Public Service Organization Launched to Increase Public Service Interest
WASHINGTON – “People want security, and you don’t have that” in the federal government, said Lisa Schwartz, a business student from South Windsor who is interning in the office of Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Dodd’s office. And that’s something the new Partnership for Public Service is looking to change.
The Partnership for Public Service, launched on Oct. 23, is a non-profit organization that has developed a plan to revive interest in public service. The plan includes communications and education outreach efforts, legislative reforms and research studies, all aimed at improving awareness of and attitudes toward federal employment.
The new organization’s Board of Governors includes academics, current and former members of Congress and many others from both the public and private sectors including Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.). Lieberman joined the board, said Leslie Phillips, his director of communications, “because he believes the human capital crisis is a serious concern for the government, and because he wants to be part of the solution.”
Phillips added that Lieberman believes “that the events of Sept. 11 will encourage more of the nation’s ‘best and brightest’ to contribute their energies to the service of their country. The Senator is heartened by the outpouring of patriotism the Sept. 11 attacks inspired and believed that patriotism should be harnessed. One way to harness it is through national service. This is a time, the Senator believes, when we need to put national interest above individual or partisan interests, and he thinks a majority of Americans feel the same way in the wake of Sept. 11.”
The new organization was created with a $25 million donation from Samuel J. Heyman, the chairman and chief executive officer of the GAF Corp. and a Westport, Conn. native. His interest in the subject is not new. In November 1999, Heyman donated $5 million to his alma mater, Harvard Law School, to encourage graduates of the school to enter public service by forgiving student loans of graduates who go to work for the federal government.
Max Stier, the Partnership for Public Service’s president and chief executive officer, warned that 50 percent of the federal workforce will be eligible for retirement in the next three years including 70 percent of senior managers leaving more government positions than people to fill them.
“This crisis, if it comes to pass, will affect each and every American,” Stier said. “It could appear in the water we drink, the air we breathe, the national parks where we take our vacations. It can show up on our highways, at our ports and in our skies. It may touch the Social Security checks our grandparents depend on, or the unemployment benefits many of us need today.”
Patricia McGinnis, the president and chief executive officer of the Council For Excellence In Government, is joining the Partnership for Public Service in its efforts and McGinnis is a member of the new group’s board. She said that the need for federal employees has always been strong, but became even stronger after Sept. 11. “Because the work is so critical-and we’re seeing that more than ever after Sept. 11-we really do need the best and the brightest,” she said. “We need the best people on the front line.”
The evidence that “the best and the brightest” are flocking to government service is mixed, however.
McGinnis said the number of applications to some federal agencies increased after Sept. 11, but not across the board. “We know anecdotally that applications for the CIA are way up, and I think the agencies that are on the front lines·now are seeing an increase in applications.”
She said that the Council for Excellence in Government and the Partnership for Public Service joined in sponsoring polls in August and October by the survey research firms of Peter D. Hart and Robert M. Teeter. The more recent poll revealed that trust in the government went up after Sept. 11, but interest in joining the federal workforce did not, McGinnis said. “Focus and attention [on recruiting] has not been translated” into increased interest in joining the federal work force, she said.
Comments by University of Connecticut students who are currently interning in Washington suggest that the events of Sept. 11 have not had a dramatic impact on their career choices.
Mat Jasinski, a political science student and a Ridgefield resident, has always been interested in going into politics. “As a lawmaker you are constantly pursuing an agenda you think is right while simultaneously dealing with constituents’ wants, needs, demands and insecurities.”
The problem is, Jasinski added was “government jobs have had the stereotype that they require cutting through a lot of bureaucracy and don’t have much task flexibility or job security.”
Emily Graner, a student of political science and Spanish and a Ledyard native, is an intern this semester in Lieberman’s Washington office. She said that her interest in public service has been reinforced since Sept. 11. Even before that date, her interests included joining the Peace Corps or taking some other federal job abroad after her graduation next year.
“I kind of had all those ideas of the Peace Corps, but more so after Sept. 11,” Graner said. “Some people think the downside [of foreign service] is moving around every three of four years, but I think it would be neat to travel and learn about different cultures.”
Lisa Schwartz, said she believes her career goals could be achieved more readily in the private sector. “They pay you better in the private sector; there is more opportunity for advancement,” she said.
Brian Harris, a Peace Corps recruiter for Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, said that there was has been an increase in interest in joining the corps since Sept. 11. “Our phones have been ringing off the hook right after Sept. 11,” he said. “I think the need has always been there, but the incident brought it closer.”
Lt. Col. John B. Durbin, the program director of the Army ROTC program at the University of Connecticut, said that despite recruiting efforts, there hasn’t been an increase in enrollment. “I talked to a lot of people, and most of the people were interested prior to Sept. 11,” he said. “There’s always a need for people to serve their country, but if people wanted to serve, they would.”
At Trinity College in Hartford, Ellen Gagnon, operations and project manager of the Career Center, said she has seen not seen a rise in inquiries about public service work since the terrorist attacks. “Not really, not on this campus,” she said.
Rep. Connie Morella (R-Md.), and Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Oh.), who serves on the board of the Partnership for Public Service, are proposing legislation to assign a human capital officer in each government agency, establish “critical pay authority” to attract individuals to jobs that are hard to fill and recruit college students with student loan forgiveness incentives.
Morella, in a statement she issued the day the organization was launched, said, “Our civil service is the reason that America is the greatest nation in the world today, but that could change if we do not take steps to address the recruitment and retention crisis.”
“The events of Sept. 11 have opened eyes to the importance of government, but much work remains,” Stier said.
