IMPLEMENTING THE MISSION OF THE
ROBERTSON FOUNDATION
I. The Mission of the Robertson Foundation
The Robertson Foundation was created in 1961 as a result of the generosity of Marie
Robertson and her husband, Charles, a member of the Princeton Class of 1926. The
mission of the Foundation, as set forth in its Certificate of Incorporation, is “[t]o establish or
maintain and support at Princeton University, as part of the Woodrow Wilson School, a
Graduate School, where men and women dedicated to public service may prepare
themselves for careers in government service, with particular emphasis on the education of
such persons for careers in those areas of the Federal Government that are concerned with
international relations and affairs.”
As described by Robert F. Goheen, Princeton’s President when the Foundation was created,
from its inception the Foundation has aspired to “bring about the development of a whole
new level of post-graduate, professional education in the Woodrow Wilson School” amid
“the changing requirements of a shifting world.”
The Foundation’s mission is set forth as a means to reach a larger ultimate objective: to
“strengthen the Government of the United States and increase its ability and determination
to defend and extend freedom throughout the world by improving the facilities for the
training and education of men and women for government service.” As President Goheen
explained in a 1961 memo to the University’s trustees:
In less formal language, the objective is to develop, in the Woodrow Wilson
School, post-graduate programs of instruction that will augment the flow of
well-prepared people into positions of public responsibility and set new
patterns of excellence throughout the nation for the training of men [and
women] for the public service, with particular attention to international and
foreign affairs.
II. The Interpretation of the Mission
The mission stated above provides the Woodrow Wilson School with a clear set of goals for
those portions of its program supported by the Robertson Foundation: The Graduate
School should enroll men and women dedicated to public service and provide them with
knowledge and skills that qualify them for careers in government service. It should make a
special effort to prepare students for service to the federal government, upon graduation or
later in their careers, in the areas of international relations and affairs.
From the earliest days of the Robertson Foundation, the School has pursued this mandate
by choosing students dedicated to public service and providing a rigorous multi-disciplinary
training that enables them to become leaders in government. Reflecting the traditions of the
larger university of which the School is an integral part, the curriculum takes a long-term
approach, emphasizing fundamental analytic methods and intellectual breadth rather than
narrowly targeted vocational skills. By doing so, the School prepares students to deal not
only with the immediate policy challenges confronting the government when they graduate
and enter public service, but also with the very different, and often unanticipated, challenges
that will await them in future decades when they may assume major roles within the
government.
The wisdom of this approach to preparing students for government service is even more
evident today than it was when the mission was developed 42 years ago. Globalization has
blurred the boundaries between international and domestic policy and, as a result, many
government departments which once dealt almost exclusively with domestic concerns are
increasingly involved with international issues, and departments once thought of as
exclusively focused on international issues are increasingly concerned with the domestic
implications of their actions. The nature of government has also changed. More and more
often, the U.S. government collaborates with non-governmental organizations and private
firms, many of which provide services that were once the primary province of government.
Experience outside of government is sometimes an essential stepping stone to becoming an
effective public leader. Many of the School’s graduates can expect their careers to involve
movement between governmental and non-government positions.
In light of the complex and dynamic world of public policy, the Foundation’s mission is best
served by providing students dedicated to public service with the knowledge and skills that
will serve them well in a variety of careers. The ability of the government of the United
States to defend and extend freedom throughout the world depends on effective leadership
not only within the government, but in the many organizations that collaborate with the
government in carrying out its objectives.
III. The Implementation of the Mission
Admissions policy
The School accepts a diverse group of students into its three graduate programs: the 2-year
Master in Public Affairs (MPA), the 1-year mid-career Master in Public Policy (MPP), and
the PhD. Consistent with the Foundation’s mission, a prerequisite for admission to the MPA
and MPP programs is a “dedicat[ion] to public service,” with a commitment to public policy
research being a prerequisite for the PhD program. The School seeks to develop the
strongest possible applicant pool and to admit the best possible students. In recognition of
the many paths to leadership positions in the government and the many private
organizations that now perform governmental functions, the School looks for students with
experience and interest in serving the public in a variety of ways: through work in all forms
of government, with international organizations, with non-governmental organizations, and
as producers of research that informs public policy. The diversity of the student body itself
contributes to the Foundation’s mission. During their careers, the School’s graduates will
collaborate and interact with those who work in many areas of public service. An important
component of their education is exposure to classmates with a broad set of experiences.
