Carnegie Corporation of New York vol. 3/no. 3 Fall 2005

Track II Diplomacy: Averting Disaster?

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 1 In reading the article on the National Library of South Africa own culture, their own ways of doing things and their own goals in this issue of the Carnegie Reporter, I found myself intrigued, on and measures of success. The four original foundation partners many levels, by the story of the Timbuktu Manuscripts. These don’t necessarily concentrate their efforts in the same countries thousands of documents—a wealth of scholarship dating back and may sometimes be working on very different projects with a more than seven hundred years and currently housed in various range of different institutions that don’t always meet each other’s archives and libraries in the city of Timbuktu in the African nation criteria for serving a particular foundation’s mission or fit with of Mali—speak to us across the centuries with unmistakable elo- the vision of its program staff who work closely with their African quence and import. They are a touchstone for many issues with colleagues. And yet, because we all agreed on one thing—that perhaps surprising relevance to current-day events—even those education is the key to human development in every realm that that involve this foundation and the people and organizations, contributes to the advancement of civilization, including social, including other foundations, with which we work. political and intellectual progress—we were able to find common To begin with, it’s important to note that since 1925, Africa ground and to contribute to each other’s efforts while continuing has been the major geographic focus of the efforts of Carnegie the individual work that was important to achieving each foun- Corporation of New York to work with dation’s underlying goals and fulfilling its mission. developing countries as they identify and Which brings me back to the Timbuktu manuscripts because, then implement the policies and strate- like the renaissance taking place in African higher education, gies that will advance the quality of life these documents are part of the story of Africa that is unknown available to their citizens and to make to so many—the rich history, the commitment to not only oral the nations themselves full partners in traditions but also the written word, the respect for scholarship the global marketplace of ideas, as well as and the understanding of the importance of libraries and archives economic opportunities. In recent years, to serve as the generational engines that carry knowledge across the Corporation has focused its support the decades and across borders. Carnegie Corporation and its foundation partners take deep pride in being able to participate in many different aspects of African development, from the preservation of its history Letter to its leap across the digital divide. Examples of the range of work being supported PHOTO BY ROBERT ADAM MAYER p r e s i d e n t include the scholarship of Beverly Mack, recipi- on three areas: Strengthening African Universities, Enhancing ent of a 2000 Carnegie Corporation of New York Scholars award, Women’s Opportunities in Higher Education and Revitalizing who has been exploring pre-eighteenth century Muslim women’s Selected African Libraries. In these efforts, we have often part- scholarship and social activism in West and North Africa. (Mack, nered with the Ford, MacArthur and Rockefeller founda- incidentally, mentions the Timbuktu manuscripts in an article tions, which along with Carnegie Corporation, comprise the for The Maghreb Review1, noting, “As contemporary researchers Partnership to Strengthen Higher Education in Africa. (It should in Timbuktu seek to preserve manuscripts that date back to the also be noted that a number of Scandinavian countries have been 13th century, they find a small portion of works by women, often long-time supporters of advancing higher education in Africa.) in scholarly families…”) On the other end of the spectrum, there On September 16, joined by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is the Partnership support for the creation and development of and the presidents of three African nations—John Agyekum a bandwidth consortium consisting of eleven universities in five Kufuor of Ghana, Armando Guebuza of Mozambique and African countries as well as the Association of African Universities Mwai Kibaki of Kenya—Susan Berresford, President of the Ford that will allow consortium participants to purchase online Internet Foundation, hosted an event at Ford that signaled the recommit- connectivity in bulk, and thus lower the price. (For a variety of ment of the Partnership to its support of African higher educa- reasons, including a lack of infrastructure and a reliance on satel- tion. Over the past five years, the foundations have invested more lites, African universities can pay more than 100 times the band- than $150 million in higher education in six sub-Saharan African width price available to their counterparts in Europe and North nations—Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, America.) Increased and more reliable online access is critical to and Uganda, with Kenya recently joining the effort. Jonathan allowing universities across Africa to achieve many advances, Fanton, President of the MacArthur Foundation, Judith Rodin, including being integrated into the global academic community, President of the Rockefeller Foundation and myself were also doing research, publishing their own findings and helping students present, as were representatives of several of the African universi- connect to their contemporaries in other countries. ties that are our partners in this work along with other dignitaries And perhaps some of these teachers, students and their uni- and education leaders from the U.S. and Africa. We celebrated versities will participate in another of the great “unknown” proj- the success that has been achieved and looked toward the future ects already underway in Africa: the digitization of the Timbuktu as African universities, using programs and strategies designed by Manuscripts, so that this wealth of information that, in the African educators for African students, go forward in preparing words of a 2003 Ford Foundation report, “may compel scholars the next generation of African leaders. At the Ford Foundation to rewrite the history of Islam and of Africa,” can be shared, via gathering, two new members were also formally welcomed into the Internet, with the rest of the world. Thus will the record of the Partnership: the William and Flora Hewlett and Andrew W. humanity be enriched—and what greater goal could any of us Mellon foundations. Together, the six foundations have pledged wish to have even a small part in working toward? to invest an additional $200 million over the next five years to continue our support for African higher education. Working with institutional partners has not always been easy. Foundations, like universities and corporations, have their Vartan Gregorian, President 1 “Muslim women’s educational activities in the Maghreb: investigating and redefining scholarship in Northern Nigeria and Morocco,” The Maghreb Review, a quarterly journal on North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Islamic studies. Volume 29, Nos. 1-4, 2004. Carnegie Corporation of New York vol. 3/no. 3 Fall 2005

2 Track II Diplomacy: Can “Unofficial” Talks Avert Disaster? When official diplomatic negotiations are stalled, there is still a way for governments to speak through intermediaries who can help to prevent conflict.

12 The National Library of South Africa In South Africa, changes taking place at the National Library echo the changes taking place in the nation itself.

20 Nonprofit Journalism: Removing the Pressure of the Bottom Line InIn today’stoday’s world, therethere areare many ways to get the news—fromnews—from the InternetInternet toto newspapersnewspapers toto local and national television.television. MostMost newsnews sources are obligated to make a profit, but some are not: does that make a difference in the quality of journalism they provide?

30 New Immigrants in New Places: America’s Growing “Global Interior” Immigrants making new homes in the United States aren’t settling in the usual destination cities of the past century—many are bound for new places, like Nashville, Tennessee.

40 Career and Technology Education: It’s Not Just “Vocational Education” Anymore Girls used to take home economics; boys took shop class—but not anymore. What we used to think of as vocational education now centers on technology and prepares both young men and women for careers in a knowledge-based economy.

48 Recent Events Carnegie Corporation of New York launches a Journalism Initiative; publishes a report about university-level education for women in development; and announces Academic Leadership Awards.

50 Foundation Roundup A series of quick snapshots of projects and initiatives supported by foundations around the country.

52 THEBackPage The Digital Future Initiative: PBS Envisions Tomorrow Pat Mitchell, president and CEO of the Public Broadcasting Service, offers a blueprint for how PBS can use digital technology to better serve the American public.

An extended version of the Carnegie Reporter, with additional articles, can be found on the web site of Carnegie Corporation of New York, www.carnegie.org

Cover photo: Getty Images Chinese Vice President Li Lanqing, left, plays table tennis with former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, right, at the DiaoyutaI State Guesthouse in Beijing on Sunday, March 18, 2001, to mark the 30th anniversary of the historic "ping-pong diplomacy" in China-U.S. relations. Track II Diplomacy: Can “Unofficial” Talks Avert Disaster?

2 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 Defining TRACK II: Meet Joseph Montville Gauging success is an elusive task. Everyone knows it when they see it—but coming up with iron-clad methods to evaluate it, establishing metrics and measures, can be daunting. Evaluating success in combat? Easy: the loser surrenders, withdraws or gives up something of value. Evaluating success at peacemaking? A far more complex equation. Creating a durable peace can only be judged in the con- text of history. How about evaluating the success of an individual’s life? Among the uni- PHOTO BY TRACY EASON/SAIC versally accepted standards are wealth, power and personal happiness. Yet, JosephJoseph MMontvilleontville arguably, one of the most successful figures of the 20th century, Winston Churchill, came up short on all three of these. Churchill spent nearly his entire life in financial debt, the shank of his career as a scorned back-bencher in Parliament and struggled constantly with depression. What defines Churchill’s remarkable life as a success are his accomplishments—a states- man of unique vision, an artist, journalist and author—realized only in the context of time. Thus, accomplishment, as seen in the long view, may define success. This brings us to consider the work of Joseph Montville, whose singular accomplishment— defining and spreading the gospel of what he dubbed “Track II diplomacy”—seems to gain a greater luster, a sense of success, with the passage of time. A former State Department official, Montville served as a career Foreign Service officer in North Africa and the Middle East in the 1970s and 1980s before entering the specialized “Intelligence” branch back in Washington, D.C., a move that led him to an interesting observation, a ground- breaking reassessment of diplomatic endeavors based on “depth psychology,” which in part addresses the perceptions adversaries have of each other. This has defined his life’s work as a peacemaker. “My goal is to save lives,” says the 67-year-old Montville, whose idea of Track II is not some theoretical notion, but a very clear means to an end, to which he has assiduously applied his con- siderable talent and intellect. Following the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Carter administration began a pro- cess of disengagement from Moscow, which only intensified in the years that followed with the Reagan administration’s posture of severe confinement and strident diplomacy in dealing with “the evil empire.” PHOTO BY AP PHOTO/YAO DAWEI, XINHUA GETTYIMAGES

M.J. Zuckerman is a Washington, DC-based veteran journalist, author, newspaper reporter and editor, who has written extensively about the intersection of technology, security, democracy and justice for more than 20 years. rack II Diplomacy: T by Can “Unofficial” Talks Avert Disaster? M.J. Zuckerman

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 3 “There was a deep sense of frustration eral that were held at the Esalen Institute political agreements and supplementing because a great many people felt you could in Big Sur, California in 1980—to discuss government roles.” not simply cut off communications with continued engagement with the Soviet Initially, however, “It was a controver- an adversary who had so many nuclear Union. Attendees included people from sial idea, that non-official people could get weapons and missiles aimed at you,” government, the business sector and even called into delicate, diplomatic work,” says recalls Montville. “It was a time in which the arts. The first session started with Montville. Indeed, the idea was sufficiently the survival instinct went beyond the nor- everyone introducing themselves which, controversial that, after the 1980 Esalen mal tracks of state diplomacy to respond in Montville’s case, was still as a U.S. dip- gathering, it took two more years before to this type of complication.” lomat serving in the Foreign Service. Montville’s ideas appeared as an article he Montville was among those looking for As Montville recalls, “I started by say- co-authored for Foreign Policy magazine, in untested ways to engage reluctant adver- ing, ‘I suppose what I do could be called which he argued for recognition of and the saries—such as the Soviets and Americans Track I diplomacy and what you’re doing need for Track II diplomacy. or the Israelis and Arabs—in dialogue. His here could be called Track II diplomacy, The article explained that Track I diplomatic background in Middle Eastern a concept to characterize unofficial ini- efforts, which include “traditional … affairs naturally brought him to focus his tiatives aimed at fixing a conflict situa- policy statements by the President and efforts in that region. In 1979, working tion.” He went on to describe “what I Secretary of State or official visits and with the American Psychiatric Association had learned about the limitations of for- meetings” are frequently hamstrung, lim- Committee on Psychiatry and Foreign mal diplomacy, government and politics, ited by formalities and complex posturing. Affairs, Montville was instrumental in about being creative in problem solving For example, a Track I diplomat, wrote convening a series of “workshops” in the … the need for unofficial, informal, non- Montville, “cannot risk the chance that United States, Switzerland, Austria and committal initiatives designed to estab- adversaries will misperceive reasonableness Egypt, for which he recruited an inter- lish dialogue and communication and to as a sign of weakness.” But, as he went national array of academics, retired mili- mobilize adversaries on both sides on how on to say, “a second diplomatic track can tary and intelligence officers and former to solve a problem … Formal diplomacy, therefore make its contribution as a sup- cabinet members “who,” he says, “could Track I diplomacy, simply doesn’t have plement to the understandable shortcom- command respect, primarily on the Israeli- those toolkits.” ings of official relations, especially in times Palestinian conflict.” What Montville calls “unofficial, of tension.” “The impact of these workshops was people-to-people diplomacy” some others As an example of Track II diplomacy to establish some real theories,” Montville refer to as “citizen diplomacy.” The New taken in its broadest terms, Montville explains. “We worked with three con- York Times typically refers to these efforts cited President Richard Nixon’s “ping- cepts of depth psychology: The psychol- as “private foreign policy conferences.” pong gambit,”* as a way to warm the ogy of victimhood; the phenomenon of The State Department uses “conference” atmosphere for the formal “Track I diplo- dehumanization—meaning, how one side or “seminar” but is careful to describe such macy to pursue the dramatic opening degrades the humanity of the other side; interactions as “not negotiation.” One to China.” However, more formally, he and the inter-generational transmission long-time Track II practitioner simply refined his definition of Track II as “An of grievances, where having suffered great describes what he does as “practicing for- unofficial, informal interaction between losses in the past to your tribe or nation eign policy without a license.” members of adversary groups or nations becomes part of your identity. The central The Carnegie Commission on that aims to develop strategies, influence issue is having suffered traumatic loss,” Preventing Deadly Conflict, co-chaired by public opinion, and organize human and Montville continues. “The sense of justice former Carnegie Corporation of New York material resources in ways that might help is deeply harmed and so the [group] psy- president David Hamburg, completed a resolve their conflict. It must be under- chology comes to be defined by a loss of four-year study in December 1997, stat- stood that Track II diplomacy is in no way faith, that the perpetrators are not being ing, among its key findings, that, “Track II a substitute for official, formal Track I, called to account, that the outside world diplomacy…is increasingly the strategy of government-to-government or leader-to- doesn’t care.” choice for dealing with problems beyond leader relationships. Rather, Track II activ- On the basis of these sessions, the reach of official efforts. Indeed, some ity is designed to assist official leaders by Montville was invited to an informal governments have found [non-governmen- compensating for the constraints imposed “brainstorming” session—the first of sev- tal organizations] very useful in brokering in official Track I negotiations. Track II

* In the spring of 1971, a time when relations between the U.S. and China were almost nonexistent, the American ping-pong team competing in the World Table Tennis Championship, which was being held in Japan, received an unexpected invitation from their Chinese colleagues to visit China and play a series of exhibition games there. This signaled a warming trend between the U.S. and China. President Nixon visited that nation in 1972, an event often heralded as one of the most important in the U.S.’s post-World-War II history.

