From the Princeton Weekly Bulletin, March 24, 1997
Practical dimensions
Former members of U.S., British, Australian governments
teach at Wilson SchoolBy Mary Caffrey
At first, former Congressman Richard Zimmer seemed outnumbered. During a panel discussion last month on the balanced budget amendment, Zimmer's vigorous advocacy for the amendment was being refuted by former N.J. Gov. Jim Florio and dismissed by Alan Blinder, Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics, as an idea that "flunks Economics 101." Even David Bradford, professor of economics and public affairs, said he could not endorse the balanced budget amendment, despite his otherwise conservative views.
Among the audience, Zimmer's position won more support. When Florio suggested that arguments about generational equity were strictly "academic," a young man asked for a show of hands from those who believed that the Social Security system as it exists today will be around when they retire. Most did not raise a hand.
"If you consider that academic," the young man said to Florio, "you have a different definition of academic than I do."
Such exchanges may be what Princeton administrators had in mind when they asked Zimmer, a Republican who represented the University community in Congress for six years, to join the faculty of the Woodrow Wilson School after he lost his bid for the U.S. Senate in November.
Zimmer is part of an infusion of political practitioners who are teaching, lecturing or offering their opinions during inhouse debates at the Wilson School this spring. Another former member of Congress on campus this spring is Patricia Schroeder, who has made speeches and teamed with Sara McLanahan, professor of sociology and public affairs, to teach a graduate course on Children, Families and Public Policy.
Also in residence is David Windlesham, principal of Brasenose College, Oxford, who is the Weinberg/Goldman Sachs Visiting Professor in the Wilson School. Lord Windlesham, author of the three-volume Responsesto Crime , is former chair of the Parole Board for England and Wales and a former leader of the House of Lords. He is teaching an undergraduate task force on The Politics of Gun Control in the U.S. and Britain.
And Brian Howe, former deputy prime minister of Australia, is back in academia, where he began his career before serving in the Australian parliament for 18 years. Howe, whose public career included many achievements in social policy, has taken part in the course on Children, Families and Public Policy as well as the gun control task force. Both Howe and Windlesham are scheduled to give lectures in April, and Howe will teach his own course next year, according to Woodrow Wilson School Dean Michael Rothschild.
Bringing in practitioners who have spent much of their careers in elected or appointed office is not a new practice at the Woodrow Wilson School. The regular infusion of faculty members with perspectives from the "real world" of politics creates opportunities for faculty to enlist them in class discussions or to engage in debates outside of class, according to Rothschild.
Some practitioners, such as Schroeder, stay only for a semester or two, while others stay longer. Schroeder will be returning to Washington after the semester ends to become president of the National Publisher's Association. Zimmer will continue to have a relationship with the University while practicing law with Dechert, Price and Rhoads, located in Princeton. Howe's relationship with Princeton evolved after he inquired about obtaining an office on campus, Rothschild said.
First-hand knowledge
Zimmer, in the balanced budget debate, and Schroeder, in an early meeting of her class, brought to their audiences first-hand knowledge of how business occurs on Capitol Hill and how special interests can kill or alter a proposal that seems to have plenty going for it.
Schroeder and McLanahan dug into the 1991 final report from the National Commission on Children. McLanahan explained how the report's recommendations for improving children's lives would bring huge income transfers along the lines of the "allowances" offered by European countries. Schroeder, meanwhile, pointed out a significant political accomplishment: Along with the recommendations, the 1991 commission included "seven different ways to pay for them," she said.
Then she asked, "Who might oppose this?" And she noted how the funding proposals would add taxes or eliminate deductions for some powerful players: the alcohol industry, the restaurant association, the tobacco lobby.
Zimmer, too, highlighted a political reality when he explained how plans for balancing budgets inevitably push the tough decisions about cutting programs into the future, referred to in government-speak as "the out-years."
In six years in Congress, which followed service in the N.J. Senate, Zimmer said, "I've never lived in an out-year."
Rifles and freedom
Students in Windlesham's task force on gun control will go to Capitol Hill themselves. The task force will meet with Democratic Senator Paul Sarbanes '54 and Republican Representative James Leach '64, as well as Kent Marcus, the Justice Department official who has handled the implementation of the Brady Bill, which requires a seven-day waiting period to purchase a handgun.
The experience will give students a chance to hear about the regional differences that affect each politician's vote. For instance, the historic clout of the National Rifle Association stems not only from organizational skill or money, but also from its message, Windlesham explains. "They have managed to link the preservation of the right to own firearms with the preservation of individual freedom." In Britain, he said, neither the public nor most politicians perceive such a link.
Away from campus, both Schroeder and Zimmer continue to be active players within their respective political parties. Schroeder, a favorite among Democratic women, is to make an appearance to benefit Pam's List, the N.J. incarnation of the national women's political fundraising network, Emily's List. And Zimmer wasted no time chastising his former rival, Senator Robert Torricelli, who voted against the balanced budget amendment even though he had embraced the concept as a Senate candidate.
Benefits to students, faculty
The interaction between political veterans and academics informs the learning process for both students and faculty. In the poverty class, for example, McLanahan observed that President Clinton had served as a member of the National Commission on Children when he was governor of Arkansas but was the only one who did not vote on the final report.
"Did he not want to appear too liberal?" McLanahan wondered.
Schroeder's wry reply: "Only Bill Clinton can answer that."
Zimmer is not teaching a class this semester, but his availability on campus benefits students in other ways. Although his phone didn't stop ringing on the morning after Torricelli announced his negative vote on the balanced budget, Zimmer still found 20 minutes for a student journalist interested in his thoughts on how the Internet has affected democracy. (On the positive side, he said, this technology gives citizens living under totalitarianism access to information they otherwise could not obtain. On the down side, "inaccurate and accurate information have the same dignity.")
When he was a member of Congress, Zimmer's schedule might not have permitted such an exchange. "I was so thoroughly engaged in the process that there was little time for analysis and introspection," he said. "This semester is giving me an opportunity to think in some depth."
Zimmer's arrival has also added another conversative voice in the University community, which is well known to N.J. Republicans for its liberalism. So far, Zimmer said, his exchanges with faculty of differing perspectives have been positive. "I don't feel any hostility," he says.
Schroeder is available to groups like the Women's Center, which invited the former congresswoman to be its keynote speaker at the annual Barbara Boggs Sigmund Conference on Women and Poverty. Schroeder will also review the final report from the gun control task force, which Lord Windlesham calls "an invaluable opportunity."
Schroeder hopes her stay on campus may help inspire students to work not only as policy analysts but also as officeholders who make the final decisions. "When I asked Dean Rothschild why he wanted me here," Schroeder said, "he told me that graduates have a very negative view of politics.
"But you might as well get out front," she told her class. "If you're always behind the scenes, and the person you're working for doesn't want to get out front, you just get frustrated."