The Academic Mission

“How have we fared academically in the past five years?” he asked. “The first—and perhaps the most important—thing to say is that we have continued to strengthen an already impressive and dedicated faculty. Maxwell has always been known for its excellent teachers, and this is nowhere more true than at the undergraduate level, where our faculty continues to play a central role—teaching more than 5,000 students each year.”

On the undergraduate front, the dean noted that slightly more than 50 percent of Syracuse University’s arts-and-sciences students receive their bachelor’s degrees each year in the social sciences that are part of the Maxwell School. The MAX courses—interdisciplinary lower-division courses reminiscent of citizenship curricula from years past—“continue to be among the most heavily subscribed courses for first year students,” he said, “and they are without question the most successful, interdisciplinary pedagogical activity in Maxwell, or any other part of Syracuse University for that matter.” He noted, as well, new efforts to better engage undergraduates in the life of the School and alumni body: letters he sends to new social science majors, and to those students when they graduate; upgrading of the Undergraduate Study Center in Eggers Hall; and the recent introduction of an electronic newsletter for Maxwell undergraduate majors.

In the doctoral programs, Wallerstein noted excellence within the departments, and yet added that, in many cases, top-notch students are choosing to attend other institutions, largely due to lack of adequate graduate funding. “To recruit outstanding students,” he said, “we need, among other things, to offer more financial support.” To address this need, scholarly departments are restructuring the way they offer assistance to students, while, on the other hand, the current fund-raising campaign emphasizes additional fellowship and scholarship resources.

In the professional degree programs—public administration and international relations—the dean drew attention to the Executive M.P.A. degree (successor to the M.A. [P.A.] degree offered through Executive Education), which has been “revamped . . . to make it more responsive to the needs and interests of the many midcareer students who come to Maxwell from around the world, as well as from across the U.S.”

He offered a warning, too: The fields of public affairs and international affairs are changing and there are a growing number of high quality schools that have been established recently in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. “As we look ahead, it will be important to find ways to understand the changes that are taking place in the public affairs field and take proactive steps to insure that Maxwell continues to attract the ‘best and brightest’ students,” Wallerstein said.

What’s New

During the past four-plus years, the Maxwell School has created new academic programs, partnered with other Syracuse University schools and colleges to create new interdisciplinary institutes, and created new outreach programs (scholarly and/or intellectual programs that not only inform, but that spread the Maxwell name and reputation to new quarters). Among those he listed:

The Institute for National Security and Counter-Terrorism. Co-sponsored by Maxwell and the College of Law, INSCT continues to expand its national and international reputation and the scope of its research activities. In addition, it hosts the new advanced-study certificate in security studies, awarded last year to 29 Maxwell students.

The Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics and the Media. Co-sponsored with SU’s College of Law and the Newhouse School, and with support from the Chancellor’s Initiative fund, IJPM focuses on the pressures and political attacks on the federal and state judiciary that have increased in recent years as a result of media coverage of controversial issues

New Master’s Degree Programs. Maxwell and Newhouse now offer a dual degree program in public diplomacy (for more on that, see this story) and a joint master’s degree in history and documentary filmmaking, both of which welcomed their first entering classes for the 2007-08 academic year. The School is also in the final stages of developing a new master’s degree in public health (which will be offered jointly with Upstate Medical University in Syracuse); helping to establish a new master’s degree in fine arts administration (housed in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences); and developing a new interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in environmental policy and science with the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Policy Breakfast Series. Co-sponsored by Public Agenda and hosted by Robert Siegel, host of NPR’s All Things Considered, the Policy Breakfasts present prominent policy makers (e.g., Paul Volcker, Brent Scowcroft, Desmond Tutu, Charles Ran­gel) to invited audiences of influential leaders in New York City. These are programs that are educational and that help raise the School’s profile.

The Maxwell Poll. The annual Maxwell Poll on Civic Engagement and Inequality “has become a national reference source on the twin subjects of civic engagement and attitudes toward social inequality,” Wallerstein said.

International Relationships. The School has deepened its long-standing relationships in Korea, China, and India. Last year, Maxwell launched an India-based midcareer program for senior leaders from the elite Indian Administrative Service. Meanwhile, Maxwell brought to Syracuse an “extraordinary group of rising young political leaders” from the Middle East to learn about democratic governance. Maxwell was selected by the U.S. State Department to run this program.

Challenges We Confront

When Wallerstein turned his attention to the challenges facing the School, he hit upon two broad dynamics: change and competition.

“The field of public affairs, broadly defined, is changing and globalizing,” he said. “. . . We are seeing new, high-quality public policy and public management institutions established in Europe, Asia, and now in the Middle East. In some cases, these new schools are being funded directly by—or at least, have the explicit blessing of—their national governments, many of which have recognized that the social, economic, and political pressures that accompany modernization and development are creating entirely new demands that they are ill-equipped to handle. In other cases, these institutions are being established on a private basis, and some already have capitalization that exceeds our own.”

Wallerstein welcomes such a challenge as an opportunity to “fine-tune our own programs and to become more innovative. . . . We ignore these trends at our own peril.”

