GW Rolls Out the Carpet to Launch SPPPA

Jan. 20, 2004

Partnership with Bearing Point Also to be Announced at Opening Ceremony

By Greg Licamele

GW’s School of Public Policy and Public Administration (SPPPA) will ceremonially open its doors Jan. 21 during an event featuring Alice Rivlin, former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. The school’s new Center for Innovation in Public Service, a collaboration with Bearing Point, one of the world’s largest business consulting firms, also will debut at the event.

Formed from existing departments and programs, the new school that began offering classes in the fall provides a cohesive unit within the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS) to attract a rapidly growing graduate student body and a bountiful collection of research dollars for faculty and students. SPPPA offers a master’s degree in public administration and a master’s degree in public policy, as well as affiliated graduate programs in such areas as telecommunications, philosophy and women’s studies. Another key to the new school is a revised doctoral degree program in public policy and administration.

The Center for Innovation in Public Service will provide research and education opportunities that allow students and faculty to collaborate with leaders from the private and public sectors as they seek to enhance the practice of public management.

Kathryn Newcomer, SPPPA director, said the new center will be a vehicle to fund students in their public policy and administration research interests.

Combining resources and positioning the new school as a public affairs leader is part of GW’s larger plan for selective academic excellence — public policy/public administration was chosen as a center of strength for the Columbian College. As part of this designation, the school received six additional graduate assistants, salary for a research-grants manager and support money for policy research scholars. Newcomer said the programs have grown rapidly in five years, citing the master’s in public policy as an example of expansion from seven applications to more than 180.

Because of its diverse nature, the new school has its own core faculty, while also drawing instructors from most schools at GW. Of the 46 faculty members listed in SPPPA, more than half hold appointments in other schools such as the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, the School of Public Health and Health Services, and in CCAS departments such as economics, political science, history and philosophy. Newcomer said she enjoys working with other schools and developing ties to other disciplines.

“I like getting involved and working with people,” Newcomer said. “I’ve worked with people from engineering, education, public health, the Elliott School and political science. It’s forging these positive links, which are key elements of a common focus across the University.”

The Jan. 21 opening is slated for 6 pm at the Media and Public Affairs Building.

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