4 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 up the perceived shortcomings seeds planted,” he explains, referring to his in the official dialogue.” efforts to have South Asia’s nuclear pow- “It’s not about nego- ers work together to establish security, tiations,” says Ronald Fisher, including securing their nuclear arsenals, author of several books on a subject neither side willingly concedes is Track II and Professor of an issue. For example, he says, at Track II International Peace and sessions in 2003-2004 with Pakistani and Conflict Resolution in the Indian representatives, “We entered into School of International Service this discussion in a respectful way, through at American University. “It’s the use of a common enemy.” about analysis, it’s about creat- Krepon’s imagined “common enemy” ing some options for the offi- was “a nuclear terrorist that nobody could cial folks going into Track I control. It could have been a Hindu rogue, negotiations to work with.” or a Muslim rogue…so it’s a common Fisher, like Montville, threat, to all. Now what are the best prac- views Track II as a function of tices, best ideas and best mechanisms that social psychology—that is, in are out there to deal with this problem?” peacemaking, recognizing the Several authorities hasten to point out need to heal wounds as well that Track II is a Western cultural phenom- as negotiate a formal treaty— enon, “an egalitarian, democratic, process- while many of today’s leading oriented way of dealing with problems,” PHOTO BY JERRY COOKE/CORBISTrack II practitioners eschew says Fisher, and may not function as well President Dwight D. Eisenhower (right) and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev the “touchy-feely” in favor of a dealing with an authoritarian dictatorship, (left) found unofficial ways to communi- “nuts-and-bolts” oriented goal. such as North Korea, where the slightest cate during Cold War crises. In Fisher’s view, “We have drift from the party line may be regarded to look at the human relation- as treason. diplomacy is a process that aims to help ships of the parties in the conflict. We Indeed, while Chinese and North resolve or manage conflicts by exploring must open up communications, look Korean representatives at Track II sessions possible solutions out of the public view at issues like mistrust, hostility and the are members of what are euphemistically and without the requirements of formal effects of trauma if you want to actually called GO NGOs (government-operated negotiation or bargaining for advantage.” resolve the conflict as opposed to just get- non-governmental organizations), their Simply, Montville says: “The goal is ting a peace agreement. Not that they’re American counterparts report a growing to take the edge off resentments,” creating not important: things like territory, con- willingness by those Asian delegations opportunities for Track I. trol, these are central issues. But often, it’s to adapt to the candid nature of Track II Typically, Track II diplomacy involves the subjective factors that render the con- workshops. “workshops” sponsored by non-govern- flict more difficult to resolve.” Track II talks frequently include cur- mental organizations, attended by invited, “I would call it social process sensi- rent government officials from either or interested individuals with influence in tivity,” says Fisher. “It’s the principle of both sides to a conflict, who represent the adversarial governments. Attendees standing back and looking at your social that they are acting in their capacity as may include former top officials act- interactions to try and figure out what private citizens, not as officials, permitting ing in an unofficial capacity, such as the hell is going on.” But increasingly, the unusual freedom to float trial balloons or former President Jimmy Carter or for- more dominant forms of Track II are those hear informal proposals. In these instances, mer Secretary of Defense William Perry that deal more in policy issues and matters the exercise is characterized as “Track 1½” (currently a senior fellow at Stanford of political confrontation. although it is still understood to come University’s Hoover Institution), who “The touchy-feely aspect doesn’t get me under an expanded notion of Track II. have participated in talks with counter- very far,” says Michael Krepon, Founding In many Track II or Track 1½ exer- parts from North Korea. They may also President of the Henry L. Stimson Center, cises there is the essential understanding include current officials acting in “an a leading Track II practitioner in South that the attendees will return home to unofficial” capacity. Perry offers a simple, Asia, working at tamping down nuclear- brief authorities, providing an informal, broad definition: “The dialogue between threat issues between Pakistan and India. back-channel method for communica- non-officials of nations designed to make “I want concrete ideas discussed. I want tions, while providing everyone involved

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 5 with an elegant protective layer of “plau- And … can help those countries [that] ing to take or consider risks that might sible deniability.” lack official dialogue with each other, as not be possible in the day-to-day fray of Hoping to jumpstart stalled nuclear in the case of China and Taiwan, to better the give-and-take of bureaucracy.” non-proliferation talks with North Korea, understand U.S. policies and perspectives Susan Shirk, Director of the Institute the National Committee on American as well as the policies of the other side.” on Global Conflict and Cooperation at Foreign Policy (NCAFP), operating with a That is not to say that Track II is only the University of California, San Diego, is Carnegie Corporation of New York grant, efficacious when the going is tough. The conducting a formal evaluation of Track II convened two days of Track II talks in New process can also be useful when channels programs. “We are viewing Track II multi- York City in the summer of 2005, which of communication are open. But in any lateral dialogues and diplomacy in the Asia included officials of the United States and case, says Zagoria, it must be “well timed, Pacific since 1990 as an experiment,” says North Korean representatives, all serving well organized and balanced in terms of Shirk. “And so the idea is to try to evaluate in “non-official roles.” (See sidebar.) These participants who have access to key people the results of that experiment. One goal is discussions mirrored the stalled multilat- in government.” to have this be more than a religion: you eral talks with the six nations involved For that reason, Zagoria is a major know, ‘It feels good so it must be good.’ in the negotiations—the United States, proponent of Track 1½ because, he points We need to be a little bit more rigorous China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea out, it enables government officials, act- about saying what [Track II] has accom- and Russia—each sending top officials. ing in “an unofficial capacity,” to present plished and what it hasn’t.” Instrumental to this Track II effort “personal views that are not necessarily Shirk is uniquely qualified for this were several important former officials, authorized by government … this allows task having served as a Deputy Secretary among them Henry Kissinger; former for some degree of candor. It is crucial to of State for East Asia and the Pacific in Under Secretary of State Arnold Kanter; have government officials in the room, so the Clinton Administration and as the former U.S. Ambassador to China that during coffee breaks and other breaks founder of North East Asia Cooperation J. Stapleton Roy; and Robert Scalapino, they can talk to each other.” Dialogue (NEACD), a Track II program widely regarded as a premier Korea While no one expects that a govern- operating since 1993 and consisting of the scholar. “These people all have gravitas ment official, even one acting “on a non- same six nations engaged in the multilat- and since they are not working for the official” basis would stray too far from the eral nuclear talks with North Korea. government, they can stand back and official position, Zagoria notes that this Initially, at least, she says her analysis give more candid assessments of what was role playing enables countries like North will focus on four areas: going on,” says Stephen Del Rosso, Chair Korea “to dangle stuff,” to float trial bal- ■ Socialization: The impact of Track II of the Corporation’s International Peace loons, “and we want to feed their dangling on the perceptions and attitudes of foreign and Security Program, who attended the back to the U.S. government and to talk policymakers, encouragement of more sessions. “Several of the policymakers, about it ourselves, and to prod them in moderate views and dispelling of distrust. including those from Asian countries, certain directions.” ■ Communication: Building informal noted how useful it was to have these An important measure for evaluating back channels that can be used in crises. experts there to set the framework for dis- Track II, then, is the level of achievement ■ Policy Innovation: Ideas arising in cussions and allow issues to be probed and any session has in developing new ideas Track II being adopted in Track I. questions to be raised that policymakers that are successfully transferred or trans- ■ Institution Building: Track II dia- could run with or respond to.” mitted back to policymakers for consider- logues influencing the creation of perma- ation at future Track I sessions. nent institutions. Evaluating Track II Success “How do we measure success? How “Many of us who’ve spent time with Donald Zagoria, Professor of do we say that a Track II exercise is use- the North Koreans who come to these Government at Hunter College and the ful?” asks Terry Lautz, a Vice President dialogues are impressed with how smart CUNY Graduate Center and an NCAFP at the Henry Luce Foundation, which they’re getting about these thing and how trustee, advances the idea that “Track II is active in funding Track II exercises. quickly,” says Shirk. “But what we don’t efforts can be particularly useful in what “People in the private sector, people know is the communications link between I would call the hard cases such as North involved in Track II, have the luxury of them and the authoritative decision mak- Korea or Iran today…to facilitate U.S. taking the longer view. That’s enormously ers in Pyongyang.” communications with countries with important in terms of creating a climate Indeed, governments are frequently which the U.S. [has] difficulty talking in which government then can consider openly hostile to Track II efforts. “You or understanding because of the lack other options, can think conceptually can never expect a government to wel- of regular channels of communication. about other possibilities—might be will- come Track II,” says Ashton Carter,

6 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 Ford Foundation Professor of Science to the idea. However, a number of NGOs of the Cold War, the 1960 Soviet downing and International Affairs at Harvard approached the State Department, which of an American U-2 spy plane, as relations University’s John F. Kennedy School of favored the test ban, and obtained State between the super powers steadily eroded, Government, who is also Perry’s partner Department licensing to install moni- Eisenhower is reported to have remarked in Preventive Defense, a Stanford-Harvard toring equipment at Soviet test sights, to Norman Cousins, the veteran editor of coalition. “In certain circumstances the enabling them to demonstrate that a test the Saturday Review, “I can’t talk to the more enlightened among them may see ban could be verified. “That had a signifi- Soviets, but somebody better.” that in the long run this is probably a good cant prodding effect, and an embarrassing At Eisenhower’s urging, Cousins, thing even though it’s a nuisance in the effect,” says Krepon. “Joint monitoring operating with a Ford Foundation grant, short run. But it’s just not in the nature talks for test ban limitations began and was able to convene leading U.S. and of the things for the welcome mat to go the Congressional support for an end to Soviet citizens, opening a nongovern- out in these kinds of activities. And you nuclear testing grew.” mental channel with the Soviet Union in have to be ready for a little bit of pushback Krepon offers a set of six “standards 1960, which led to a series of meetings from the government.” and conditions for success” in Track II, known as the Dartmouth Conference, There are many reasons for this, rang- which he notes can be most effective when at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New ing from petty resistance to sharing credit dealing with “divided governments”: Hampshire. Only after the collapse of the to justifiable fears that Track II could ■ First, the target country must be Soviet Union was it revealed that then- impede Track I efforts. For example, “You open to course correction or, at least, Premier Nikita Khrushchev approved his might legitimately argue that Track II having doubts about its current course; delegation’s role in the talks. efforts could literally dissuade North Korea countries that appear monolithic from the The Dartmouth Conference Regional from recognizing reality,” says L. Gordon outside can still have internal debates. Conflicts Task Force continued to meet Flake, Executive Director of the Maureen ■ Second, Track II initiatives can under the direction of Harold H. Saunders and Mike Mansfield Foundation, which is make a difference by “opening lines of (see sidebar), a former top National concerned with U.S.-Asia relations. “This communication when channels are closed Security Council official for Asian affairs applies across the board, but particularly in or very constricted.” This proved true in and Gennady Chufrin of the Russian the case of North Korea,” he says, “where Cold War discussions on the missile-based Academy of Sciences. The task force, cre- you have a country and government that Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) as well ated in 1981 by Saunders and co-directed is genuinely [incapable of] discerning as in Middle East diplomacy. until 1988 by Yevgeny Primakov, who what is real communication.” ■ Third, “Seeding specific ideas … became the Russian Prime Minister in Carter agrees that, “It takes real dis- offering new inputs, impressions, ideas 1991, chose as its primary post-Soviet goal cipline to make sure you’re not confus- for consideration” to governments facing to focus on newly independent Tajikistan, ing people or undercutting government.” internal disagreements and other instabili- where a civil war threatened to disrupt sta- Further, notes Michael Krepon of the ties before they are ready to adopt them bility throughout the region. Stimson Center, “Track II can’t succeed frequently germinates successfully. In what became known as the Inter- when governments don’t want it to suc- ■ Fourth, “by proposing and imple- Tajik Dialogue, the Task Force succeeded ceed,” but he argues that even in closed, menting symbolic gestures to help break in engaging representatives loyal to the totalitarian governments there are divi- impasses or soften official resistance within Tajik government as well as opposition sions among officials regarding the wis- divided governments.” forces and maintain a peaceful co-exis- dom and utility of Track II exercises. Says ■ Fifth, “by gaining initial access to tence through Track II discussions, a pro- Krepon, “It seems to me that Track II pro- facilities that are closed to foreign govern- cess that is widely credited with bringing a grams have real opportunities to make a ments.” UN-mediated peace settlement, and con- positive difference when governments are ■ Sixth, “when topics are too sensi- tinuing dialogue. divided. They help in the internal battles tive for official government interaction,” In another part of the world, Track that governments invariably have in mov- NGOs frequently can open dialogue. II activities are credited with assisting in ing the ball in a positive direction.” carrying reinforcing messages to PLO For example, he notes, early in Success Stories leaders during the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo the 1980s when Soviet leader Mikhail “The father of Track II diplomacy,” Peace Accords process in 1993 and, at Gorbachev proposed a ban on nuclear according to Joseph Montville, was least in one set of talks (convened by the testing, the Reagan administration rejected President Dwight Eisenhower, who initi- American Academy of Arts and Sciences), the idea arguing, in part, that it was unen- ated a defining exercise in Track II diplo- provided a back channel for discussions of forceable, based on Pentagon opposition macy. Amid one of the most frigid episodes the so-called “Gaza first” and “Gaza plus”

