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Public Values as a Core Element of NASPAAI am honored to be given the opportunity to lead NASPAA in suchinteresting times, and look forward to working with the Executive Council; thededicated and talented NASPAA staff, led by Laurel McFarland; and you, themembers, to further the mission of NASPAA and the field of public affairs andadministration. Thank you for giving me this opportunity.Before proceeding further, I would like to recognize outgoing presidentKathleen Beatty. Please join me in thanking Kathleen for her superb leadershipof NASPAA during the past year.There is no single template for NASPAA presidential addresses, but anapproach that is often taken, and that I also will take, is to share the president’sviews on one or more aspects of the state of our field, and their implications forthe direction and activities that NASPAA should pursue. The aspect I will focuson is the diversity of NASPAA’s member programs, and how it poses challengesin terms of establishing an identity for NASPAA and its member programs. Iargue that bringing public values to bear upon the analysis and management oforganizations, programs, and policies should be a unique characteristic of ourprograms — regardless of their specific labels — and should form an importantcomponent of our collective identity. I will discuss some of the challenges ofbringing public values to bear upon the analysis and management oforganizations, programs, and policies. I also will point out at least one potentialway that the broader society might benefit from a greater ability to bring publicvalues to bear upon the analysis and management of organizations. I willconclude my remarks with a brief discussion of the implications of myargument for NASPAA and its member programs.DIVERSITY AND IDENTITY AMONG NASPAA MEMBER PROGRAMSNASPAA’s mission is to play a leadership role in ensuring “excellence ineducation and training for public service” (NASPAA, n.d.). It does this invarious ways, with the most visible being accreditation of professional master’sprograms in the field. As you know, the accreditation standards are underrevision. With the committed help of many NASPAA members, as well as itsstaff, Jeff Raffel and Steve Maser have done a masterful job in leading the effortto develop a new set of standards. There is still more work to be done, and Ihope all of you will continue to provide input into this process.I am confident that the new set of standards will move us forward in severaldimensions. For example, the new standards are much more outcome-orientedthan the existing ones. In the course of developing this new set of standards, anumber of issues have come to the fore. Many of these issues are relevant for thestandards themselves and, more broadly, have important implications for thelong-term health of this organization and the field it represents.The standards-revision process has highlighted the existing diversity ofNASPAA’s member programs. This diversity encompasses a number of262 Journal of Public Affairs Education
Public Values as a Core Element of NASPAAdimensions that include size, resources, mission, and organizational locationwithin our universities. Another dimension of NASPAA’s diverse membership isthe types of programs offered. It might be reasonably accurate to say that publicadministration programs dominated NASPAA’s early years. But the organizationhas evolved considerably since then. In addition to public administrationprograms, degree programs in public policy, public affairs, and several othercategories are now well-represented in NASPAA’s membership.The diversity of program types reflects growth and maturation in our field,and creates numerous opportunities. But it also creates serious challenges. Oneof these challenges concerns the identity of our field, and how we cancharacterize it in a way that is understandable and meaningful to ourselves, andto relevant external audiences.One approach is simply to list the types of programs that are currently “insidethe tent,” and label the field as “public administration, public affairs, publicpolicy, etc.” But that runs several risks. For starters, it is a mouthful. There alsois the “Oscar-acceptance-speech” problem — the possibility of inadvertentlyomitting an important and valued member of the field. A bigger downside isthat this definition doesn’t provide very much guidance on whether a potentialnew member program — one that is not included in the current list of degreetitles — should be allowed into the “club” or “tent.”Some of us have tried to address the question of defining our field byarticulating what is common to all NASPAA members, and what distinguishesus from professional degree programs that we intuitively believe do not belongin the tent. It comes as no surprise that this is a difficult task. Preparation forpublic service has been tried on for size, but many audiences interpret “publicservice” as the direct provision of services to members of the public. Understoodin this way, professionals such as police officers, firefighters, and teachers engagein public service, along with graduates of our member institutions.Another direction in identifying the distinguishing characteristics of our fieldemphasizes a particular aspect of the adjective “public.” “Public” can be definedin terms of the legal status of an institution. However, as a profession and as anorganization, we generally have recognized that partnerships betweengovernment, nonprofit organizations, and businesses are all necessary anddesirable in many circumstances, and that many of our graduates will havecareers that span these sectors. Hence, to emphasize public institutions solely inthe legal sense of that term is a step backward.A somewhat different aspect of “public” — and the one I wish to emphasizehere — concerns the values that are brought to bear upon the analysis andmanagement of organizations, programs, and policies. Specifically, I wouldlike to suggest that what is — or should be — a unique characteristic of ourprograms, regardless of their specific labels, is that we and our graduates bringpublic values to bear upon the analysis and management of organizations,programs, and policies.Journal of Public Affairs Education 263
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