Our founding donor, Frank Batten, had a different, yet complementary, vision: to educate citizen leaders, as well as policy analysts. In this, he was echoing Thomas Jefferson’s vision that the main purpose of the University of Virginia should be to train the citizens of a young democracy for regular engagement in public affairs, “not just one day a year, on election day, but every day.”
While Mr. Batten’s vision was clear and compelling, its realization held manifold challenges. We were just three staffers that spring in Varsity Hall. The first cohort of students, handpicked from U.Va.’s College of Arts & Sciences for our inaugural accelerated MPP class, had yet to graduate. We had no full-time faculty and no building to call home.
Now, half a decade later, we can see where this vision has led us—and in this issue, we will look ahead to what’s next. Since its beginning, the Batten School has developed a cutting-edge curriculum that integrates rigorous policy analysis, leadership training, and the moral, legal and institutional dimensions of public policy. We have recruited more than a dozen full-time faculty from a variety of complementary disciplines, including world-wise practicioner faculty, and integrated them into an effective team of scholars and teachers. Some extraordinary new faculty will be joining us in the fall. We have graduated five classes, including our first national post-graduate MPPs, while placing young degree-holders in scores of key offices at the local, national and international levels. We’ve created a new undergraduate major in public policy and leadership; we’ve hosted national conferences for our peers on the future of student policy journals, and led panels on the issues of the day. We’ve swiftly made renovated Garrett Hall our home and signature facility at the heart of Grounds, where we’ve hosted co-curricular discussions with students, faculty and national thought leaders on major policy challenges.
Yet, we’re really just beginning. We are determined to ascend the ranks of top national public policy programs, while retaining our commitment to experiential learning, to imparting leadership skills, and to engaging in the national conversation about what makes policy work. We are more convinced than ever that preparing students to lead from a variety of sectors will be crucial, as so many of the 21st-century challenges will require public-private partnerships. The more contentious Washington debates become, the greater the need for both local innovation and cooperative global enterprise, for private-sector leadership and public-interest advocacy from nongovernment organizations and elected representatives. In these pursuits, we retain a unique sense of place—close enough to Richmond and Washington to engage in real-time debates, yet just distant enough to reduce hyper-partisan posturing in our discussions. Even familiar public leaders sound different when they speak here.
I explore in greater detail the challenges of building a public policy school for the century ahead. With my recent announcement that I’ve chosen to return to teaching and writing next fall, I’ll be handing over the dean’s suite to a capable successor. What I am certain will not wane is the commitment all members of the Batten enterprise share: to make the school one of the best in the nation, and in so doing, to fulfill the purpose so ably advanced by Mr. Jefferson and Frank Batten—to prepare our nation’s next generation of leaders.