September 2007

Graduate School of Political Management Celebrates 20 Years

Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) (left) delivered the Graduate School of Political Management’s 2007 Commencement address and Former Mexican President Vicente Fox (right) gave the keynote address at a gala dinner celebrating the Graduate School of Political Manage­ment’s 20th anniversary.

By Julia Parmley

In September 1987, 24 students began classes in political management on the Manhattan campus of Baruch College. Twenty years and 1,600 alumni later, GW’s Graduate School of Political Management has become the nation’s leading institution for the study and teaching of political management.

Founded by attorney Neil Fabricant, the school spent its first four years as a small, independent charter school in New York. In 1991, it opened a degree program in Washington, D.C., on the campus of GW, and four years later, the University acquired the Graduate School of Political Management. Today, the school has grown to include three master’s degree programs, two graduate certificates, and 250 students. Prominent alumni include Mo Elleithee, senior spokesperson for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) presidential campaign, and Janelle Carter, senior adviser and speechwriter for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The school also counts among its successful programs the highly regarded GW-Battleground Poll; the Institute for Policy, Democracy, and the Internet, which helps to shape the role of technology in the modern political landscape; and the Young Voter Strategies project, which mobilizes the 18-to-30-year-old electorate and educates the public, candi­dates, and consultants on ways to engage young voters. The project recently merged with Rock the Vote, a national organization, which engages youth in the political process.

The school’s advisory board, the Council on American Politics, is a virtual list of who’s who in politics led by co-chairs Tony Coelho, former whip of the House of Representatives and chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Frank Fahrenkopf, former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

“The school has not only succeeded; it has flourished,” says Michael Edwards, director and senior policy adviser for the National Education Association and a GSPM faculty member since 1989. “There is no question the right place for the school was Washington, D.C.”

On July 27-28, alumni, students, professors, and staff gathered to celebrate the school and its accomplish­ments during a weekend-long 20th-anniversary celebration complete with addresses from top politicians. The festivities included an alumni welcome reception, at which graduating students roasted Dean Christopher Arterton and faculty members, and panel sessions in which alumni discussed their careers and hot political topics such as the presidential campaign. The celebration concluded with a 20th-anniversary graduation ceremony for the class of 2007 featuring a Commencement address by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) in the Marvin Center and a gala dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel with a keynote address by Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico.

At Commencement, Webb spoke about his Senate campaign and the issues facing the American government and people. He advised graduates to build on their experience at GSPM to change “tomorrow’s politics.”

“I know that most of you are ready to either begin or to continue the fight on behalf of the issues that have brought you into politics in the first place. Whatever side of the issues you are on, I salute you for that willingness,” said Webb. “We have been the most creative political society on earth because we have been blessed to be part of a structure that encourages vigorous debate. My only request to all of you is to join in that debate honorably, to bring your beliefs to the stage with powerful, substantive argument, and to win or lose based on the merits of your views, as finally measured by the American people.”

At the gala, Fox told the students that they can find happiness through public service. “There is a need for renewal. There is a need for a revolution of hope. There is need for change. The world can do much better,” he said. “You have a great opportunity to be in a great university. You have to go out from here to change the world.”

“I feel like a proud papa,” says Dennis Johnson, professor of political management, who has seen many students graduate during his 14 years on the faculty. “It’s very heartening to see our students go out on Capitol Hill and do the kind of work that’s really important. We are thrilled our students are doing so well.”
Janelle Carter, M.P.S. ’01, senior adviser and speech­writer to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, attended the gala with nine of her friends from the program. “The people that I’ve met at the Graduate School of Political Management have been invaluable,” says Carter, who credits Daniel McGroarty, assistant professorial lecturer at GW, with helping her get her first job as a speechwriter for Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.). “I’ve developed relationships and friendships with my class­mates and professors. We’ve learned real-life lessons from the professors because of their own experiences, and that is invaluable as well.”

Arterton says the school has established itself as a strong and influential program. “Learning political skills in a university setting allows sharing of knowledge across party lines, facilitates respect and cordiality between those who disagree politically, and creates a greater sense of professionalism among those who work in politics,” he says.

“The political world used to be dominated by schmoozing and back-slapping, but now what you know has become as important as whom you know. We have found that studying politics systematically can accelerate the gains of experience and, increasingly, success in politics depends on the acquisition of expertise taught at places like the Graduate School of Political Management.”

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu