NASPAA conference examines future of public service education

Like the LBJ School, NASPAA is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Since its creation in 1970 it has grown from a small group of public administration programs with an undefined purpose to a 223-member professional organization with an internationally recognized program of support and accreditation for member institutions.

This year's conference, hosted by the LBJ School, took as its theme "Beyond This Point Are Monsters . . . ," in recognition of the uncharted territory that lies ahead in the 21st century for public service education.

Charged with the task of evaluating the successes and failures of existing public affairs curricula and suggesting new directions, conference participants were presented with a thematic essay and three commissioned papers as points of departure. The essay, written by Anne R. Edwards of the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs, set the tone for the group's self-examination.

"Because we (NASPAA members) prefer to initiate our own changes and because inertia is a powerful force," said Edwards, "NASPAA schools have been slow to incorporate extragovernmental issues and effects into either our internal or external dialogues.

"But while we ponder the number of classroom hours necessary to teach personnel administration, forest rangers travel in twos to obviate the possibility of ambush," she said. "While we debate the distinctions among public administration, public management, public affairs, and public policy--and search for unanimity in our standards--the nation has redefined the words 'public service' to mean not 'government' but 'public interest.'"

Elspeth Rostow, in her paper on the extragovernmental forces affecting government, emphasized the importance of teaching students how to ride the waves of change.

"If our graduates do not feel comfortable with what John Spanier has termed the 'intermestic' dimension of public policy," she said, "if they cannot master the surge of technology, if they cannot appreciate and cope with demographic change, if they are ethically obtuse, then their schools will have failed them."

The commissioned papers were published by NASPAA prior to the conference and are available from the organization's central office at 1120 G Street, NW, Suite 730, Washington, D.C. 20005. Copies are also available in the Wasserman Public Affairs Library.