Inside Government and Out

New Sanford Institute director aims to prepare students for a changing public policy arena

In a recent interview with Duke News Service assistant director Keith Lawrence, Jentleson discussed his goals for the Sanford Institute and other related issues:

DIALOGUE: What role do you see the Sanford Institute playing in Duke's future?

JENTLESON: "There's increasing priority on campus now on doing things in a multi- disciplinary way. And the Sanford Institute always has been more multi-disciplinary in its own composition than most other units on campus. We have a faculty here from a wide range of disciplines economists, political scientists, public policy Ph.D.s, psychologists, historians as well as our use of professors of the practice and others. So both through our own initiatives and our role in the plans that the campus has for genomics and science policy, greater internationalization and other areas, there's a real sense that we can be a valuable partner.

"We also play a key role in bridging the gap between the academic and policy worlds. As an eminent research university, we take pride in the quality of our faculty. In many cases, we also need to bring our research to bear on policy issues, whether it's on the local level, the state level, the national level and/or the international level. So I also see us as a partner with other schools and departments on campus to try to make those policy linkages."

DIALOGUE: What goals do you have for the institute?

JENTLESON: "We're currently involved in our own strategic planning and are not quite there yet. In general terms, our goals are to be innovative in adapting to the profound changes that affect public policy from technology to markets to new approaches to partnerships in governance and also to focus in on key policy areas as concentrations. As part of this, we want to further internationalize.

"More and more universities around the country are starting to set up public policy schools, institutes and programs. I think we are well-positioned, based upon the strengths that we already have, the tradition and the history that's been built up here going all the way back to the institute's founding by Terry Sanford and Joel Fleishman, to emerge as one of the leading places in the United States in the area of public policy. I'm very confident that we can do that, and one of my challenges as director is to work with the faculty and others to make that possible.

"Another goal is to develop strategic partnerships, collaborative relationships at other major universities and research institutes in various parts of the world, in which we can work together across the board collaborative research projects, perhaps faculty exchanges, student programs and the like. So I think our international profile at the Sanford Institute will be increasing in the coming years."

DIALOGUE: How has the field of public policy changed over the years?

JENTLESON: "This truly is a growing and dynamic field. I would stress three major changes. First is the broadening in terms of the range of policy areas that are included. When we think of public policy, we're not just thinking economic policy or transportation policy or the like. We have new areas like our Center for Child and Family Policy and our Center for Health Policy, Law and Management, so the agenda has broadened tremendously, which fits with what I was saying before about our interdisciplinary focus. Each of these centers is directed by a Sanford Institute faculty member, but includes faculty from across the campus with common teaching and research interests.

"Second is the forging of new partnerships and strategies of governance beyond just the role of government. This is really important to me because it defines the essence of what public policy's all about. Thirty years ago, public policy was largely about training students and doing research that related to the role of government and in making public policies at the state and national level. The needs then were to make the work of government more rational and more analytical. Today, public policy involves a lot more than government. It involves the non-profit sector. It involves the roles of NGOs (non-governmental organizations), international government organizations, foundations. It involves the private sector playing different kinds of roles and engaging in new ways in the public policy arena.

"So when you look at public policy, it's about how a wider and wider range of organizations and institutions within society tries to deal with societal problems and issues. We envision our students, our undergraduate majors and our graduate students, over the next 10 or 20 years developing careers in government, but also in the non-profit sector, with foundations and in the private sector in ways that bring to bear their training and expertise on public policy questions.

"The third defining element is internationalization. There's a broader debate going on in this country about isolationism and internationalism, and one of the reasons that even public opinion has not turned isolationist is because there's a basic common sense that says we're affected by the world and that our choices are how to deal with those interconnections in the best way, not to try to hide behind the ocean.