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To advance the mission’s emphasis on international relations and affairs, the majority of
students the School admits plan to specialize in international areas. In addition, the School
has a special program with the U.S. State Department for admission of Foreign Service
officers into its mid-career MPP program. However, the School also admits students who
are committed to work in the domestic arena, both because domestic policy is an important
component of public service, and because students with international interests learn from
their interactions with domestically-oriented students.
The fellowship program of the Woodrow Wilson School is exceptionally generous and is
unique among public policy schools. The fellowship support is of enormous importance in
encouraging students to pursue public service as their fundamental career goal. Students
elsewhere who are weighed down with significant debt often find it impossible to accept the
relatively low-paying jobs offered by government and the non-profit organizations that work
with governments, both foreign and domestic. Because the School’s graduates are not
burdened with debt, it is possible for them to accept the relatively low-paying jobs offered by
government and the non-profit sector.
Curriculum
The curriculum is the single most important vehicle through which students are prepared for
careers in government service. Due to the dynamic nature of public and international affairs,
the Graduate School has developed a teaching program that is responsive to change. But at
its core it provides students with a set of fundamental skills in policy analysis that are
timeless. Indeed, more than 40 years later, President Goheen’s challenge remains the
School’s focus:
The prime question before us in the School, it seems to me, is how we can
help selected individuals develop the range of mind and the sharpness of
analytical power to let us hope some day that many of them will emerge as
leaders and intellectual pace-setters in government, not simply managers or
bureaucratic cogs. Specifically how to bring about such results is of course
not at all easy. I am quite sure, however, that we won’t bring them about
unless we keep our sights high and our attitudes significantly philosophic and
liberal.
Currently, all graduate students are provided with a core education in the political process,
economic analysis, statistics, and psychology. After completing the core, students specialize
by studying within one of four broad fields of study—international affairs, development
policy, domestic policy, or economic policy. Students may further specialize through
participation in one of several cross-cutting Certificate programs that are sponsored by the
School’s research centers. All second-year students participate in a policy workshop that asks
them to focus on a particular public policy problem and provide a report for a “client.” This
exercise is important in demonstrating to students how the analytic skills they learned in the
first year have important real-world applications.
In order to support the curriculum, the Woodrow Wilson School naturally depends primarily
on its faculty. It also employs other Princeton faculty whose areas of expertise are relevant to
public policy. Finally, it hires lecturers from outside of Princeton to teach some courses.
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These lecturers, many of whom have first-hand experience in the federal government or
other public policy settings, bring an important practitioner perspective to the classroom.
Non-classroom learning
The School’s curriculum is supplemented by multiple opportunities to learn outside of the
classroom. The School sponsors lectures by distinguished policy practitioners; its research
centers sponsor seminars, lectures, and conferences in which students participate; workstudy opportunities are made available to students. Direct policy experience is an important
component of training. MPA students are required to complete a summer internship
between the first and second year, and the School provides the resources necessary for
students to accept unpaid internships. Some students—particularly those in international
areas—find it useful to take a “middle year out” and gain more extensive work experience.
Other students whose career goals require a thorough understanding of ongoing policy
research collaborate with faculty members on their research projects.
Career advice
Critical to helping students pursue careers in government service are the career advice and
resources that the School provides to its graduates. The School’s career services office
recognizes that no student, no matter how well-prepared, finds it easy to secure an entrylevel government job or identify a path to leadership positions in government later in his or
her career. The office also recognizes that many jobs in the not-for-profit and private sectors
today provide opportunities for new graduates to serve governments, both foreign and
domestic. It accordingly offers a full range of services: it helps students prepare for
interviews; provides specific practice sessions for students participating in the foreign service
exam process; conducts information sessions and panel discussions to expose students to a
range of professional opportunities; offers workshops designed to expand a number of
skills—including public speaking and negotiation—critical for success in today’s work place;
helps identify summer internship opportunities, manages the grant funding for these
internships, and coordinates the reviews—by the employer and by the student—of each
summer experience; maintains an extensive alumni network that students draw on as they
search for jobs; and coordinates job fairs and recruitment visits from the many government
agencies and non-governmental organizations that employ the School’s graduates.
Faculty
The Woodrow Wilson School cannot fulfill its mandate without a world-class faculty.