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 7 talks that identified the process of Israeli and Kashmiri participants, which by itself no longer interested in improving the withdrawal from Palestinian territory, represents an important development in situation in Kashmir or of advancing which has now begun. the quest for continuing dialogue. The Indian-Pakistani relations.’” There is less emphasis being placed first step was a series of discussions, in Unlike post-Cold War Western rela- on Israeli-Palestinian Track II efforts which Pugwash Secretary General Paolo tions, which are framed by an elaborate because, since Oslo, “The parameters of Cotta-Ramusino obtained approval from architecture of institutions evolved from an agreement are there; now it’s up to the Pakistan and India to let Kashmiris from more than half a century of nuclear ten- political powers that be and the Israeli both sides of the line of control, together sions and negotiations, Asia doesn’t have and Palestinian communities to overcome with senior Indian and Pakistani officials, much experience in the power politics of the objections of their extremist minori- engage in purely non-governmental Track mutually assured destruction. Increasingly, ties and put a deal in place,” says Jeffrey II discussions aimed at finding ways to however, Shirk and others report that Boutwell, who was instrumental in those reduce violence in Kashmir. China’s interest in Track II exercises, for Track II sessions. “This is a process that will be hard example, is bearing fruit. “When we first Today, Boutwell is the Executive to reverse now that it is underway,” says set up the NEACD, in 1993,” recalls Director of the Pugwash Conferences, Boutwell. “Having given their approval Shirk, “I had more enthusiasm from the which has been making important Track for Kashmiris to meet for the first time North Koreans than from the Chinese, II strides toward resolving the Indian- in decades, the Indians or the Pakistanis who worried that any kind of multilat- Pakistani impasse over Kashmir. In 2004 would be sending a strong signal if they eral process in Asia would end up point- and 2005, Pugwash convened Track II prevent such meetings in the future, ing the finger at them because they were conferences involving Pakistani, Indian because what they will be saying is, ‘We’re the big guys on the block and that every- A Conversation with Harold Saunders

arold “Hal” Saunders is a veteran high-ranking U.S. peace agreement among them.” Hdiplomat who participated in the 1978 Camp David We didn’t say that. We didn’t figure Peace Accords involving U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Israeli we were smart enough to do that. Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President The proposition to the Hewlett Anwar Sadat, and later co-chaired the Dartmouth Conference Foundation was: we want to see Regional Conflicts Task Force. Presently, he is president of the whether a group can form in the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue, which conducts middle of a civil war to achieve the dialogues designed to make constructive social change possible capacity to design a peace process in international and domestic conflicts, ranging from the “Inter- for their own country. Now, by Tajik Dialogue” addressing the Tajikistan civil war to racial con- that measure, there was success PHOTO COURTESY OF THE KETTERING FOUNDATION flicts on U.S. college campuses. “Sustained Dialogue” differs from at a number of different levels, Track II in a variety of ways, but their likenesses are greater than because this group did that, they did it in the dialogue group, they the differences; both are based on building peace through the use did it in the peace negotiations, they did it later in the National of non-official dialogue in workshops reliant on private donors. Reconciliation Commission, they did it over a seven-year period. Following is a conversation with Saunders on the difficulty of And they formed their own NGO in 2000 to promote democratic demonstrating the value of his work to private foundations. processes in Tajikistan. So they are still attempting to develop the capacity to design a peace process for their own country and they How do you demonstrate success to sources of funding? were participants in a number of successful achievements along that Any one of us who engages in this work lies awake at night say- track, in what is now a twelve-year period. ing, “Well, so what? What does this add up to?” Over the last 15 years … a number of people in foundations wanted a numerical, So, can’t you take credit for those outcomes? objective, hard-results statement, a bottom-line kind of answer, and This brings us to the second level of evaluation: how much I have to say at the outset that I don’t know of a single social change credit can we really accept? In the first year of the dialogue, which process that lends itself to that kind of evaluation. met six times over twelve months, people from the government and a fragmented opposition met. These people played a role in Aren’t there successful outcomes you can point to? formation of a united Tajik opposition which then made it pos- Let me tell you what my first proposal was to the William and sible for them to accept a UN invitation to UN-mediated peace Flora Hewlett Foundation in 1993 for the Tajik Dialogue. Other talks and I can honestly say that that dialogue played a role in organizations may have said, “We are going to pull together people precipitating those negotiations; they came together at a time from the different factions in the Tajik Civil War and mediate a when others were not ready for the formal processes of media- 8 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 body would gang up on them.” Instead, I’m asking myself, well, okay, what did the Kaiser could bring about the trium- over the past decade, while engaging with that all add up to? And it’s a plus…mul- phant resolution of all he had worked for, NEACD and other Track II programs, tilateral institution building is one of the written about, and dreamt for the past younger foreign ministry officials realized clear pluses. I don’t think that can be five years: Carnegie’s two heroes, at last that they could use these opportunities argued with.” meeting face to face, reaching agreement, to signal their non-hostile intentions and and by that forcing Britain into line. ‘If make multilateral institutions serve their Gauging the Cost of Success any man can get the Emperor in accord interests. “Our founder, Andrew Carnegie, for peace, you are that man,’ [Carnegie] “As a result, they have developed a was a Track II man himself,” says wrote to Roosevelt. ‘He will go far to act new security doctrine, which is promot- Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie in unison with you, of this I am sure. You ing this kind of multilateral cooperation,” Corporation of New York. are sympathetic souls.’” says Shirk, including creating a network of Indeed, Carnegie financed a 1910 Unfortunately, on May 6, 1910, largely independent think tanks to support European peace junket in which one just as the series of meetings was sched- multilateral regional diplomacy. She adds, of his heroes, recently retired President ule to get under way, news came from “Over the past decade, this has got to be Theodore Roosevelt, would meet with his London of the death of King Edward the biggest success story in Track II.” other hero, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, VII. Protocol demanded a suspension Ambassador Charles Kartman, a for a conference advancing Carnegie’s of plans which had taken more than 18 Special U.S. Envoy to the Korean Peace concept for a “League of Nations.” months to formulate. Undaunted, little Talks, agrees with Shirk’s assessment: Carnegie’s biographer, Joseph Frazier more than six months later, on his 75th “Now that we’re at the evaluation stage Wall, writes: “This visit of Roosevelt to birthday, Carnegie launched the Carnegie

tion and negotiation. They played a role in paving the way for a year we can ask, how are we doing? What has happened that that process. So, I can state that as a narrative fact. Can I claim is totally unexpected? What did not happen that was expected? responsibility for the Dialogue Group in precipitating the nego- Did we tackle the problem in an intelligent way? Was the process tiations? No, I can’t do that because in any complicated political right? All kinds of questions are valid to examine and to examine situation there are countless inputs. I was at Camp David with every time we turn around. But we can’t always produce measur- Jimmy Carter, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat in 1978 and able results. I don’t know that any one of us there could give you a definitive statement as to who deserves the credit for X, Y and Z in that. So what does all that add up to? I can say, we’re creating spaces where people can try to relate But surely, that is a certified success? to each other differently and you’ll say “Hogwash, that’s a bunch The point is that one has to remain focused on the large of pap!” and funders would say it’s a bunch of pap. On the picture of what one is trying to accomplish…My experience in other hand, how do you change relationships between societies, the Arab-Israeli peace process in the 1970s was that we created between civilizations? Anybody got a pill people can swallow? No. an open-ended political process. It was open-ended because we Will people be able to negotiate away their fears? No. So we’re knew what we wanted to do in the next six-to-eight months, but engaged in a process of change the likes of which are not too we didn’t know what doors that would open. So if we had said in familiar to people who use conventional social science paradigms 1974, in a period of a five-year grant we will have an Egyptian- for understanding and judging things. Israeli peace treaty, people would have laughed us out of town; they would have thought we were crazy, and yet that is what hap- Do you consider your work more political art than pened. Creating the process was the achievement; the outcome political science? was not predictable. Yet “creating a process” would be seen as too Oh, sure. There’s no science to this. I have conceptualized vague an objective. Sustained Dialogue as a five-stage process [establishing the] pro- gression of experiences you have to go through to transform rela- So, you are saying you can aim for a goal but don’t tionships. But you will never find one dialogue that is the same promise success? as another; you will never do any one of them in the exact same, One needs to allow time and space for an open-ended pro- slavish implementation of the five stages. So it certainly is not cess that produce results that go beyond anything you can imag- political science. I have a difficult time with the word “science” as ine when you start the process. You can tell from the way I’m in social science; it just isn’t. If you are going to deal with human talking that I think evaluation has to be geared to fairly broad, beings, sure you can deal scientifically with certain parts of it but substantive questions: what are we trying to do here; and after other parts, no; it just isn’t limited to science. F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 9 Endowment for International Peace with government,” argues Leon Sigal, Director investment” says Sigal—certainly not a a $10 million gift, charging the organiza- of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security sure thing, perhaps not even a very likely tion’s trustees to “hasten the abolition of Project at the Social Science Research thing, but a very necessary move for those international war, the foulest blot upon Council. “We have to think about the looking towards long-term investments our civilization.” impact on other governments; we have that go beyond immediate results. Though today the Carnegie to think of the impact on informed pub- Track II fills important gaps in social Endowment is one of the world’s most lics, on the press and on legislature.” psychology, it promotes and provokes important organizations “dedicated to Sigal notes that foundations and funding ideas and widens the scope of discussion advancing cooperation between nations” agencies are, understandably, focused on for current and potential future leaders in (as its mission states, in part), that may results, on being able to find clear, quan- ways that simply are not possible in formal not have been the way it was viewed in tifiable successes. But, he says, as in the settings, such as bilateral negotiations. case of North Korea “This is It produces results in good times and not simply about the North hard times, most especially when there Korean nuclear issue. This is is a very rare type of person at the table, about the American relation- those who Krepon characterizes as “tight- ship with Asia, and particu- rope walkers” —people like Gorbachev larly, its presence in Northeast and Anwar Sadat who recognize the need Asia and what the future of to invest their political capital in high- that relationship is.” risk ventures. The question of greater And sometimes the return-on-invest- coordination and of avoid- ment won’t be realized for a generation— ing stepping on toes is also an or more. But as a senior Congressional issue that foundations are con- staffer noted, “In every Track II dialogue cerned about, hoping to avoid there is the possibility that one participant duplication of efforts. However, might be a Gorbachev-in-the-making.” as Krepon points out, it is fre- In that connection, several Track II quently of value—particularly practitioners have noted that many of in tough cases—for the more those engaged in hammering out the Oslo

PHOTO BY BETTMANN/CORBIS resistant representatives to a dia- Peace Accords enjoyed a familiarity with Andrew Carnegie tried to encourage logue to hear confirmation of a those on the other side of the table from Kaiser Wilhelm (left) and Theodore Roosevelt (right) to meet for talks position from several voices. years of working together in Track II ses- aimed at preventing World War I. In the administration of sions. “Down the road you have to believe George H.W. Bush, the United that we can change both sides,” says Sigal. the early years of the 20th century. Says States showed little willingness to engage “The United States and [North Korea], William Perry, “If you look at the [original] with Mikhail Gorbachev. However, “The for example, can change their relationship goal of Andrew Carnegie’s endowment it’s messages we were hearing in Track II from with one another. If they do, victory will certainly possible to conclude that it was our Soviet counterparts were very differ- have a thousand fathers.” a failure because four or five years later, ent,” says Krepon. “They were basically Resolving relationships, identifying World War I started. Hardly a successful telling us, work with us, help us beat the old success and defining terms in Track II conclusion to [Carnegie’s] effort.” system.” He adds, “We rarely know when diplomacy is a long-standing source of Clearly, gauging success in this arena the timing is right, except after the fact, so frustration for Joseph Montville. “Track II is really difficult, especially for funders like we need to be ready, we need to be posi- involves so many disciplines” that putting foundations, which continue to try to find tioned when the time is right. We are part labels on it or evaluating it “drives social indicators of success. Says Ronald Fisher, of a process of reinforcement and repetition scientists nuts,” says Montville, who when “Funders look for short-term results and of messages that can lead to success. But he is asked to identify his field, says, “I call that’s just not realistic. Most of the success- governments work slowly and government myself a political psychologist.” ful interventions in this field involve a con- workers tend to be risk averse; on the other That important social psychol- tinuing series of interactions or workshops hand, NGOs are impatient and they have ogy factor was clearly on display at the over time—sometimes ten years or more.” little to lose by pushing the envelope.” Corporation-sponsored Track II meetings “We can’t simply measure success by For foundations and other funders of with North Korea, according to several of the direct impact on the United States Track II activities, “It’s a high-risk capital those in attendance, who noted how infor-

10 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 The U.S. and North Korea: A Track II Meeting Brings Results great deal of credit for the resumption of tyranny’ statement or, of official talks with North Korea this more importantly, some past summer goes to a “Track 1½” assurances that the United A PHOTO COURTESY OF THEON NATIONAL AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOREIGN POLICY, INC. diplomatic session conducted in Manhattan States’ policy was not to try Participants in the Carnegie Corporation-supported on June 30 and July 1 and orchestrated by to topple the DPRK regime,” Track II meetings, June 30—July 1st, 2005. Donald Zagoria of the National Committee says Zagoria. on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP). The The sessions, conducted mal interaction permitted each side to find two-day meeting received what in diplomatic first at the Asia Society and the next day circles can only be called rave reviews: at Carnegie Corporation’s offices, drew an a comfort level to address real or imagined ■ U.S. Special Envoy Joseph DeTrani impressive list of unofficial American pow- slights, resolving what Montville calls “the wrote: “You truly played a decisive role in get- erbrokers, representatives of South Korea, psychology of victimhood.” ting this process back in motion. Our sincere Japan, China and Russia, as well as top officials While that may sound like some kind thanks.” from the White House, National Security of pop psychology, the value of Track II ■ North Korea’s U.N. Ambassador Han Council, State Department and Senate Foreign skill sets are the subject of a $500 million, Song-ryul wrote offering thanks for: “…set- Relations Committee. The North Koreans sent five-year U.S. Agency for International ting up the DPRK [Democratic Peoples representatives thought to be of equal stature. Development grant program being Republic of Korea]-U.S. confidential meet- The Americans and North Koreans were ings, which provided [the] decisive break- provided private quarters, where they met for launched this year. According to an through for the resumption of the nuclear less than two hours to discuss resumption of administration official, the grants would six-party talks … [and] for your project on the six-party talks. be “a worldwide mechanism for any of Track 1½ diplomacy with which we could The State Department daily briefing of July our USAID offices and bureaus, as well as make big steps for the resolution of nuclear 1 noted that “U.S. Special Envoy for Six-Party the State Department and the U.S. Office issues and better bilateral relations.” Talks Joseph DeTrani and our Korean Affairs of the Coordinator for Reconstruction But it was not a single session that yielded Director Jim Foster are attending the confer- and Stabilization…providing a range of success. NCAFP, a Carnegie Corporation ence in New York … Yesterday in the context services, focusing on the themes of con- grantee, conducted similar sessions, in 2003 of the seminar, there was a contact between and 2004, that organizers now say provided Mr. DeTrani and [North Korean foreign flict, instability, fragility and extremism important “confidence building.” policy official] Mr. Li Gun—this was not a in regional crises.” Grants and contracts Nor was it a single organization that negotiation.” would go to NGOs as well as to for-profit worked towards a renewal of talks. Several Rather than “negotiation,” official groups “able to combine Track II skill sets organizations, again, many of them Carnegie Washington preferred to call the interaction with thematic expertise in other areas, Corporation grantees, have maintained a “an overture,” which it would later characterize such as land management, governance steady flow of meetings, encouraging all par- by saying “the atmosphere was constructive.” practices, etc.” ties to the talks to come together in the more During those private sessions, Zagoria says, Montville hopes to take part in some informal settings of Track 1½ where both “the North Koreans interpreted the statements sides could let down their guard just enough by U.S. officials as reassurance that U.S. policy of those projects. Meanwhile, he’s writ- to have what might be called “quality time,” was to recognize the DPRK as a sovereign ing a history of Moslem Spain, exploring during which they can glean some better state. And the U.S. heard enough to be confi- the commonality of the Sephardic Jewish understanding of the other’s needs and the dent that the North Koreans were going to set community and Islamic community in perspectives that shape their positions. a date for the resumption of the talks. And it an effort to find closure between the An important aspect of the New York City was on this basis that U.S. and North Korean two. Similarly, he’s pursuing a program session was to address the “social psychology” officials agreed to meet formally in Beijing to intended to resolve lingering hostilities issues at stake, what some in this field refer to formally set the resumption of the talks.” from the U.S. Civil War, “transforming as the “psychology of victimhood” which can Or, in the words of a statement issued by increase the level of “mistrust and hostility.” the North Korean foreign ministry: “A special the polity of this country” through Track In the case of North Korea, there were mention should be made of the fact that del- II workshops and dialogues to resolve gen- repeated references to “disturbing words” used egates of the DPRK Foreign Ministry and the erations of North-South resentments. by United States officials, especially Secretary U.S. Department of State met in New York Whether you’re talking about individ- of State Condoleezza Rice’s description of from June 30 to July 1 and exhaustively nego- uals, married couples, sects or nations, he North Korea as “an outpost of tyranny,” tiated the issue of providing the DPRK with a says, “The same rules of human psychol- which needed to be resolved. justification for returning to the six-party talks ogy apply everywhere.” ■ “The North Koreans came to these talks and reached a consensus of views seeking a retraction to Condi Rice’s ‘outpost on the matter in the main.” ■ 11 t h e national library S

