Commission/Schools/Batten 8

9 consultancies with government leaders, organizations, and stakeholders both locally and around the globe. It will seek to co-sponsor initiatives with other schools, centers, and institutes within the University, working to change and improve public policy at the local, state, and federal levels. The Batten School will monitor the quality of its programs on an ongoing basis through careful review of student performance, faculty teaching, and feedback from key external constituencies, including employers. The School will undergo formal (internal and external) program reviews. The external review will center on a visiting committee, consisting of leading public-policy and management scholars and practitioners, who will review the School and make suggestions for improvements. Overall, the success of the Batten School will be based on meeting the following benchmarks: affiliation with the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, the leading professional association in the field; generation of strong applicant pools, equal to those of the strongest programs in the nation; fulfillment of enrollment targets; achievement of graduation rates consistent with University-wide norms for undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs; documentation of student success in obtaining high quality internships, full-time positions after graduation, and advancement to higher public leadership positions over their careers; generation of alumni who achieve state, national, and international prominence for their contributions to public service; and Commission/Schools/Batten 9

10 demonstration of valued added through the use of appropriate instruments to gauge student learning. Commission/Schools/Batten 10