Since last spring, a committee at the University has been contemplating expansion of the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.
But for now, the future scope of the Institute remains unclear.
The committee — chartered by Provost Ben Polak in the spring and chaired by School of Management professor Judy Chevalier — was tasked with reviewing the state of the University’s approach to the study of global affairs. Over the past few months, the committee has been weighing the benefits of expanding the Jackson Institute into a professional school for public policy and global affairs.
As the committee finalizes its report for a release within the next couple of months, some have speculated that raising funds for transforming the Institute could be one of the priorities of the new capital campaign.
“The committee has been reviewing how effective the Jackson Institute has been during its first decade of operation,” Vice President for Global Strategy Pericles Lewis told the News. “[This includes] asking what it would look like if the institute were to continue along the same scale or if the scale increased.”
Chevalier referred all questions to Lewis and the Provost’s Office. The Provost’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
Eight faculty members from across different professional and graduate schools sit on the committee charged with drafting the report. Lewis is not one of them. But as the Deputy Provost for International Affairs, he has worked closely with the committee in assessing the Jackson Institute’s priorities and potential expansion, he told the News.
Lewis noted that small-scale institutions are typically the best fit for Yale.
“My sense is that a small-scale institute or school is appropriate partly because Yale has traditionally been very successful with [such schools] that train highly selective students and have a strong sense of community,” Lewis said.
The committee’s report will also address how to best enhance the impact of Yale’s research on global affairs and how to attract and retain prominent faculty specializing in the field. Lewis stressed that this does not necessarily imply the expansion of the Institute.
As the University embarks on a new capital campaign, University President Peter Salovey has been identifying academic priorities and finalizing messaging and branding for the fundraising push.
Vice President for Development Joan O’Neill told the News last year that the next capital campaign will have an “outward-facing brand” to emphasize the University’s global impact. But Lewis stressed that the committee has considered what makes the most sense for the University rather than what might be marketable in terms of the emphasis of the new campaign.
“The primary question has been how do we successfully teach and do research about global affairs at Yale,” Lewis said.
Last year, several of the committee’s members visited public policy schools — including the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard — to gauge how other universities study public policy and global affairs. Neither schools’ dean’s offices responded to a request for comment.
Founded in 1976, the School of Management was the last professional school established at the University.
Lorenzo Arvanitis | lorenzo.arvanitis@yale.edu .