Students lining up to enter the National Library of South Africa, Pretoria

PHOTOS BY ROD TAYLOR Campus.

12 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 t h e national library of by Kenneth outh Walker S frica In South Africa, the National Library is emblematic of the extraordinary Achanges taking place in the nation. Many of the library professionals who are involved with have plans and meetings and then the phone will ring, and the National Library of South Africa belie the stereotype of it’s someone who needs something, so off I go. Being able librarians as bland and unexcitable. Most exhibit an enthusi- to make that kind of contribution has meant a really fulfill- asm and passion that is rarely associated with those who are often considered to be staid and steady bookworms. Kenneth Walker, who currently runs Lion House Production, Take Melanie Geustyn, for example, who was recently a South African strategic communications firm, has had a dis- appointed head of Special Collections at the National Library. tinguished career as a journalist. In the U.S., he worked for “I’m very lucky to work here,” she says. “I’m always surprised ABC News, covering the White House as well as the U.S. Justice to discover the things I didn’t know we had.” Then there’s Department and also served as a foreign correspondent. Before 62-year-old Hafez Haffajee, the librarian at the University of that, for 13 years he reported for The Washington Star newspa- Natal who was also involved in the commissions that estab- per, which assigned him to South Africa in 1981 where his work lished the new National Library. “If I had to live my life earned several of the most prestigious awards in print journal- over again,” he says, “I’d still be a librarian. It’s been fun. I ism. In 1985 he won an Emmy for a series of reports he did on come to work every day with no idea what to expect. I might South Africa for the ABC news program Nightline.

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 13 ing and good life. And now, with the campus is undergoing a transformation The Vision is the Mission National Library, we are at the begin- of its own in the form of a new build- John Tsebe is the man largely ning of something truly wonderful that ing that will soon be erected, providing responsible for turning the vision of a includes rediscovering a large part of much new and badly needed space in new national library, with both national our history.” the form of thousands of square feet for and global outreach, into reality. Tsebe, The development of a unified books, reading rooms and other facili- who has Masters’ degrees in library sci- National Library of South Africa is rep- ties, along with approximately 1,800 resentative of one of those transforma- seats for library users, a great improve- tive beginnings that so many point to as ment over the library’s current capacity indicative of the changes taking place in of 130. It’s so small, and demand for its South Africa since the advent of democ- resources is so great, that people often racy in 1994 after 50 years of legally line up in the street outside, waiting to entrenched segregation under the apart- get in. heid system, which was itself preceded With its expansion plans in place, by 400 years of colonialism. Carnegie the National Library is also determined Corporation of New York has been to collect and rediscover aspects of involved in supporting the National African literature as well as artifacts and Library because, says Rookaya Bawa, other materials that were often margin- program officer in the Corporation’s alized under the colonial and apartheid International Development Program, governments, including works in indig- “In most countries in Africa, the enous languages. In cooperation with National Library is the backbone of the other African countries, South African public library service. Not only does it librarians seem determined to assemble, hold the cultural heritage of a nation in the words of one official, “an African but it also provides a gateway for that collection the likes of which the world nation to intersect with the rest of the has never seen.” PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SOUTH AFRICA world. And in the best of all possible South Africans are also working John K. Tsebe, National worlds, it is a gate that swings both closely with other African governments Librarian of South Africa. ways—providing outward-bound global in attempting to redefine libraries for access to those who live in a particular a continent with rich oral traditions country while inviting the rest of the but often lacking the kind of in-depth, In coop eration with other world in, as well.” detailed and inclusive written histories that are the bedrock of library collec- The National Library of South tions elsewhere. This redefinition would African countries, South African librarians seem Africa: Two Become One give libraries a central role in meeting Until just before the end of the the educational, health and develop- determined to assemble, in the words of 20th century there were, in effect, two mental needs of African peoples. national libraries in South Africa. One, One element of this vision involves one official, “an African collection the likes the South African Library, founded in the implementation of cutting-edge Cape Town in 1818, is among the old- technology that, in addition to facili- est libraries on the continent. The other tating two-way global interactivity, of which the world has never seen.” was the State Library, founded in 1887 will also help to bring library services in Pretoria, South Africa’s capital. to poor and rural areas that have been ence from Syracuse University and in The two institutions were amal- denied them in the past. This is critical, public administration from Harvard gamated in November 1999 when says Bawa, because “All communities in University, was appointed the first black they ceased to exist as separate entities Africa deserve the best library services South African National Librarian in and become, instead, the Cape Town we can provide. In that way, we can March 2004. and Pretoria campuses of the National help to nurture an interest in reading Observed on almost any typical Library of South Africa. The Pretoria and learning.” day, Tsebe moves like a man on a mis-

14 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 sion. He spends very little time in his leadership to a public library system office, racing throughout South Africa in South Africa that has experienced to boost local librarians and attend pro- the tug and pull of a nation that, more fessional conferences. In his own coun- than a decade after the transition from try, Tsebe speaks before government apartheid to democracy, is transform- committees in support of libraries and ing its culture, politics and institutions library funding but also travels outside while at the same time trying to appor- of South Africa—including beyond the tion its resources in the context of borders of the African continent—to needs that include improvement and forge partnerships with other libraries equitable access to vital services such as

ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF JEREMIE MALAN and staff. Some are critical of the travel education, health care, and even water AND THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SOUTH AFRICA calendar he keeps, but Tsebe argues that and sewage. Given those priorities, building relationships not only among libraries don’t always come out on top. Artist's rendering of the planned new Pretoria campus of the library professionals but also among and In fact, says National Library board National Library of South Africa. between professional organizations in chairperson Professor Rocky Ralebipi- related fields is integral to the outreach Simela, “Today, only a fraction of the Dr. Graham Dominy, the National ideals of the National Library. Says population even has access to libraries,” Archivist of South Africa, agrees, say- Tsebe, “The National Library must lead adding that many of the new black offi- ing that he already detects a shift in the way in revitalizing libraries in South cials in South Africa’s provinces, which attitudes about the need for libraries, Africa because libraries are essential to are responsible for their local libraries, primarily because of the demand from the nation’s socioeconomic develop- are skeptical of the need. “When I go students. “Generally speaking,” he ment. Our view is that the more people to provincial ministers and lobby for says, “any library you go into in South read, the more they become enlight- libraries,” she says, “they tell me, ‘You Africa is packed with people. There is ened, the more employable they are and are the only person asking for libraries. a palpable thirst for information, for the more jobs they can create.” Everybody else wants more schools or knowledge.” Bawa cites another rea- Tsebe acknowledges the difficulty of sports facilities.’” son that libraries and their resources aiming so high in terms of what librar- Even so, the Corporation’s Rookaya are increasingly in demand. Youngsters ies can achieve, but he says, “If we suc- Bawa, drawing on her previous experi- flock to them, she says, “because, in many cases, students have nowhere else to study. Libraries have quiet space and In coop eration with other lights, things they may not always have at home. Libraries, also, will often be the first place students see television African countries, South African librarians seem and computers and be able to access the Internet. The library is indispens- determined to assemble, in the words of able to learning and development.” one official, “an African collection the likes Positive Signs One goal of the National Library of South Africa is—by serving as a of which the world has never seen.” model and by creating interest in and excitement about a library’s ability ceed in South Africa, we can pave the ence as head of the Provincial Library to forge connections between people way to encourage other African coun- Service in the South African province and nations, as well as to spur learn- tries to follow the same path. What we of KwaZulu-Natal, thinks officials can ing—to help build a constituency for want is to move towards being the most be persuaded to support libraries. “The libraries that, while rooted in popular advanced library on the continent.” more that library facilities are seen as support, also reaches into the policy Tsebe has spent much energy in his essential to education,” she says, “the realm. But to develop a library system first year at the helm trying to provide easier it is to raise money for them.” that matches the needs of South Africa,

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 15 says Graham Dominy, will cost many only one library, but the construction of Tsebe has committed his institution to millions of dollars: expansion, improv- a second is expected to begin in 2006, helping train not only the next cohort ing technology, increasing access and with ten satellite reading spaces to be of librarians but also conservators and adding resources are all expensive created as part of the plan. A similar information technology specialists. propositions. The government may not project was undertaken in the Northern One strategy for achieving that goal has be inclined to contemplate that kind Cape province, with Corporation sup- involved engaging the help of South of investment right now but eventu- port. Sunitha Vallabh, the provincial Africa’s professional library associa- ally, Dominy believes, the money will tions such as the Library Information have to be found. “Many white South Association of South Africa (LIASA). Africans can afford to get reading and Ujala Sathgool is the director of a entertainment material from private- “African Corporation-funded professional train- sector sources,” he says, “but that is not ing project based at LIASA. Sathgool the case in black communities where libraries explains that the project will be offi- libraries are necessary to fill the great cially launched in the fall of 2005 at educational gaps that exist.” were wrongly the LIASA annual convention. There, Building a constituency for librar- LIASA members will receive train- ies has taken much of the time and ing that ranges from improving inter- energy of library officials like Tsebe and designed personal skills to the development Ralebipi-Simela, and the task is mostly of highly advanced communications an uphill climb in a country where, in the first place information technology. In terms of out of a population of more than forty professional training, overall, says million, twelve million are functionally Sathgool, “The challenge is to get peo- illiterate adults, half of whom can read because they were ple to think critically about training or write almost nothing at all. Surveys needs. In South Africa, that’s particu- also show staggering illiteracy among modeled on the larly difficult because, to a great extent, young school-age children. And the libraries were conceived as providing only book in most rural households is a recreational outlet. But the demand the occasional bible. needs and from students for our educational ser- Still, there are hopeful signs of vices and from schools that lack the progress. For example, a project is behavior of resources has grown enormously. So we underway that aims to involve each have to redefine libraries as no longer of South Africa’s approximately 1,200 people in devel- being primarily recreational facilities.” public libraries in the creation of “read- On another front, in order to help ing spaces” in places like churches, create a culture of reading, writing and after-hours classrooms or even private oped Western publishing—especially in indigenous home. The reading spaces would lend languages—the National Library has books like regular libraries and also societies.” helped to fund the Centre for the Book offer supervised places for children in Cape Town, which began opera- to study. A local community member tion in 1998. The Centre encourages would be trained to run each reading library director, says that the reading writing in South Africa’s eleven offi- space, which would receive books from spaces became so popular that there was cial languages but has also promoted the main library. great demand to turn them into full- understanding and appreciation of One place where the development fledged, formal libraries. the nation’s oral legacy through such of reading spaces has already been Making sure that the torch gets means as holding conferences on praise embedded into municipal planning is passed to the next generation of skilled singing, among the most important of the township of Mdantsane in South librarians is another way that Tsebe is the traditional African oral arts. Africa’s Eastern Cape province. The sec- attempting to build a culture of excel- One of the National Library’s ond largest black township in the coun- lent libraries and librarianship in South more ambitious projects—and one try, Mdantsane is currently served by Africa. As head of the National Library, that is drawing increasing attention in

16 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 other parts of Africa—involves placing started a free e-mail program. Once structure and services presumed a level “information kiosks” in libraries that someone registers for it at one library, of literacy and a familiarity with printed will provide easily accessible informa- they can then sign on and get or send material, along with a well-established tion on subjects such as poverty allevia- e-mail at all the other libraries in the information industry, that just does not tion, the prevention and treatment of municipality.” exist across much of the continent.” He diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria and These projects and services are all continues, “In my view, libraries must tuberculosis. Other information will elements of the redefinition of libraries focus on the basic aspirations of Africans assist entrepreneurs in establishing and that many across Africa have called for. and help to meet survival needs. They growing small businesses. One of those who supports this concept must also provide information that John Mayor, Information Technology is Professor Kingo Mchumbo, an expert improves agricultural production, helps Manager for the eThekwini Municipal on the role of information in national people build better houses, and make Library in the province of KwaZulu- development and a professor of library use of government programs. And all Natal, says that the kiosks have been a science at the University of Namibia. that has to be in indigenous languages. big hit. “We call these sites Centres of Says Mchumbo, “African libraries were Libraries also should look toward the Excellence,” he explains. “They include wrongly designed in the first place free exchange of information: people to computers in the library that have been because they were modeled on the needs people, lectures, cultural activities, etc. modified to offer resources such as tem- and behavior of people in developed The South Africans,” Mchumbo con- plates for creating resumes, which has Western societies. And, because they cludes, “are moving very well in these proved to be quite popular. We also were built under colonial rule, their directions. They are helping to rede- PHOTO BY AP PHOTO/BEN CURTIS Ancient Islamic manuscripts in Timbuktu.