Competition takes many forms, student recruitment being only one. The dean also spent a considerable part of his address discussing the “quality, energy, and commitment” of the Maxwell School faculty. Given the growth of existing programs and introduction of new programs, “the sheer scope of [faculty] activity is without precedent, even by the ambitious standards of the Maxwell School!” he said.

“I recognize full well the importance of compensating our faculty competitively and, of course, retaining them. This is one of the most difficult challenges that I (and every dean) faces, especially in today’s often overheated academic job market.” Wallerstein committed himself to finding ways to provide salary resources, so as to retain an accomplished and prestigious faculty—a faculty where, “like Garrison Keillor’s mythical town of Lake Wobegon, ‘all the children are above average,’” Wallerstein said.

At present, he admitted, the School is sometimes put in the position of responding ad hoc to impending faculty departures, doing its best, day by day, to retain the very best faculty members already on hand. Strategically, he said, the goal must be instead to “consistently offer market-competitive salaries.”

Other challenges? The dean made an intriguing mention of physical space. Although Eggers Hall is only 14 years old, it is totally full and already the School has begun moving units into other University facilities. If a donor emerges, Wallerstein said, the School is prepared to develop plans for “Maxwell III.”

Opportunities on the Horizon

Philanthropy was also paramount when the dean turned his attention to the future and new opportunities that await. His chief priority, he said, is to complete the current fund-raising drive—Maxwell’s part of the larger Campaign for Syracuse University. (For his comments on that priority, which he termed a “no-brainer,” see the box at right.)

Beyond the campaign, Wallerstein has his eye on new opportunities to expand the Maxwell School’s programming away from campus.

“It is necessary for us to recognize that globalization is not just an economic and political reality; it now extends to virtually every dimension of human interaction—including higher education,” he said. “While the scope and quality of the U.S. higher education system is still superior to that of most other parts of the world (other than Europe), the days of unchallenged U.S. dominance are nearing an end.”

Fortunately, the School already has forged strong relationships in three key nations: India, China, and Korea. Especially in China, Maxwell has a strong record of accomplishment. Now, he says, it’s important to create new relationships in another region—the Middle East. “But we are going to have to make some difficult choices,” he said, “because we simply do not have the financial capacity to work everywhere in the world that we might find of interest.”

Wallerstein explained that he has had preliminary conversations with (and visited) a group in the emirate of Dubai that is working to build a new institution of higher education “from scratch”—part of the new city-state emerging there. He said the Dubai founding group seeks the cooperation of existing schools, which might generate curricula and other programming for this new institution; and that this group “is keenly interested in the possibility that Maxwell and Syracuse University might join with a number of other leading universities in this new endeavor.”

He cautioned that this concept is in an ex­ploratory stage only. Still, he said, “the idea that, by opening a satellite campus, which notionally would be built at no financial expense to us, Syracuse University could reach out to students from many countries who might not otherwise ever seek admission here in the United States holds considerable appeal.” An advisory group will be formed to work with the dean’s office if there is further movement on this idea.

Closer to home, Wallerstein said Maxwell is also considering the possible expansion of academic programs in Washington, D.C. Currently, the School offers courses for both the undergraduate and graduate international relations programs there, and for certain aspects of the M.P.A. program. Beyond that, however, the prominence of Maxwell alumni in Washington and the School’s “extraordinarily high brand recognition and prestige” suggest that it might be advantageous to build on existing programs, perhaps offering the midcareer public administration degree (the Executive M.P.A.) in Washington.

This, too, is an idea in its exploratory stage. “There are already a substantial number of competitor institutions in and around the capital,” Wallerstein said. “But the opportunity for people to earn a master’s degree from the nation’s number-one ranked graduate school of public affairs, and to be able to do so on a part-time basis at a pace dictated by the demands of their day job, might be a powerful marketing advantage.” So as not to over-extend School resources or put unreasonable demands on the faculty, he added, it might be possible to allow Syracuse-based faculty members to participate by means of video teleconference. Other instructors would be Washington-based, part-time instructors.

And Wallerstein talked about the potential for adding new degree programs to Maxwell’s portfolio. “I am mindful of the fact that we cannot do everything. We must be highly selective in the new programmatic initiatives we agree to take on, whether unilaterally or in conjunction with other schools and colleges of the University,” he said. “I believe that we should be open to pursuing new opportunities when a really good idea comes along, but we also must be certain that we are not leveraging ourselves beyond our prudent financial carrying capacity.”

In closing, Wallerstein spoke approvingly of the commitment and contributions made by the faculty and by all members of the Maxwell community during his term thus far.

“In the words of the Oath of the Athenian Citizens that appear on the wall just outside of this auditorium, it is my goal—and, indeed, I consider it my duty as Maxwell Dean—to transmit the School to my eventual successor ‘greater, better, and more beautiful’ than it was transmitted to me,” Wallerstein said. “I believe that we have made solid progress toward this goal, and with your help and support, I am eager to proceed with the next steps in this never-ending effort!”