Jeep to Washington

Some professors don't like the analogy, but others think that Albert Carnesale's story tells it like it is at the Kennedy School.

"If Dukakis should win," says Carnesale, the K-School's academic dean, "when a little Jeep leaves carrying people to Washington for the Dukakis administration, there will be a lot of professors standing around because they thought there would be a Greyhound bus."

And two months short of election day--and twice that far from the innauguration of a new president--according to observers, some prominent K-School faculty have already started queueing up, while others have begun consulting their bus schedules.

There already is a well documented connection between the K-School and the Dukakis campaign. Some have gone so far as to label this group of regular advisers a "Harvard brain trust."

And though campaign advisers do not necessarily get administration posts, people who follow the election say that Dukakis would fill a few of his top foreign affairs posts from the K-School faculty--tapping in particular the military expertise of departing Dean Graham T. Allison '62 and Ford Foundation Professor of International Security Joseph S. Nye. During the Democratic Convention Allison could be seen in a VIP box mingling with political heavy weights.

Republican presidential contender George Bush has at least one adviser of his own at the K-School. Richard N. Hass, lecturer of public policy, is a foreign policy adviser to Bush. Haass said it was too early to tell if he would be joining Bush in Washington after a Republican victory.

In addition, IOP Director and former Pennsylvania Gov. Richard L. Thornburgh left his Harvard post this summer to replace Edwin Meese III as U.S. attorney general. Onlookers have speculated that Thornburgh accepted the Reagan appointment--which would expire in January--with the hopes that, if Bush were elected in November, he would stay on. Should Dukakis win, however, Thornburgh would have to vacate the post, perhaps returning to the IOP.

"If Dukakis wins, clearly Thornburgh will be back here [at the IOP]," said David R. Runkel, deputy director of the IOP, who has taken charge in Thornburgh's absence. Thornburgh could not be reached for comment about his plans for after the election.

But while some faculty seem assured of a seat in the Jeep to Washington, many agree that more professors are hoping to go than will eventually be asked.

"In reality, there will be much less change [in the K-School] than people think about because there's a huge range of people to draw from," said Olivia A. Golden '76, a lecturer in public policy who worked on the Dukakis gubernatorial campaign. "This [the Kennedy School] is not a primary source of advice for Dukakis."

But such career concerns are typical for a school of government, like Harvard's, which boasts of its hands-on training. Faculty members note that there is a dual effect of such a mission: the K-School becomes the home of politicians who are out of office, and such administrators are apt to be looking for other jobs when the political winds change.

"The Kennedy School is a profession school, and becoming even more so," says Lecturer in Public Policy Robert B. Reich. "Our faculty are distinguished by being first-class scholars and often practitioners. We have managed to blend practitioners and scholars as most professional schools try to do."

K-School officials said they feel no unease about having their top faculty members--like Thornburgh--leave the school for Washington. They said it is to the school's advantage to have professors who leave for a few years because their experience can serve to make them better professors when they come back.

"At a school of government, if a person leaves, it could only help us when they return," Carnesale said. "It's like sending an archaeologist into the field. It's germaine to what they do and teach... As long as there are not too many [on leave] at one time."