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 17 sign and reinvent the whole concept of preserving the libraries in Africa.” Timbuktu manu- scripts. An inter- Timbuktu and Beyond national effort is John Tsebe is quick to point out now underway to that while South Africa may be at the build an environ- forefront of creating libraries meant to mentally stable serve African needs and both promote library to house, and preserve African knowledge, the preserve and digi- country hasn’t been developing these tize these materi- concepts in isolation. Under the aegis als, efforts that of the National Library, Tsebe has ini- also aim at making tiated regular meetings among librar- them accessible ians across the continent to brainstorm to scholars across ways to improve and upgrade their the globe. As institutions. One such conference, part of this proj- held in May 2005, which the National ect, the National Library helped to organize, was enti- Library of South tled, “From Papyrus to Print-Out: Africa has helped The Book in Africa,” and focused on to train Malian an ambitious set of topics that ranged conservators and from the preservation of books and oral worked with literature to the impact of information South African technology on book development and architects, engi- © CHARLES O'REAR/CORBIS on literature. neers and builders But perhaps no undertaking bet- who are involved “All in Africa deserve ter illustrates the continental vision in conceiving and commu nities that underpins the development of the constructing the National Library than the story of the new building. the best library services we can provide. In that way, we can Timbuktu manuscripts. These materi- In launch- als, some of which date back to the 13th ing the project, help to nurture an interest in reading and learning.” century, are primarily housed in private President Mbeki collections in the city of Timbuktu, hailed it as the start of “our challenge context, Mandla Hermanus, a pro- in Mali, and have been estimated to to reclaim and embrace the rich African gram assistant at the National Library’s include some 300,000 texts. For hun- heritage which we were denied for cen- Cape Town campus, explains that the dreds of years, Timbuktu was a tradi- turies by Eurocentric perspectives, colo- choices made about library collections tional center of Islamic learning and nial racism and racial domination.” have far-reaching cultural, historical scholarship; works on law, theology and Reclaiming South Africa’s “rich and social effects. “There is no such science, along with poetry, biographies, African heritage” is very high on the thing as neutrality,” Hermanus says. dictionaries, Qur’anic studies and other National Library’s agenda in light “Every decision made about what to materials have already been catalogued. of the long years of segregation that keep and collect, what to display and This treasure house of knowledge high- afflicted the country. Through centu- highlight, or what to discard are all lights the fact that Africa has a vital and ries of colonialism and continuing on substantive, even political decisions deep-rooted written record of its cul- through apartheid, officials of South that reflect power realities at any given ture and history that can stand beside Africa’s national library system were point in time.” Until very recently, its many oral traditions. not focused on cataloguing and pre- Hermanus says, these power realities In 2001, during a state visit to serving literature, artifacts and other included “the story of how one group Mali, South African president Thabo materials relating to the history of the of people were regarded as deserving of Mbeki offered his nation’s help in nation’s nonwhite population. In that a particular status and the others would

18 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 be relegated to the background.” Library campus in Cape Town, is also of their products with the National But things are changing. Hermanus, troubled by this question. “I’m sur- Library in order to preserve the nation’s for example—a young black profes- prised at the things I discover we didn’t culture. Of course, that also means sional—says he became interested in a know we had,” she says. “Manuscripts, that the library could quickly run out career at the National Library when he diaries, a lot of handwritten letters. of space—but that’s where technology realized the role it could play in redress- We even found come Sumerian cunei- comes in. ing what he calls society’s disrespect of form, which is one of the earliest forms Library officials believe that much indigenous languages. “This work has of writing.” Geustyn has also come of what they hope to achieve depends helped me in taking my own Xhosa cul- across other rare finds that are among upon information technology. Dr. ture and language seriously,” he notes. the Library’s holdings, such as a letter Marthie de Kock is the Executive “If you speak an indigenous language, from Moshweshwe (ca. 1787-1868), a Head of Information Communications even in the townships, people think you South African king, thanking French Technology for the National Library. are either uneducated or not up with Emperor Napoleon III for sending She started as a librarian a quarter cen- the times. You have to mix your Xhosa guns to fight the British and a volu- tury ago and can recall the card cata- with a lot of English for people to think minous collection of photographs of logues that were then used to search for you are a learned person. I want to help many of the other South African kings books on shelves. “But now,” she points change that and the National Library is as well as chiefs of the Khosa tribe who out, “you can do everything online. You a platform for me to be able to do so. If were confined in South Africa’s notori- can search the collection not only in indigenous languages become respected ous Robben Island prison during the your local library but in any library in in the National Library, they will be apartheid years. The library is also South Africa. And because of our inter- respected in the townships.” home to the first written dictionary of lending voucher program, you can bor- Hermanus cites one example of the indigenous South African languages. row a book from any library in South library’s historical marginalization of In addition to identifying and cata- Africa.” De Kock also has high hopes for digitization as a way of increasing access to books and knowledge. “Our “All in Africa deserve vision,” she says, “is that one day, a commu nities reader will be able to click on a link online and read any book they want.” the best library services we can provide. In that way, we can She says she is also working toward the day when all libraries across Africa help to nurture an interest in reading and learning.” will be able to link to each other and serve each other’s users. “The goal,” she black Africans: a long-forgotten collec- loguing important materials already in explains, “is to make access to all the tion of 19th century sketches of the first hand, the National Library staff have libraries seamless, no matter where you inhabitants of South Africa, the Khoi dedicated themselves to, as Professor live on the continent. We want to get San people. “They were just sitting Ralebipi-Simela puts it, “going back- to a point where anybody in any village there, in a back room, being stored,” wards in order to go forwards.” What in Africa can log on over the Internet he says. “It was only when they were she means is making the effort to col- and tap into any kind of information submitted to UNESCO and declared lect books and other materials by black they need.” World Heritage Objects that they began South Africans that were published That idea may not be as far over the to be properly catalogued and taken overseas by those who went into exile horizon as it would seem. A few years care of. What else is in the library that during the apartheid years or who sim- ago, John Perry Barlow, an American we don’t know about?” Hermanus won- ply could not have their work recog- writer and thinker on computer con- ders, pointing to the many uncatalogued nized at home. nectivity who has often visited Africa holdings in the National Library’s store- It is unlikely that the library will noted that almost everywhere he rooms. “What other treasures deserve miss cataloguing any publications in went—though sometimes it took more our attention?” the future. Every book, magazine and effort than others—he was able to log Melanie Geustyn, the Special newspaper publisher in South Africa onto the Internet. “Even,” he noted Collections Librarian at the National is required by law to deposit copies with satisfaction, “in Timbuktu.” ■

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 19 by Daniel Akst Nonprofit ournalism JREMOVING THE PRESSURE OF THE BOTTOM LINE When newsgathering isn’t tied into company profits, does journalism—and the public—benefit?

In the media cacophony that is NPR now reports 26 million weekly tiplying in number, increasing their New York, whoever heard of Gotham listeners—a figure that has doubled in audiences and stretching the boundar- Gazette? Apparently lots of people. The just the past decade. NPR program- ies of journalism itself. Thanks to the web site, devoted to news of the city ming reaches listeners on more than Internet, barriers to entry into the news and its neighborhoods, gets more than 780 independent public radio stations business may well be lower than at any 105,000 unique visitors per month. “In blanketing the country, not to mention time since wandering minstrels carried May [2005],” says Sara Stuart, Gotham’s on the Internet. news from place to place in verse. And director of marketing and communica- Gotham Gazette and NPR are both while nonprofits can’t ignore markets tions, “when you Googled ‘New York fast-growing media organizations, but any more than they can ignore budgets, City politics,’ Gotham Gazette was the they have something more interest- a news organization that hopes only to first of 26 million results.” ing in common: they are both private, break even can focus less on what will National Public Radio (NPR), by not-for-profit organizations. In fact, at sell and more on the kinds of coverage contrast, is a household name. In the a time of growing concern over whether it believes society needs. Thus, while early 1980s it had only two million quality journalism and high profit mar- for-profit broadcasters appear to have weekly listeners, but since then what gins can continue to coexist in the tra- scaled back their commitment to news, was once the province of a band of self- ditional media, nonprofit journalism is NPR has been adding journalists and selected cognoscenti has grown into flourishing. ramping up coverage. nothing short of a mass phenomenon. From individual bloggers to influ- Of course, profit and excellence in ential public affairs magazines, from the media are hardly mutually exclusive. Daniel Akst is a writer in New York’s community newspapers to broadcast- The New York Times, The Washington Hudson Valley. ing outlets, nonprofit media are mul- Post, the Los Angeles Times and The Wall

20 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 REMOVING THE PRESSURE OF THE BOTTOM LINE

© GABE PALMER/CORBIS

Street Journal, which deploy masses of mainstays of American news—the big University of Illinois communications relatively well-paid professional journal- three television networks and the many professor who founded a nonprofit ists and maintain the highest standards, daily newspapers that provide most organization of his own (freepress.org) are all profit-seeking enterprises that local coverage—seem to be caught in a to advocate media reform. To critics also produce enormous social good. dispiriting cycle of cutbacks and declin- like McChesney, the problem is a con- Princeton University sociologist and ing audiences that they lack the ability sequence of concentration and the obli- Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Starr, in his to break. At the same time, consolida- gations public companies of all kinds 2004 study, The Creation of the Media tion and the decline of family ownership have to their shareholders. McChesney (Basic Books), is clear-eyed about the have left media organizations subject argues that the current system “is set up role of profit in all this, observing that, to the same profit pressures as other to maximize profit for a relative handful in general, “Markets in liberal societies publicly traded companies—despite of large companies. The system works enrich the public sphere far more than the special mission media companies well for them, but it is a disaster for the they impoverish it.” have always claimed for themselves. communication needs of a healthy and But in some situations the market Under the circumstances, it’s fair to self-governing society.” mechanism—pressured by cultural, ask whether the news organizations of James T. Hamilton, an econo- social and political changes—may not today—and tomorrow—are up to the mist and political scientist at Duke always be adequate, and some thought- task of sustaining the informed citi- University whose works include All the ful people are suggesting that this is the zenry on which democracy depends. News That’s Fit to Sell: How the Market case with respect to the profit-oriented “I think there is a fundamental Transforms Information into News media that dominate the American role for nonprofit entities in our media (Princeton University Press, 2003), news landscape. The traditional postwar system,” says Robert McChesney, a advocates outright nonprofit owner-

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 21 ship as one of several means to generate age of quality television for more hard news coverage. “One way to kids was addressed in just increase the attention reporters pay to this way when Carnegie politics and government is to shift the Corporation commissioned objectives of some owners away from the feasibility study (by profit maximization,” he writes. “A Joan Ganz Cooney) that led foundation concerned with the quantity to the birth of the children’s and quality of public affairs coverage Television Workshop—cre- might decide to purchase or run a news ator of Sesame Street. outlet that emphasized hard news.” Nonprofits have suc- Sometimes when markets fail, the ceeded in other complex, path is clear for government interven- costly and socially critical tion and in fact, some advocates of ventures, including most a greater role for nonprofits support notably higher education. changes in tax and other public poli- America’s colleges and cies to promote this form of media universities are decen- ownership. In other advanced nations, tralized, overwhelmingly after all, government plays a much big- not-for-profit, depen- ger role, particularly in funding public dent on a mix of funding broadcasting. In America, by contrast, sources—and despite a the federal government only provides little grade inflation, the about fifteen percent of what is spent on envy of the world. What public broadcasting, an amount roughly they supply is both vital matched by the states. McChesney, for and, with some rare excep- one, believes the most cost-effective way tions, unavailable from for nonprofits to improve the media profit-making businesses. is by focusing on government policy. In the media, “the non- He cites as a precedent the original profit sector shows prom- AP PHOTO/SUSAN WALSH National Public Radio president Kevin Carnegie Commission on Educational ise,” affirms University of Klose announcing a gift of over $200 Television, underwritten by Carnegie North Carolina journalism million to NPR from philanthropist Corporation of New York during the professor Philip Meyer, Joan Kroc. administration of Lyndon B. Johnson. who wrote a book called The Commission’s landmark report led The Vanishing Newspaper: to the creation of the U.S. public broad- Saving Journalism In The Information the structure of America’s advertis- casting system in 1967. Age (University of Missouri Press, ing-driven media business model. But there are times when markets 2004). He observes that, rather than Since daily newspapers, for example, fail and government can’t fill the gap, being left entirely to a competitive mar- get four-fifths of their revenue from particularly in the wary and decentral- ketplace, news coverage in this country advertising, the places that need cover- ized American tradition, which makes has long been buttressed by various age most—places where people don’t even modest government funding for kinds of charitable or government ben- have a lot of money—typically get it the arts controversial, let alone the kind efits. McChesney points out that low least. This is why newspapers in some of national television tax that pays for postal rates, broadcast licenses, local places have dropped the names of their the British Broadcasting Corporation cable monopolies and even the nature older, struggling host cities from their (BBC). Often, in such circumstances, of copyright protections are among the names—the better to follow their afflu- private, nonprofit organizations can many government policies that sub- ent readers to the suburbs. At the same step effectively into the breach—and the sidize and shape the American media time, papers “covering” entertainment, seeming marketplace shortfall in qual- outside the free market system. home design and restaurants have pro- ity journalism may be just the kind of Nonprofits can also help fill an liferated, all of them appealing to the breach they can ably help to fill. A short- important coverage gap inherent in affluent and many carrying nothing like

