School celebrates Gronouski's vision, leadership When John Gronouski's death was announced in January during a meeting of the LBJ School's 25th anniversary committee, Dean Max Sherman echoed the sentiments of all those present when he remarked on the sad irony of losing the School's founding dean and program architect during this milestone year. "Over the years I have come to appreciate more and more the extent of his contribution to the program," said Dean Sherman in a later conversation about Gronouski. "In many ways he was a pioneer, moving into unexplored territory because he believed in the potential for positive change--in this case a change from a political science or public management approach to a practical, interdisciplinary approach (to public affairs education). He deserves tremendous credit for turning that new concept into a program that really worked--and still works today." Gronouski's original prospectus for the LBJ School, drafted in November 1969 during what he called his "incubation period," established an ambitious plan for the School's development. Among the elements he proposed that became permanently embedded in the academic program are these: A multidisciplinary faculty of full-time resident members with the authority to make final decisions about faculty recruitment, curriculum development, and research programs.   A curriculum divided between "tool-box" courses in quantitative areas such as statistics, government accounting and budgeting, computer applications, management science, and operations research, and seminars directed at discussion and research on current local, state, federal, and international problems.   An interdisciplinary approach to policy research, using faculty and visiting practitioners from a variety of disciplines to direct students in the study of real policy problems.   Summer internships between the students' first and second years in the program, either in a government agency or in an organization dealing with public policy formation or implementation.   The use of visiting public officials and government practitioners in the classroom and in special lectures to provide students with "real world" perspectives. When the LBJ School opened in fall 1970, Dean Gronouski told the university's Texas Times that although the School's first year would be "experimental," the concept of the program "is set in granite." Twenty years later, speaking at the School's 20th anniversary reception, Gronouski told his audience that although his statement may have been presumptuous--"presuming permanance in a changing world is always risky"--many of the original building blocks were still in place. His confidence in the durability of his early concepts, particularly those dealing with the balance between practical and theoretical elements, was fully justified: not only have administrators and faculty members at the LBJ School continued to support this approach, but other public policy schools have adopted many of the program elements that originated at the LBJ School. John Gronouski's academic experiment helped move public affairs education in a new direction, a legacy that is being remembered and celebrated during the School's 25th anniversary year. Go to: Contents * The Record home page 8 May 96 Comments to lbjwmast@uts.cc.utexas.edu