Students come to the School because of its collection of leading scholars, and governments
recruit its students because of the training these scholars provide. The School has a multidisciplinary faculty currently drawn from the fields of economics, law, political science,
psychology, sociology, demography, history, and the natural sciences. This diversity reflects
the complexity of public policy: the knowledge and skills required to produce well-trained
public servants cut across disciplinary lines. The School’s faculty members are selected not
only because they are leaders in their respective fields, but also because their specific
interests and areas of study contribute to the School’s educational mission of training
students in the analysis and implementation of public policy and enabling them to pursue
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careers in government service. The School also hires visiting practitioners whose courses
provide students with a deeper understanding of the practice of policy-making.
Research
Like Princeton University more generally, the Woodrow Wilson School reflects a conviction
that first-rate education and cutting-edge research are mutually reinforcing enterprises. By
bringing the most vital and important public policy research into the classroom, the School’s
professors improve the capacity of students to think creatively about novel policy problems.
To facilitate this intensive form of education, the School aims to be a leading center of
public policy research, in part through the support of a set of research centers and programs
that focus on various policy areas. Examples include international migration and
urbanization; science, technology, and environmental policy; development policy;
democracy; law; child policy; health policy; and education policy. The School provides
summer support to faculty so that they may pursue their research throughout the year.
This research infrastructure is vital to the Foundation’s mission. The School cannot attract a
distinguished faculty and achieve the mission without providing a stimulating and active
research environment. Moreover, the School’s research activities directly benefit its students.
As former Dean John P. Lewis wrote in a 1972 report to the Robertson Foundation Board:
[A]n indispensable element of any graduate school exerting its potential for
leadership is vigorous research. In our case this means in large part a
program of policy-oriented research both impacting on public affairs
externally and feeding back into the teaching effort.
Many of the School’s research centers sponsor courses and Certificate programs; they
organize seminars, lectures, and conferences that students attend; they facilitate interactions
between faculty and policy professionals; and they provide opportunities for students to
become directly involved in policy research. Finally, by maintaining the School’s reputation
as a leading center of policy research, the school is able to attract the best students and place
them in the best jobs.
Outreach and communication activities
The School conducts outreach and communication activities that raise its stature and
visibility in the U.S. and around the world. These activities currently include a Washington
Seminar Series attended by School alumni and D.C.-based policy-makers; the production of
policy briefs that disseminate faculty research to policy-makers; the maintenance of a Webbased video library of public lectures and other School events; and a media office that
publicizes the School’s accomplishments and interacts with the press. These activities serve
the Foundation’s mission because they aid in the recruitment and placement of the School’s
graduate students, and because they directly contribute to policy dialogue on the important
issues in which the School is engaged.
Outreach efforts also seek to engage alumni. These efforts reinforce alumni connections to
the school. Engaged alumni support the career services office in its efforts to identify
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summer internships and first jobs for current students, as well as subsequent jobs for their
fellow alumni, and they participate in career panels and student training sessions.
Integration with the University
The Woodrow Wilson School is the intellectual center of teaching and scholarship on public
and international affairs at Princeton University. Students and faculty from across the
University attend lectures and events sponsored by the School and participate in the life of
the School’s research centers and programs. The School collaborates with other departments
and groups within the University, with the goal of strengthening teaching and research on
public policy at Princeton. Key examples include the connection between the School’s
Science, Technology and Environmental Policy group and the Princeton Environmental
Institute, and the School’s collaboration with the University in the establishment of the
Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies.
The links between the School and the University serve the Foundation’s mission in a variety
of ways: by creating a richer and more diverse intellectual environment in which the School’s
graduate students can learn; by fostering the development of multidisciplinary policy
research; and by encouraging policy-focused faculty from other departments to engage with
and teach the School’s students. The School’s commitment to developing strong ties within
the University stems from its recognition that society is well served if its public servants are
informed in fields ranging from philosophy and ethics to science and technology, and if
students and scholars in other fields appreciate the public policy implications of their work.
IV. The Woodrow Wilson School in a Changing World
As the Woodrow Wilson School continues to prepare its graduate students for what
President Goheen described as “the changing requirements of a shifting world,” the one
certainty about the future of public service in the federal government and elsewhere,
especially in the field of international affairs, is that change will be continual. The abrupt end
of the Cold War, the sudden insecurity felt by the United States in light of September 11th,
and the triumph of democracy worldwide are only a few examples of dramatic changes that
have rapidly reshaped the public policy agenda over recent years. To fulfill its mission and to
train excellent public servants for this fast-changing world, the Woodrow Wilson School
must continually adapt its teaching and research programs, while also remaining steadfast to
the highest standards of quality in the students it admits, in the faculty it recruits, in the
programs it offers, and in the opportunities it provides for learning, for leadership, and for
service.
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