22 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 news. Nonprofit media could pay more not function, AP is a not-for-profit Across the Atlantic, not-for-profit attention to the Americans who don’t cooperative of its member publishers and journalism has a long and honorable shop or eat out quite so much. broadcasters, whose fees support a global history. The BBC is perhaps the best The role of nonprofits in the media network of 3,700 staff members— some known non-commercial brand in the is being taken seriously enough that last 2,500 of them journalists. business worldwide, but it’s less well year it was the subject of a symposium The Christian Science Monitor, known outside the United Kingdom (co-moderated by James Hamilton) at meanwhile, has been publishing what a that The Guardian, a respected national Louisiana State University’s Reilly Center Boston Globe columnist called its “dis- daily newspaper of decidedly liberal for Media & Public Affairs, where dis- tinctive brand of nonhysterical journal- bent, is owned by the nonprofit Scott cussion focused on five proposals: ism” on a nonprofit basis since 1908. Trust, which was established in 1936 ■ More media outlets should be Although down to just 59,000 subscrib- both to avoid death taxes and to sustain operated by nonprofits, and govern- ers and sorely tested by an unsuccessful the old Manchester Guardian as an inde- ment policy should support this. TV venture, the paper has achieved pendent newspaper. ■ Foundations should subsidize great popularity on the Internet, where The Guardian model is interesting information and analyses for journalists it gets 1.8 million individual users per because it doesn’t rely on any philan- and for use in policy debates. month. Several local daily newspapers, thropy beyond the Scott family’s initial ■ The tax code and public policy including the St. Petersburg Times, the generous act. Instead, The Guardian generally should encourage individuals Delaware State News in Dover, and The and its Sunday sister, The Observer, are and families to own media companies. Day in New London, Connecticut, are sustained by a variety of business ven- tures including regional newspapers, radio outlets and a set of special interest Sometimes, when markets fail, the path publications. The latter include a highly profitable automotive weekly and the is clear for government intervention United Kingdom’s leading automotive web site. Thus, while The Guardian and some support changes in tax and and The Observer have lost money for the past two fiscal years, the Guardian other public policies to promote Media Group (which owns the Scott Trust’s various media operations) has non-profit of media ownership. finished in the black. While other newspapers in Britain have shifted to a tabloid format to appeal to readers, Guardian Media is ■ Public policy should encourage owned by nonprofits too. The New spending more than £100 million (over partisan media outlets supported by London paper has a bigger staff, higher $180 million) to relaunch the two interest groups or political parties. salaries and more space for news than national papers in a mid-size format ■ The government should subsidize other papers of comparable size, accord- because the editors opposed the rigid information about public affairs and ing to a report last year in the American tabloid format. “There are times when the infrastructure to deliver it. Journalism Review. A nonprofit orga- both the Guardian and The Observer Such ideas are hardly mere academic nization called C-SPAN, meanwhile, think it right to shout at their readers,” fantasies. Nonprofits already deliver a has been giving cable television view- writes Scott Trust chair Liz Forgan. lot more of our news than many people ers unmediated access to Congressional “But the world they seek to report on realize, and they have been doing so for debates and other government proceed- is a complex one full of loud and soft, a long time. The venerable Associated ings (as well as author talks, miscella- long and short and good journalism Press (AP) was founded in 1848 and now neous public affairs events and similarly needs flexibility to do its job properly. bills itself as “the largest and oldest news meaty fare) since 1979. C-SPAN is Only by re-pressing completely, in a organization in the world.” A mainstay funded by the cable television industry new size which was compact but big of American journalism without which and, like AP, seeks neither profits nor enough to allow more than one tone of much of the nation’s media simply could government funding. voice on the front page and through-

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 23 out the paper, could those journalistic lic opinion because of their influential including banks, labor unions and ambitions be realized.” readers, who include many journalists law firms. For their money, says editor By the standards of American news- and academics. Robert Keough, they get to advertise in paper companies, the Guardian Media CommonWealth magazine, for a respected medium targeted at some of Group’s pretax profits are modest: just example, is quarterly publication of the the state’s most important people. But three percent in the fiscal year ended nonpartisan Massachusetts Institute for because there are so many such spon- April 3, 2005, nearly all of it attributable a New Commonwealth (MassINC) and sors in such a broad range of fields to asset sales. Pretax profits were seven examines Bay State issues in depth. In distributed so widely across the politi- percent in each of the two preceding 2002 it reported on relatively youth- cal spectrum, the magazine hasn’t had years and two percent in 2002. In fis- ful state employees who manage to to worry if one or two get mad about cal 2001 profits were a healthier fifteen get themselves “fired” soon after they an article it publishes. Says Keough: percent, but much of this, too, was due become eligible for pensions. “A review “Being a nonprofit with a commitment to asset sales. Guardian Media Group of pension records by CommonWealth to the improvement of civic life frees us chairman Paul Myners, writing in the reveals that more than 1,000 state from the lowest-common-denominator company’s 2004 annual report, makes no employees have seized on a variety of mentality that dominates commercial bones about what he’s up to: “Our core special early-retirement provisions since journalism today.” objective is the protection of our national 1990, with hundreds of them obtaining Nonprofit status has proved espe- titles, The Guardian, The Observer and pensions for which they may not have cially suitable for the journalism of advo- Guardian Unlimited [the Guardian’s been qualified,” the article said, singling cacy. It’s noteworthy that Princeton’s heavily used web site]. All other activities are in pursuit of that core objective and exist as a store of value to enable us to pursue our primary objective.” National Public Radio's remarkable It’s important to remember that, like the few American newspapers growth is a testament both to the owned by nonprofit organizations, the Trust was founded as the result of journalistic potential of nonprofits as well an extraordinary act of generosity and public-spiritedness by a member of the owning family. Such acts, unfor- as the failings of the marketplace. tunately, are likely to remain rare, and thus the ownership structure of the Guardian, like that of the St. Petersburg Times, (which is owned by the non- out some big name Massachusetts polit- Paul Starr, who knows as well as anyone profit Poynter Institute), is unlikely to icos in the process. the role profits have historically played be widely emulated. CommonWealth is sent to roughly in building strong news organiza- In this country, at least, the jour- 1,000 MassINC dues-paying members tions, is a founder and co-editor of The nalism of ideas is a nonprofit preserve as well as 9,000 journalists, academics, American Prospect, a nonprofit liberal of longstanding, even if such periodi- public officials, business executives and journal of ideas. Since its founding as cals aren’t officially nonprofit charitable other opinion leaders, many of whom a quarterly in 1990, it has grown into organizations under IRS rules. One that it also brings together in public forums a monthly with a paid circulation of meets those requirements is Harpers, with politicians and other powerful 55,000 as well as what it calls “a daily originally a business and now put out Massachusetts figures. It’s thus able to web magazine [www.prospect.org] with by the Harper’s Magazine Foundation. affect public opinion despite a small cir- more than 300,000 monthly visitors.” Other such publications limp along culation and a budget of just $750,000 The American Prospect was founded trying to finish in the black but subsi- a year—and a business model based on partly to counteract the intellectual dized by committed individual donors. seriousness rather than celebrity appeal. dominance of conservative think tanks Most of these magazines are small, but The trick is support from roughly 90 in Washington—which are themselves they have an outsized impact on pub- disparate sponsoring organizations, underwriting nonprofit journalism in

24 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 respondent, Robert Siegel. It now has 36 bureaus worldwide, and its cover- age of both the September 11th terrorist attacks and the war in Afghanistan won an Alfred I. duPont- Columbia University Award, which recognizes excellence in journalism. (Since 9/11, NPR has established a system for breaking into the local broadcast time at many of its member stations, which wasn’t possible before.) Three years ago, NPR opened a major production center in Culver City, California, near Los Angeles, and has also launched a train-

National Public Radio's remarkable AP PHOTO/MATTHEW FEARN, PA ing program for radio Thousands of BBC journalists, technicians and others went on a 24-hour journalists to cultivate strike on May 23, 2005 to protest planned job cuts. growth is a testament both to the new talent. The lack of investiga- journalistic potential of nonprofits as well a nonprofit since its founding in 1970 tive reporting is a longstanding criticism that has become the preeminent cul- of NPR, and partly to address this, the tural and journalistic force in the lives organization hired former investiga- as the failings of the marketplace. of a large number of mostly well-edu- tive journalist and Baltimore Sun edi- cated Americans. NPR’s remarkable tor William K. Marimow as one of its growth is a testament both to the top editors. NPR president Kevin Klose journalistic potential of nonprofits as insists NPR is doing investigative jour- the form of reports and newspaper op- well as the failings of the marketplace. nalism and cited a report on the very ed articles by resident scholars and oth- NPR distributes more than 120 hours day of our interview by national reporter ers. In fact, American newspapers took of original programming each week Snigdha Prakash, who has dug into on their current nonpartisan, objec- to independent radio stations across Merck’s handling of its Vioxx painkill- tive garb only when mass circulation the country; its programming is also ing medication, which has been linked became a profitable business goal, mak- available on satellite radio, and NPR’s to cardiovascular problems. ing it more lucrative to leave behind Morning Edition is probably the nation’s The size and demographics of NPR’s party affiliations and trade partisanship leading morning radio show—proving audience suggest a major market mal- for appeal to a broad base of readers. To that lots of people want real journalism, function. For example, 75 percent of its this day, despite critics on the left and especially if it’s free. news listeners have household income the right, most for-profit news orga- While for-profit radio stations still of $50,000 or more, and NPR listeners nizations insist that their journalism deliver headlines, traffic and weather in general are fifty-eight percent college embodies fairness and objectivity. reports, NPR offers more breadth and educated. NPR listeners also are more The poster child for the role not- greater depth—something it did not likely to own a computer and to have for-profits can play in doing serious always have the resources to accomplish. voted in an election than Americans in journalism is National Public Radio, Back in 1979, it had a single foreign cor- general. These are presumably the kind

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 25 of listeners prized by advertisers. So an issue more recently when Kenneth in the Erdos & Morgan Opinion Leader why hasn’t the marketplace offered sim- Y. Tomlinson, then chairman of the survey. Like everyone else, it has found ilar fare? It’s as if the automakers never Corporation for Public Broadcasting, its way onto the Internet, where its web thought to manufacture Volvos. accused the Public Broadcasting Service site averages more than a million unique Klose insists that the key to NPR’s (PBS) of failing to achieve balance in visitors each week. success is precisely that it is not com- its programming. The contrast between American mercial, and instead pursues a mission Public television is hamstrung, public broadcasting and the British “to be of assistance to listeners in the act moreover, by a lack of secure, reliable Broadcasting Corporation is stark. of citizenship.” He adds: “The purpose government funding, which in turn has Federal funding for public broadcast- of what we do is not creating an encoun- increased its reliance on corporate sup- ing is $387 million in the current ter in which we can sell them anything.” port—and therefore the programming fiscal year, or about $3.50 per house- McChesney argues that NPR’s success preferences of corporate funders. The hold—in a nation where the average stems in large part from commercial system’s complicated structure hasn’t annual cable bill in 2003 (the latest year radio’s abandonment of its public inter- helped either. What Congress actually available from the FCC) was $543.84. est obligation, which fell by the wayside funds is the Corporation for Public Now consider the situation across the in the 1980s, as well as from the owner- Broadcasting (CPB), a nonprofit agency pond. Funded by an annual television ship consolidation and general homog- that exists to funnel federal money into license fee of £126 (about $220) per enization of commercial radio that public broadcasting—mostly to local household, the BBC is a massive mul- commenced in earnest in the late 1990s. stations. (The chairman of CPB is These changes left the door wide open appointed by the White House.) PBS to local public radio stations, he says, is a membership organization of 348 Public television is hamstrung by a lack of secure, reliable as well as the NPR programming they local TV stations, and doesn’t itself pro- carry. (A lot of additional public radio duce programming. It distributes and government funding, which in turn has increased programming, including some from the promotes programming, though, and BBC, is provided by yet another thriving even provides some funding for pro- its reliance on corporate support—and therefore nonprofit, Public Radio International, gramming, but actual programs are cre- which is supported by a number of ated by local stations such as WGBH in the programming preferences of foundations. And there is growing com- Boston, or by independent producers petition in this field from Public Radio who must piece together backing from corporate funders. International and American Public stations and corporate or philanthropic Media, among others.) underwriters. This decentralized system The door has never opened as wide may be characteristically American, timediatimedia ooperationperation tthathat sspentpent rroughlyoughly to public television news in this coun- but it’s not designed to support a large £400 million (about $719 million) just try. For one thing, McChesney notes, newsgathering organization, even if it on news in the most recent fiscal year radio news is relatively cheap to pro- does result in such significant public it. It employs some 3,500 people in its duce while television news is expensive, affairs programming as Frontline, POV worldwide news operations, including requiring more people and equipment. and NOW. roughly 2,000 journalists. They staff 40 And then there is the matter of poli- Yet public television’s sole tradi- bureaus in every part of the globe, and tics, which looms larger in the literally tional news program—The NewsHour the BBC is heard perhaps just as widely. and figuratively more visible medium with Jim Lehrer—is also its crown jewel. Its World Service, which broadcasts in of TV. Insulating public broadcasting NewsHour reaches 98 percent of U.S. 40 languages, has an audience of 150 from political influence was emphasized television households and is seen in million people, the BBC says. by the original Carnegie Commission Asia, Europe, Japan and Latin America. The British electorate supports its when it did its work, and has been Despite the system’s limitations, public broadcasting system despite the a tenet of the system since it was NewsHour, which has an annual budget levy on televisions. A BBC survey last launched. But not long after, public of $24 million, is watched by about 2.7 year found that eighty-one percent of television came under pressure from the million people nightly and was ranked respondents think “the Beeb” is worth Nixon administration for its coverage of as the most credible, objective and influ- the money—and many would pay more. Vietnam and Watergate. Politics became ential TV news program in the country Asked what they’d be willing to pay to

