After John Glenn retired from the U.S. Senate in January 1999, he donated his archives to The Ohio State University and marked the start of the John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy. One year later, the institute launched its first academic program: the Washington Academic Internship Program (WAIP), a live-learn-work experience in the nation’s capital for Ohio State undergraduates. You can learn how far our D.C. programming has come during the past quarter century in this issue of Public Address.
During those 25 years, the Glenn College started its own undergraduate majors; expanded WAIP from a summer program to all three semesters; and created our MPA-DC degree, in which students spend their second year in Washington taking classes and working for a federal agency, a Congressional office, a think tank, a consulting company or an advocacy group. Almost a third of all WAIP participants and over 50% of MPA-DC graduates work in D.C. after graduation. The college also now has a permanent faculty member in residence in Washington to complement its D.C.-based staff. Every summer for over a decade, the college has also sent a Columbus-based faculty member to teach in WAIP and conduct research on federal policymaking and management, resulting in a rapid growth in federal supported research.
I can imagine many of you are watching events of the last weeks and wondering about the future of government service.
There are countless roles, funded by taxpayers, that deliver goods and services to the general public — to all of us.
Those of us who seek fulfilling, mission-driven work to make our communities better will always find those roles in all levels of government.
At this moment, it’s worth seeking insight from the 25 years before the college established programs in D.C., when John Glenn began his Senate career. During his 24 years on Capitol Hill, he was likely most well known for his work on nuclear nonproliferation, STEM education, a run for the presidency and a second trip to space. Perhaps more enduring, though, were his efforts, often in partnership with senators across the aisle like Ohio Sen. George Voinovich, to improve government efficiency and effectiveness. Most notably, Senator Glenn was instrumental in the passage of the Inspector General Act of 1978, which established inspectors general to prevent fraud, waste and abuse in federal agencies. He also played a role in the passage of the Chief Financial Officer Act of 1990, which created chief financial officers to improve federal agencies’ financial management.
While Senator Glenn strove to make the government work better, there were parallel efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce and diminish its capabilities. In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan created the Grace Commission to incorporate business practices into government and, during a labor dispute, fired all the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic controllers. In the 1990s, President Bill Clinton launched the National Performance Review to streamline federal agencies and eliminate over 400,000 federal public service positions.
And yet, the size of the federal workforce has remained relatively stable over the last 50 years. In 1975, when Senator Glenn took office, there were around 2.1 million federal workers. In 1999, when he left, there were 1.9 million federal workers, and 25 years later, in 2024, there were 2.3 million.
Why didn’t the federal workforce shrink during this period? Because elected political officials responded to the preferences of American voters who wanted the government to do a lot of complex things — regulate public and private health insurance markets, defend the country against emerging and evolving threats, and make air transportation safe as the number of flights and passengers grew exponentially, to name a few. Complex public activities require highly trained and competent employees.
So, what will happen in the next 25 years?
As the world grows more complex, citizens will likely want more, not less, from government and federal public servants. Of course, private firms will strive to solve many of the nation’s challenges, but the history of the U.S. free market system is characterized by frequent partnerships between the public and the private sectors with citizens turning to government to handle the most daunting challenges. Looking ahead, citizens will likely want the federal government to shape the context for how artificial intelligence impacts all our working lives. They will likely want a viable social safety net as the nation ages and faces more occurrences of vexing neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia. And they will likely want more robust national security as the world becomes more prone to conflict with the rise of China’s military and revanchist powers that seek to destabilize the world order.
For those reasons, the Glenn College plans to expand its activities in Washington, D.C., not shrink them.
In the near term, we are committed to helping our students and alumni navigate a turbulent and chaotic federal job market. In the long run, we plan to increase the number of students participating in our D.C. programs, increase the number of faculty and researchers working on federal programs both inside and outside Washington, D.C., and advance the professional development of alumni in federal careers.
We aim to stay the course for our students, faculty and alumni who have chosen this honorable pathway of public service. We look forward to many of you joining us, through our programs in Washington, D.C., to continue the university’s land-grant mission to serve the nation and Ohio.
Read more about Glenn College programming in our nation’s capital in this edition of Public Address.