PPS readies for external review team

A team of external experts will begin a regular review of the Sanford Institute of Public Policy today, as its leaders begin to examine its future.

Among other things, the reviewers will look at the graduate program, the department's concentrations, the intellectual climate and the undergraduate major and its structure.

"I think they will find us to be innovative and find a really committed faculty," said Sanford director Bruce Jentleson. "We are relatively small, have a small faculty size and [they will] want us to figure out ways to otherwise enhance resources. They'll want us to set priorities in terms of which areas we'll focus on."

Jentleson said those core areas should include social policy, especially child and family health and civil rights; collaboration among public, private and non-profit institutions; and globalization and changing international agendas.

"Intellectually, our goal is to, across the board, be seen in the top tier of public policy institutions," Jentleson said. "We want to be way up there... in the core areas."

Among the institutes Jentleson listed as Duke's competition--those at Princeton University, the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago--all offer Ph.D. programs. The gold standard of public policy--Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government--offers four doctoral programs.

"I would like to have a Ph.D. program here," said Frederick Mayer, director of graduate studies. "We're in the very early stages of thinking about this."

Among the reasons for creating a doctoral program, Mayer said, would be to strengthen the intellectual climate, recruit good students, attract faculty and help existing faculty be more productive.

"I like how the program is proactive in that it really focuses on real world issues and actually training us overall to be productive and so, we're not just in the ivory tower forever," said second-year graduate student Kevin Bourchalt.

The external team will likely examine the undergraduate curriculum as well, which constitutes Trinity College's third-largest major.

Many undergraduates reported that the department's electives are among the best classes they have taken at Duke, but that they did not enjoy the core courses nearly as much.

Junior Graham McWhorter, a double major in economics and public policy, said he would never have considered public policy as a second major if not for the electives he took.

Currently, majors are required to take three prerequisites: introductory microeconomics, American government and PPS 55, Introduction to Policy Analysis. Majors must complete four core courses in economic analysis, political analysis, value conflict and statistics.

Mayer said there is a bottleneck effect in those core classes because the growth of the major has left the department struggling to meet demand.

"I hated PPS 55, and I think a lot of people do," said senior Carolyn Sattin, a public policy major. "It's kind of a blur to me. I think it sucked. I liked all of the other classes."

Senior Nina Ramos preferred to major in political science. "To take 12 leadership classes and write a big paper may teach you a lot about yourself, but not how to run the country," Ramos said.

Each department must undergo an external review every five years. Leigh Deneef, associate dean of the Graduate School, is responsible for scheduling, arranging and completing the confidential reviews. The review teams, composed of experts in the field, spend two days with administrators, faculty and students and file a report.

The report is reviewed and discussed by the Executive Committee of the Graduate Faculty and the Academic Priorities Committee of the Academic Council.