The University Record, April 24, 1995
IPPS to be School of Public Policy July 1
The Institute of Public Policy Studies (IPPS) will be reconstituted as the School of Public Policy, effective July 1. The change was approved by the Regents at their April meeting.
IPPS, established in 1968, was “one of the first of a wave of public policy and public management programs that have effected great change in the training of public servants,” said Provost Gilbert R. Whitaker Jr. in recommending the change. “It was felt that modern, rigorous social science should have a good deal to say about how government ought to work, and this was the rationale for the IPPS Master of Public Policy Program. The idea has proved very successful, both as an educational innovation and in practice.
“As the Institute, the field of public policy and public policy programs around the nation (as well as overseas) continue to evolve, however, there is considerable variance between formal arrangements and best practice.
“In all aspects,” Whitaker noted, “IPPS has gradually come to function as a school in all but name. It receives its budget directly from the provost, it has its own degree programs and admits its own students, and its director reports directly to the provost and functions in the same way as the deans of other academic units on campus.
“Acquiring formal status as a school would alleviate internal confusion at the University that results in repeated misclassifications of the Institute’s faculty, students and courses. More importantly, it would strengthen the program’s image externally. IPPS is one of the best policy programs in the nation. It must therefore compete for the best students and faculty with programs that are generally free-standing schools. The Institute’s faculty as well as its graduates, both in the United States and overseas, are eager for the Institute to acquire what they perceive as the appropriate designation.”
Whitaker added that the present administrative structure of the Institute can become, without added administrative positions, the structure for the new School of Public Policy.
Edward N. Gramlich, who has been IPPS director and is professor of economic and public policy, will be dean of the School of Public Policy.