26 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 keep the BBC from shutting down, the In all likelihood, NPR is as close as well. NPR’s Klose notes the contrast to average answer was roughly double what we’ll come to a domestic version of the for-profit radio: “Radio is completely they are paying now. For evidence as to BBC—and government funding will be finished as a reporting medium on the why this might be, consider the BBC’s a relatively small part of the picture. In commercial side.” coverage of the recent terrorist attacks fact, NPR only gets about one percent Unfortunately, the news about on the London transit system. Baltimore of its budget directly from Uncle Sam, commercial news coverage generally is Sun television critic David Zurawik although local public radio stations, not good. The Project for Excellence in noted that CNN’s coverage “featured which get about thirteen percent of Journalism (PEJ), in its 2004 survey of a red logo emblazoned with the words: their funds from Washington, use some the industry, “found that most sectors of “LONDON TERROR,” and he quoted of this money to pay NPR for program- the news media have seen clear cutbacks a CNN anchorwoman saying, “An ming. But while public radio in this in newsgathering resources,” according eyewitness described utter pandemo- country gets by on relatively little gov- to Tom Rosenstiel and Amy Mitchell nium—bodies strewn around. ... People ernment money, it benefits from having of the PEJ and Bill Kovach of the were screaming. ... They felt they were a diversified funding base. Local public Committee of Concerned Journalists. trapped like sardines essentially wait- radio stations get about a third of their The number of newspaper newsroom ing to die.” By contrast, Zurawik wrote, money from listener contributions and staffers shrunk by 2,000 between 2000 the BBC “provided a sense of stability another quarter from corporate and and 2004, a drop of 4 percent overall. even as the death toll climbed,” offering foundation grants. Some major online news sites saw much deeperdeeper ccuts,uts, ssuchuch aass MMSNBC,SNBC, wwhichhich cut aroundaround a quarterquarter of its staff betweenbetween Public television is hamstrung by a lack of secure, reliable 2001 and 2003. Radio nenewsroomwsroom staff- ing declined bbyy 57 perpercentcent frfromom 1994 to government funding, which in turn has increased 2001. After an uptick in 1999, networknetwork staffingstaffing bbeganegan ttoo ddroprop aagaingain iinn 22000.000. its reliance on corporate support—and therefore SinceSince 19851985 thethe numbernumber ofof networknetwork newsnews corrcorrespondentsespondents has declined byby 35 the programming preferences of percentpercent while the number of stories per reporterreporter incrincreasedeased byby 30 percent.percent. corporate funders. That same year, 2004, the Pew ResearchResearch CenterCenter forfor thethe PeoplePeople andand thethe PPress,ress, iinn cconjunctiononjunction wwithith PPEJ,EJ, anan “oasis“oasis ofof relativerelative calm”calm” markedmarked byby NPRNPR hhasas eevenven eestablishedstablished a ffoun-oun- conductedconducted a surveysurvey ofof 547547 nationalnational “images of emergency workers restor- dation to raise an endowment for itself and local journalists. Some 66 percent ing order.” It should be noted, how- (PBS has more recently done like- of national journalists said profit pres- ever, that there may be some problems wise), and over the years has garnered sures were hurting journalistic quality ahead for this venerable broadcasting funds from the Ford, Ahmanson and (and, to point out that this is not just service. In the spring of 2005, the BBC MacArthur foundations, among other the usual newsroom grousing, only 41 announced plans to cut about 4,000 sources. In 2003, it announced what percent held this view in 1995). Among jobs from a workforce of about 21,000 has amounted to a $230 million gift local journalists, the figure had risen to to save some £355 million (about $670 from the estate of Joan B. Kroc, the 57 percent from 33 percent in the same million)—approximately 10 percent of San Diego philanthropist and widow period. Dan Gillmor, a former colum- its annual expenditure—over the next of McDonald’s tycoon Ray Kroc. The nist for the San Jose Mercury News and three years. Commenting on these Kroc gift has enabled NPR to hire more lately an advocate of citizens’ or grass- proposed cost-saving measures, BBC journalists and expand its news cover- roots journalism, may have summed up director Mark Thompson said that the age, which now involves 350 full and the worries when he said in an inter- television license fee will only survive as part-time employees and an annual view: “It’s not at all clear, given the the main method of funding the BBC news budget of $50 million. Local pub- erosion of the business model the mass “if the public is convinced that the cor- lic radio stations provide news and pub- media are now suffering, that they will poration is spending money wisely.” lic affairs programming of their own as be able to afford—or their shareholders

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 27 will permit—the kind of things I con- mainstream acceptance. Meanwhile, profit media ventures that didn’t exist sider crucial in a democratic society.” says Steven Lagerfeld, editor of The before. New York’s Gotham Gazette The trends in newspapers are par- Wilson Quarterly, which is published (gothamgazette.com) was started in ticularly worrisome. Newspapers are by the Woodrow Wilson International 1999 with a grant from the Charles the journalistic institutions providing Center for Scholars, ideas-oriented Revson Foundation and receives fund- the most extensive coverage, from small publications such as his are battling for ing from the Rockefeller and New York town papers right up through USA attention from the same relatively small Times foundations, among others. Today. They are the news organizations group of potential readers. “There’s no Besides offering a handy daily digest with the most boots on the ground. demand for quality,” laments John R. of New York City news stories appear- Their articles are longer, deeper and MacArthur, president and publisher of ing in other outlets, Gotham Gazette more extensively sourced than those of Harper’s. generates coverage of its own and pub- other media, and mostly self-generated. But the appetite for escapism and lishes a policy magazine. It even posts Paul Ginocchio, who analyzes media schlock doesn’t prove people don’t translated articles from some of the stocks at Deutsche Bank Securities, want—or can’t use—good journal- city’s foreign-language ethnic peri- states flatly that: “Newspapers are the ism. “There is no shortage of historical odicals, and offers readers a database prime content providers for the modern studies showing a correlation between of articles relating to local political news distribution machine.” quality journalism and business suc- campaigns. Gotham Gazette is oper- The newspaper industry remains quite profitable, but critics like Philip Meyer say this comes at the expense Internet ventures such as craigslist.com of spending on news. And the future doesn’t look bright. Daily circulation, and monster.com are aggressively at about 55 million, has been stagnant for half a century—and “penetration” competing for the newspaper industry's has been falling since the mid-1950s, at least. Back then, the industry sold prized classified ad business. 1.2 newspapers per household. Daily newspaper penetration today is hugely diminished, at roughly .5 newspapers cess,”cess,” writeswrites Meyer,Meyer, whosewhose ownown workwork atedated bbyy tthehe CCitizensitizens UUnionnion FFoundationoundation per household. Worse yet, circula- suggests that newspaper credibility is of the City of New York, a nonprofit tion has been falling in absolute terms correlated with higher ad rates, and research and education organization since the mid-1980s. “I don’t see any that higher staffing levels are linked to that sees itself as a watchdog of the reasonable expectation this is going a slower decline in penetration. Paul public good. Gotham Gazette’s annual to change anytime soon,” says John Ginocchio, meanwhile, looked at 150 budget is just $550,000 a year. Morton, a veteran industry analyst. large newspaper markets and found, in How does such an operation keep Newspaper advertising, meanwhile, the the words of the Project for Excellence itself going financially? Gotham Gazette industry’s lifeblood, is under attack. in Journalism 2005 report, The State editor Jonathan Mandell says that the Such Internet ventures as craigslist.org of the News Media, “that papers recog- organization, which initially focused on and monster.com are aggressively com- nized for superior news performance, establishing itself and building up its peting for the industry’s prized classified like The Washington Post, the Lexington coverage, is now focusing more on sus- ad business. And Wal-Mart, the nation’s Herald-Leader and the Arkansas tainability as well, and that means find- most successful retailer, has preferred to Democrat-Gazette had superior ‘brand ing new sources of revenue. Twice last advertise by direct mail. power’—defined as circulation numbers year, for example, it ran appeals asking As newspapers lose readers, celeb- and ad rates above expectations for their readers for money, garnering a total of rity-oriented periodicals are experienc- markets.” In other words, for newspa- $30,000, and Mandell says appeals this ing surging subscriptions and newsstand pers, quality pays. year will probably raise more. Gotham sales as well as big increases in advertis- One area where news is clearly Gazette has also started offering clas- ing pages. They are also attracting a growing is the Internet, which has sified and display ads, and is consider- wider variety of ads, suggesting more opened the door to a slew of other non- ing selling sponsorships for its popular

28 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 AP PHOTO/JEFF CHIU Craigslist.org CEO Jim Buckmaster (left) and founder Craig Newmark (right) outside the Craigslist office in San Francisco.

e-mail newsletters, which offer potential the United Nations, plans to become an Deerfield (New Hampshire) Library advertisers the advantage of a highly tar- independent commercial news service. to start a web site with local news, geted readership with a manifest interest In this country, Carnegie Corporation opinion and photography. Another was in the topic at hand. “The Internet part is among the funders of the Center the Mid-Columbia Centro Cultural in of us in some ways is far more important for Public Integrity, which conducts Hood River, Oregon to launch a weekly than the nonprofit part of us,” Mandell investigative reporting through a global half-hour, bilingual news program on a observes, noting that many news sites network of journalists. Last year the low-power FM radio station, with train- on the web aren’t making a profit even if Center’s inquiry into U.S. government ing for community members to write they wish they were. contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan won scripts and edit audio. Yet another is Organizations such as Carnegie the online version of the George Polk a community news weblog in a poor, Corporation, the Reuters Foundation, Award, an important journalistic honor. largely African American neighborhood the Pew Charitable Trusts and the John The Center posts the fruits of its labor of Chicago. One of the goals, says J-Lab S. and James L. Knight Foundation, at http://www.publicintegrity.org. executive director Jan Schaffer, is for the meanwhile, have been funding a variety Or consider the list of recipi- New Voices grant recipients “to develop of media undertakings, from provid- ents awarded $12,000 each by the various models of sustainability—from ing information that journalists can use University of Maryland’s J-Lab: the corporate sponsorships, to foundations, to underwriting actual coverage. The Institute for Interactive Journalism, to advertising, to subscriptions, etc.” Reuters Foundation, for example, has which is using a $1 million grant “I doubt,” she adds, in a comment supported Voices of Iraq (http://www. from the John S. and James L. Knight that might apply across the nonprofit aswataliraq.info/), a grassroots Iraqi news Foundation to pay for its New Voices media landscape, “that there will be one site that, with the help of $800,000 from project. One was the Friends of the size that fits all.” ■

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 29 by Anne Farris New Immig rants ewin laces N ' P" " AMERICA S GROWING GLOBAL INTERIOR Nashville, Tennessee is one of the many new destinations for immigrants to the U.S. Reaction to the city’s newest residents may provide insight into similar situations across the country.

Rauf Ary, a 42-year-old Kurdish refugee who fled his find an abundance of jobs, housing, lower prices and, some- native Iran thirteen years ago, points to a sign in front of times, friendlier receptions. his Tara Market in Nashville, Tennessee that demonstrates a The growth has enriched the local culture and economy, new direction for this mid-size southern city. “We have fresh but it has also challenged policymakers, businessmen and Halal meat,” the sign reads, conveying its message in three social service providers to successfully integrate the newcomers languages: English, Spanish and Arabic. Then he glances into a mutually beneficial community. As a result, Nashville, toward his neighbors’ storefront signs: Inter-Asian Market, which has not grappled with this much racial and cultural Gye Nyame West African Restaurant, Iglesia De Jesucristo integration since the civil rights movement fifty years ago, is Samaria and Istanbul Restaurant. “The world comes together exhibiting the same growing pains as an angst-ridden, awk- here,” Ary says. “Nashville is the cradle for human life.” ward and sometimes troubled teenager entering adulthood. This predominantly white city known for its country This ongoing transformation is a surprise to many because, music, rhinestone cowboys and fried chicken and biscuits has suddenly morphed into a new Ellis Island emblematic of a Anne Farris is a national freelance journalist based in demographic revolution occurring in a thick vein of terri- Washington, D.C. who reports and writes about government tory running through the Midwest and Southern regions of and politics. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, America. The nation is experiencing the largest immigrant The Washington Post, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The and refugee resettlement since the Industrial Revolution, and Arkansas Gazette. She has contributed to several books, includ- cities like Nashville—rather than the gateway cities of the ing Blood Sport, and is the author of Test Pilot, a biography past such as New York and Los Angeles—are the new, non- of Stanley H. Kaplan. She also reports for BBC Current Affairs traditional settling grounds where foreign-born newcomers and other English-based film documentary companies.

30 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 says Garrett Harper, research director at the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau, “Nashville had hardly changed from decade to decade.” Confronted with a record-breaking and unprecedented influx of foreign- born individuals and families, the city has assembled businesses, government, religious and community organiza- New Immig rants tions, along with philanthropic groups, to grapple with its new role as a global destination. It has made the city and region a national leader in superlatives: Tennessee was the first state to issue drivers’ licenses for documented and undocumented immigrants; Nashville is one of three American cities selected to participate in an experiment in public-private partnerships of immi- grant and refugee integration primarily ew laces funded by the U.S. Office of Refugee N P Resettlement; and the city housed one of five U.S. polling stations in America for Iraqi expatriate voters during the January 2005 Iraqi elections. All of this has provoked an anti- immigrant backlash that is loud, pro- active and downright ugly at times. Coalitions have been formed to control the growth of undocumented immi- grants and talk show hosts are sounding the alarm about what they say is a “la reconquista,” or “reconquest” move- ment of Mexican immigrants ultimately aimed at returning parts of southwest America to Mexico. The heightened debate has left the Tennessee legisla- ture struggling with numerous pieces of legislation that both protect and limit immigrants’ rights. “Nashville now has a stake in the immigration debate in a way that it hadn’t before,” says Steven Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies. The city’s reac- tion to the large and sudden growth amidst the absence of a comprehensive

PHOTO BY ANNE FARRIS national immigration policy has posi- Rauf Ary, a Kurdish refugee, in front of his meat market in tioned Nashville as a model of dynamic Nashville, Tennessee. 31 and counterintuitive change in the transforming American landscape of immigrant and refugee resettlement.

