Public Policy Graduate Schools Are Feeling the Effects of Federal Cutbacks

Abstract

To get a professional job with the federal government, Karl Koerper did all the right things. He acquired a master's degree from the Maxwell School at Syracuse, a leading school of public administration. He achieved a near-perfect 3.9 grade point average. And he won an internship in an exclusive presidential program designed to place graduates in the federal government. Nine months after receiving his degree, Koerper is still unemployed. Koerper 's experience parallels of many 1981 graduates of public policy schools. Trained for jobs in the public sector, these students have found opportunities at the federal level have shrunk dramatically in the last year. The Reagan administration has reduced the number of nondefense positions and cut funds awarded for private research. Koerper, whose interests are housing and energy, has been in touch with five federal agencies over the last year. After interviewing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), he was told he was the second choice out of twenty candidates. To monitor the status of the position, he phoned HUD every week for nearly two months. HUD's eventual answer: the secretary decided not to fill the position. While in school, Koerper had been admitted to the Presidential Management Internship Program (PMIP), a federally sponsored program designed to place a few outstanding graduates in the federal government. He has received one offer under the PMIPfrom the Department of Defense. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told him they would hire no interns; other agencies are not certain what they will do. Graduates of earlier classes had an easier time finding federally related work. Federal agencies and consulting firms recruited actively on campus. More entry-level positions were available. And the PMIP placed nearly twice as many students. There's no doubt, said Maxwell School placement director, Anne Stewart, that in another year Koerper would have been hired. The number of graduates who, like Koerper, could not find jobs increased sharply from 1980 to 1981. At one prestigious school, one-third of the 1981 students were still unemployed four months after graduation. Students have had to spend more time looking, said one placement director. Our students never really had to struggle before. Many 1981 graduates have redirected their efforts to finding nonfederal jobs. A comparison of the 1980 and 1981 placements at six leading schools shows the number who went to work in the federal government declined sharply at every school. The number going to work at consulting firms, many of which perform studies for the federal government, also plummeted at several schools.