The Ohio State University Board of Trustees approved the creation of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs, a sweeping change that will amplify the former school’s mission to inspire citizenship and develop leadership. The change will take effect in April.
School officials, who started the wheel turning when they developed the John Glenn School’s five-year strategic plan, targeted college-status in 2016. The university decided to speed things up, says Trevor Brown, director of the new college.
“Last year, the leadership said let’s do this now; let’s fast track this,” Brown says. “We just had to change our track shoes more frequently and run a little harder to get it done.”
Discussions about the status change began under the administration of former Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee and Provost Joseph A. Alutto, who directed campus organizations to develop long-range strategic plans. The move was green lighted after Alutto became Ohio State’s acting president and new Provost Joseph E. Steinmetz joined the team.
The college’s namesake, former Sen. John Glenn, heartily endorses the transformation.
“We’re supportive, not just because it’s got our name on it, but because it gives us an opportunity to do an even better job with our young people,” Glenn says. “It’s a good step that should help attract the highest level of faculty and students.”
The school, with more than 550 students and ranked 29th nationally in public administrative programs, already offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees, many in cooperation with other colleges on campus. Now, as a college, the numbers of those programs are likely to grow, which helps fulfill the university’s land-grant mission to integrate academic units across campus around public sector issues.
“This puts us on par with other colleges as part of Ohio State and that will enable us to work out more cooperative programs on campus and that is very good,” Glenn says.
Additionally, it helps:
- Position Ohio State as a leader among its peers in public affairs education, research and outreach
- Enhance potential for recruiting preeminent faculty members and students
- Connect programs and activities to local, state, national and international policy makers
- Signal to employers that graduates from the college have the skills needed to succeed at all levels of public policy
- Secure external funding
“The university has decided there is special recognition for this field of study,” Brown says. “This creates a solid platform and a launching pad to move into the next phase of the school’s growth and impact.”
Any significant organizational changes must wind their way through the university’s governance review process.
A committee of the Council on Academic Affairs assessed the proposed status change before it made recommendations to the full body. Their thumbs-up recommendation moved the ball to the court of the Faculty Steering Committee of the University Senate. The full Senate, made up of faculty, staff and students, then considered the committee’s findings and passed its recommendations to the Trustees, who approved the change in status from a school to a college.
The new college traces its roots to the Ohio State’s Division of Public Administration founded in 1969, which became the School of Public Administration in 1974. In 1989, that school became the School of Public Policy and Management, which in 2006 merged with the John Glenn Institute to become the John Glenn School of Public Affairs.
“Success has a thousand parents and a lot of people made this happen,” Brown says.
The preliminary groundwork was laid by those largely responsible for the initial creation of the John Glenn Institute in 1998 and later the school. That founding group includes the first directors of the former John Glenn Institute – Herb Asher, professor emeritus, and Deborah Merritt, a professor of law – and Anand Desai, a professor at the Glenn School and Charles Wise, the Glenn School’s first permanent director.
“We were really in a good position to move quickly when I was hired as the director,” says Brown, who came to Ohio Sate in 2001 and became the Glenn School’s director in 2014. “And Charlie (Wise) did a great job positioning the school within the university so that the university was comfortable with us taking on this role.”
The move is good news for students and alumni alike.
Courtney Frantz, president of the school’s Public Affairs Student Association, calls the status exciting for all students.
“It gives even more legitimacy to my degree and makes it even more valuable for the future,” says Frantz, a double graduate degree major in public administration and social work.
While the programs and influx of students have grown significantly in the last few years at the school, this change should boost those numbers, says Kim Ratcliff, president of the new college’s Alumni Society board.
“This raises the visibility and it should become more of a draw for students and faculty who at a college will be seen even more in a role of thought leaders,” Ratcliff says. “And this brings a greater respect to the degree alumni have in their hands. It gives you an additional opportunity as a graduate of these programs to do what you want to do in a career because you have brand recognition.”
Guy Worley, CEO and president of the Columbus Downtown Development Corp. and a 1991 graduate from the School of Public Policy and Management, is proud that the university took this step.
“This really helps acknowledge public administration as a real profession,” Worley says. “These programs are a testament to the interest in young people who want to serve their community, state and country. A lot of credit goes to the leadership of Sen. Glenn, Dr. Wise and Dr. Brown.”