"We need to give more attention to global public policy. And this is not just areas typically considered 'foreign policy;' it also involves areas of life and policy that we used to consider domestic but now recognize as having an international dimension. As we think about public health, it's not just a domestic issue - it has an international dimension. The same is true for the environment, education, urban problems such as crime and drugs. So the barriers between the domestic and the international are much more porous than they used to be. For example, on environmental issues, Duke's mix of programs with the Nicholas School of the Environment, the toxicology program in the medical center and the Kenan Ethics Program combine to give the Sanford Institute a wonderful array of partners to work with in addressing environmental issues."

DIALOGUE: Is the blurring of the domestic and international issues necessarily a good thing?

JENTLESON: "Globalization is a very complex phenomenon. I'm going to teach a course next fall on globalization and public policy. And the key to the course is not that globalization is good or bad, it's that it is. My own view is that it's very exciting, particularly for students to have the international opportunities that now exist. When I was an undergraduate in the early 1970s, I essentially had two basic choices career-wise because I was interested in international affairs one was to join the foreign service and the other was to become a professor. I'm very happy with my choices, but the point is that students today, coming out of Duke as undergraduates, have a much wider range of choices if they want careers that are in the international domain. They can go to work for NGOs where they can go overseas and be part of programs that build civil society and help with building rule of law and election monitoring, freedom of the press and the like. They also can work for companies whose portfolios are very international. I think that's largely positive because we have a tendency as a country, historically, to be less engaged with the outside world than other countries in Europe, where most people speak two or three different languages. I think it's important that we take advantage of these cultural opportunities, career opportunities and other opportunities to engage more internationally."

DIALOGUE: While you were with the University of California, you ran a teaching and research center based in Washington. Do you see a similar venture for Duke in Washington?

JENTLESON: "There is some interest in the university in increasing our Washington profile. I've talked with President Keohane, Provost Lange and Senior Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations Burness about this as well as with some of the deans. Many of Duke's faculty already have strong policy connections in Washington, including the faculty of the Sanford Institute. I think that we can build on that even further and bring our scholarly work and policy work to bear. There is some interest on campus in how best to do that and I'm looking forward to the continuing discussions."

DIALOGUE: You have been, and continue to be, a foreign policy adviser for Vice President Gore. Is there any chance you may return to Washington should he get elected president?

JENTLESON: "No. In making the decision to come to Duke, one of the things that was important to me was to be able to make a commitment that I would stay here irrespective of the winds of politics. I came to Duke because of the opportunity to play a leadership role at the Sanford Institute, and fully intend to continue to do that. Should Al Gore win the election, there could be further advisory or other roles I could play, but they would have to be ones that I could do from here.

"For all of us at the Sanford Institute, our objective is to work with policy-makers and to help inform them on the major issues. It doesn't matter if they are Republicans or Democrats. We hope to be seen as an honest source of information and analysis."

DIALOGUE: Why does public policy seem to be an attractive major to so many Duke students?

JENTLESON: "We have the third largest undergraduate major on the campus and the largest public policy major in the country at the undergraduate level. I think that's really testimony to what's been achieved and what exists here already at the Sanford Institute. It's very important to me that we continue the levels of excellence in our teaching that has contributed to the growth of the major, and that we be innovative in ways that best serve our students.

"I haven't taught a course here yet; I'll be teaching in the fall, but so far I've been enormously impressed with the students I've met. Public Policy majors have recently been elected to six of the top student leadership positions at Duke editor in chief of The Chronicle, the Young Trustee for University Trustees; the president of Duke Student Government, vice president of academic affairs, vice president for student affairs and vice president for community interaction. We're attracting and preparing leaders. We already have in our Hart Leadership Program one of the top leadership and service learning programs of its kind in the nation.

"At the graduate level, we're working with our graduate students and our faculty now to conduct a comprehensive review of the program, to think about ways in which we may want to make some innovations to the graduate curriculum. I think we're seen nationally as a really strong place for graduate students to come do their master's. Part of that is our joint degree program with the law school, the business school and the Nicholas School of Environment. I'd like to keep building those and perhaps also work more with the engineering school in terms of intersecting areas of public policy."

This article originally appeared in Dialogue, the university newspaper.