The New American Frontier Takes Shape Nashville is a miniature version of a national phenomenon in which all of America is witnessing dramatic increases in immigrant and refugee populations. One-in-ten Americans is now foreign born, with a third arriv- ing in the last decade. Unlike the white European immigrants who came to the U.S. at the beginning of the 20th century, today’s immigrants are largely from Latin America. With increasingly relaxed national immigration standards to facilitate a growing need for inex-

pensive labor, workers have arrived in PHOTO BY RYAN HEFFERNAN PHOTOGRAPHY

droves to find economic opportuni- Somali immigrants in ties. Studies show that half of America’s seeking religious tolerance and Bosnians Lewistown, Maine, and new workforce in the 1990s comprised escaping ethnic cleansing. Mexican day laborers on immigrants, compared with only ten The administration of President New York's Long Island have sparked controversy. percent in the 1970s. Many are docu- Bill Clinton issued new directives that mented, but at least one-quarter of all refugees be dispersed to all fifty states foreign-born residents are here illegally, rather than concentrated in the tradi- and many face persistent poverty, dis- tional gateway communities where they enfranchisement and language barriers. had been settled in earlier times. While it has been the scene of violence and One of the most striking differences this policy continues to be followed, the confrontation centering around a large among today’s immigrants and refugees communities receiving these newcomers population of Latino day laborers, pri- is where they settle. Nashville is part have raised concerns that the influx will marily Mexican. (It is estimated that of a new American frontier sometimes overtax local resources. For example, in starting in the late 1990s, as many as called the “global interior” that runs 2002, after more than 1,000 Somalis 1,500 immigrant workers—looking from Minnesota to Texas where immi- had settled in Lewiston, Maine—pop- for employment in construction, land- grants and refugees have moved in ulation approximately 35,000—the scaping and similar fields—came to unprecedented numbers since 1990. Of mayor wrote an open letter to his city’s Farmingville, a village of approximately the nation’s one hundred largest metro- new residents, asking that they discour- 15,000 people.) politan areas, Nashville ranks first in age any more of their countrymen and Tennessee’s foreign-born popula- the number of new immigrants arriv- women from coming to live in Lewiston tion grew by 169 percent between 1990 ing from 1991 to 1998 relative to the because, he wrote, “Our city is maxed and 2000, and the state ranks sixth in number of foreign-born counted there out financially, physically and emotion- the nation in the rate of its foreign-born in 1990. Atlanta, Georgia is second and ally.” The Holyoke, Massachusetts city population’s growth. It is the nation’s Louisville, Kentucky is third. council also opposed resettling Somalis fourth fastest growing state in Hispanic Nontraditional communities have because the city didn’t have enough population. Within Tennessee, most also become a haven for Iranians and money to educate and train them. of the newcomer population flocked Iraqis after the Persian Gulf War and Farmingville, a Long Island, New York to Nashville in Davidson County and terrorist attacks, Somalis and Sudanese community, has become a national seven other adjacent outlying counties evading political turmoil, Russian Jews flashpoint on immigrant issues because of middle Tennessee. Today, one-in-

32 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 seven of Nashville’s 570,000 residents is Latin American immigrants. The U.S. public health department. “Initially, I foreign-born. Department of State worked closely with came with no choice but I decided to Nashville’s transformation was three religiously affiliated charities to stay here for several reasons—there’s a rapid. The foreign-born population relocate refugees to Nashville; as a result, good job market and the quality of life grew by 203 percent between 1990 the city also has significant concentra- is affordable. Three-fourths of the Kurds and 2000, almost four times as fast as tions of Middle Easterners, Europeans here own their own homes. There’s less the national average. Researchers assert and Africans. In fact, Nashville has one traffic and it’s a religious city. That’s a that the rates are actually much higher of the nation’s largest groups of Kurdish factor because it’s a trusting commu- because large numbers of undocu- refugees, approximately 7,000. nity with family values and less of the mented immigrants are not counted The agenda of a recent meet- Western society atmosphere. People feel by the census. By 2020, the Hispanic ing of the Nashville Task Force on safe raising a family here.” population in greater Nashville is pro- Refugees and Immigrants, a coalition Nashville is perfectly suited to be jected to double. of immigrant and refugee service orga- a receiving community and a model Frank Sharry, executive director of nizations located in Middle Tennessee, for study, says Dan B. Cornfield, a the Washington, D.C.-based National reflected the area’s diversity. The meet- Vanderbilt University sociology profes- Immigration Forum, said immigrants ing included presentations on cultural sor and acting director of the Vanderbilt are drawn to Nashville because of its resettlement issues faced by Somali Institute for Public Policy Studies. “This refugees; a “Walk-As-One” 5K fundrais- is a Tocquevillian paradise,” Cornfield ing event to celebrate diversity; a Kurdish says, conjuring the spirit of Alexis de and American com- Tocqueville, who wrote, in his 1835 munity project to landmark book, Democracy in America, support Tennessee about how citizens’ associations played a soldiers serving in critical role in preserving and strength- Iraq; and advice ening the young United States of on helping foreign- America. “We have a long tradition of born individu- a vibrant not-for-profit community in als with limited Tennessee,” notes Cornfield. “There’s a English proficiency reason it’s called the ‘Volunteer State.’” to understand cut- The greater metropolitan area has backs in the state 813 private and public social service Medicaid health providers, 18 colleges and universities, care program. a highly developed network of social Unlike previ- service providers, a history of racial

PHOTO BY SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES ous generations, integration, and a shockingly low two reputation for “jobs, nice people, low today’s immigrants and refugees simul- percent unemployment rate even while crime and good schools. Immigrants taneously maintain cultural, political, the general population increased twenty want the same things we do.” economic and social ties to two or more percent during the 1990s. Not only did the growth occur quickly— societies. And one of their greatest chal- Nashville has traditionally had a almost half of the foreign born arrived in lenges is integrating not only with the strong economic base. It is home to Nashville after 1995—but the newcom- American culture, but also with the major corporations, including Hospital ers are vastly diversified. Latin Americans, multiple cultures of other newcomers. Corporation of America, the largest mainly from Mexico, comprise 40 percent “I didn’t know which city in health care company in the world, and of the immigrants. El Enlace Latino, the America was bad or good to raise my 200 other health care companies that Nashville Hispanic yellow pages, reaches family, but I had a cousin who lived manage half the nation’s for-profit hos- more than 200,000 Hispanic and Latino in Nashville and I used his address as pitals. Often dubbed the “Athens of the customers in twelve counties surround- a contact,” says Tahir Hussain, presi- South” (it even has a life-size replica of ing Nashville. dent of the Nashville Kurdish Forum, the Parthenon in its city park) because But the foreign-born population who arrived from Iraq in 1997 to work of its historic dedication to fine arts and in greater Nashville is not exclusively first in a plastic factory and then for the higher education, “Nashville was never

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 33 deep south in its political culture,” In 2001, Stuart wrote an exposé expanded its legendary Grand Ole Cornfield declares. He has more to say about immigrants in his hometown. Opry to include an entertainment about what makes Nashville both a “A vague disquiet hovers beneath the division and a chain of hotels and magnet for newcomers and a rich source surface of our thoughts, causing even resorts, including the 2,884-room of information about their effects on a the most well-meaning of longtime Opryland Hotel in Nashville, houses community, pointing out that the city’s residents to question our collective its foreign-born workers at smaller, robust service economy, progressive ability—and our will—to move the off-site hotels and provides English-as- government, highly developed com- city up a notch, to transform it into a-Second Language (ESL) classes. One munity of nonprofit social service pro- an equitable, vibrant, multiethnic and large Nashville construction company viders and advocates, renowned place productive 21st century community,” reports that one-fourth of its employ- in the history of the civil rights move- Stuart wrote. “Are we prepared—men- ees are Hispanic and a meatpacking ment and pioneering efforts in racial- tally, socially, politically, educationally, plant near Nashville reports that 40 ethnic integration affords researchers economically—to transform ourselves percent of its 1,600 employees are and policymakers abundant opportuni- into a community of independent citi- from foreign countries and speak 13 ties to study and devise creative com- zens, or even a reasonably progressive different languages. munity-building policies to address the and productive small city attuned to “Employers were saying, ‘I need “This is a rapid-fire change,” says Reginald Stuart, a journalist and Nashville native, “and southern towns don’t change fast. They’re being pushed and pushed.”

conflicts and complexities that accom- cross-cultural strengths, like Seattle workers even if they don’t speak pany rapid globalization “Nashville is or Portland?” English,’” says Garrett Harper, who an important case in point of a city for While the answer is unclear, a city was research director at the Nashville which immigration is recent and inter- still struggling with black and white Chamber of Commerce before join- cultural group relations are complex,” racial issues is also learning how to ing the Visitors Bureau. “Employers Cornfield notes. “The foreign-born and cope with new strains of diversity. welcomed the foreign-born and immigrant population is cross-hetero- Among the first group in Nashville whether the employers were good enti- geneous. They face a variety of needs.” to feel the convergence of immigrants ties or exploiters, they’d say that hav- and refugees were local businessmen ing this workforce was a good thing Struggling With Change who were readily employing the droves for Nashville. There was the idea that It is against this textured backdrop of newcomers arriving in the city look- everyone was a winner, and the for- that Nashville—a politically “blue ing for jobs. eign-born weren’t considered a great city” in a “red state” that has always During the 1990s, the metropoli- burden. Even if there wasn’t always a perceived itself as more progressive, tan area added 260,000 jobs, mainly welcoming, there also wasn’t anything less parochial and even superior to due to the establishment of Nissan, negative.” Some business leaders even other southern cities—embarked on a Saturn and Dell manufacturing plants, suggested that the economy and popu- new and different challenge of becom- and employers were overjoyed to tap lation growth would have faltered if ing a multiethnic community. into the abundant supply of immi- not for the foreign-born workers who Rising to the challenge has not grants and refugees—even if they took jobs unfilled by Americans. happened without conflict and con- didn’t speak English—to work in fac- But the immigrant workers also troversy. “This is a rapid-fire change,” tories, on construction sites and in brought problems with them: poverty, says Reginald Stuart, a journalist and restaurants and stores. Nashville-based illegal status and language barriers all Nashville native, “and southern towns Gaylord Entertainment, America’s took their toll when these newcom- don’t change fast. They’re being pushed fastest-growing specialty lodging and ers arrived on Nashville’s doorstep. and pushed.” entertainment company, which has Currently, eighteen percent of the

34 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 foreign-born population in Nashville “Intensive Survival Spanish for Law National Immigration Forum, the lives below the federal poverty level Enforcement.” But the course costs Southeast Asia Resource Action Center ($17,050 for a family of four in 2000), $120 and provides only limited skills, and the Migration Policy Institute. almost double the rate for the total and there are complaints that officers It was primarily funded by the U.S. city population. Almost half of the for- are often ineffective in working with Office of Refugee Resettlement and eign-born population speaks limited the foreign-born community because received additional funding from the of language barriers. In Carnegie Endowment for International 2000, Hispanics staged Peace. Carnegie Corporation of a protest when two New York also provided support to local policemen inad- the National Immigration Forum, vertently gunned down the Migration Policy Institute and a Korean merchant who the National Conference of State was attempting to foil a Legislatures for their work on BNAC. pair of armed robbers. Says Geri Mannion, chair of the City leaders, espe- Corporation’s Strengthening U.S. cially businessmen, Democracy program, “It is important, realized that the city in the Corporation’s view, to develop was undergoing major immigrant policies aimed at integrating cultural, social and civic newcomers into our national life—not changes and called for just immigration policies dealing with help. Garrett Harper who can come here and who can’t, and was working at the in what numbers—because helping Chamber of Commerce newcomers to become full participants in 2000 when he in our democracy will help us keep our became the principal nation vibrant and strong.” architect of a request Demetrios Papademetriou, presi- to the U.S. Office of dent of the Migration Policy Institute Refugee Resettlement in Washington, D.C., says smaller cit- for a $375,000 grant ies like Nashville are discovering that to undertake a three- public-private partnerships are vital year pilot venture called to integrating the increasing numbers PHOTO BY ANNE FARRIS “Building the New of immigrants. Theresa Harmon, a spokeswoman for the American Community Under BNAC, the Nashville New Tennesseans for Responsible Immigration Policies (TRIP). (BNAC) Initiative.” American Coalition (NNAC), an alli- Nashville was one of ance of businesses, social service agen- three cities, including cies and immigrant and refugee activist English. Three-fourths are not citizens Lowell, Massachusetts and Portland, rights groups, was formed to integrate and, therefore, are civically isolated Oregon chosen in 2001 to receive the the foreign born into the political, social and politically disenfranchised. The grant and become an experimental and economic life of the city. NNAC, public school superintendent, a Cuban integration site. The initiative stemmed sponsored by the Nashville Chamber refugee, has increased the number of from the absence of a national immi- of Commerce and sixteen organizations ESL classes for a student body that grant policy that might otherwise help representing immigrants and refugees, speaks 80 different languages. But the governments and civil society unaccus- specifically identified the workplace increases cannot keep pace with the tomed to the influx of newcomers to as the key arena for integration and demand, and the number of classes respond in a positive manner. focused on involving the entire com- and teachers is woefully lacking. The BNAC Initiative is a joint munity—not just immigrants and refu- The police department began hir- project of five national organizations: gees—in the integration process. ing Hispanic officers in the 1990s and the National Conference of State “Immigrant integration is not just now offers an online course entitled Legislatures, the Urban Institute, the a one-way process,” says Ann Morse,

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 35 program director of the Immigrant tle experience with immigrant workers, mentors with individuals from racial Policy Project for the National to teach them about different social and and ethnic minorities. Conference of State Legislatures and cultural practices that could affect the BNAC program manager. “What this workplace. It also published two bro- Ongoing Debates project proved is that integration is a chures: How Employers Can Expand and Tahir Hussain hopes that one day a complex, multifaceted, long-term pro- Diversify Their Workforce and Guidebook Kurd can be elected to the city council cess that involves an entire community for Employers of International Workers. or state legislature and it may take a including employers, schools, neigh- NNAC also helped immigrants high-profile political move like that to borhoods, places of worship and gov- and refugees to navigate the complex, help some Nashville natives completely ernment agencies. Nashville was unique bureaucratic process of gaining proper grasp and understand the change afoot because of the commitment from the credentials and licenses to pursue jobs in their city. Although immigrants business community, but it reflects a and addressed challenges fac- national trend. Most businesses recog- ing foreign-trained professionals nize we’re running out of workers.” in gaining U.S. certification by NNAC worked in four areas: business identifying barriers and by rais- development, citizen and civic participa- ing the issue with state legislators tion, research and leadership and capacity and the governor’s staff. building. Nashville Metro Social Services “Nashville is the only and the Tennessee Department of Human community I know in the Resources was also involved in the project. United States where the Chamber The organization’s community-building of Commerce and the business efforts included immigrant voter educa- community have stepped up and tion, recertification for foreign-trained said ‘Let’s make this work,’” says

professionals, leadership training and Frank Sharry of the National PHOTO BY ANNE FARRIS youth development. NNAC also provided Immigration Forum. State Rep. Robert W. Briley technical and management assistance to Another of NNAC’s initiatives, the represents neighborhoods in community immigrant and refugee orga- “Board Bank,” prepared refugee and Nashville where about 20 percent of his constituents are nizations such as Kurdish Human Rights immigrant leaders to participate on foreign born. Watch, the Somali Community Center boards and commissions of local govern- of Nashville, the Nashville Egyptian ment and nonprofit organizations. Tahir Community, the Sudanese Humanitarian Hussain of the National Kurdish Forum and refugees have a strong and perva- Organization, the International Lao- and a member of the Board Bank, now sive presence in Nashville working as American Organization and Iraqi House. serves on the board of the local public teachers, construction workers, doc- The city now has two Hispanic Chambers broadcasting television station and is a tors, parking lot attendants, business- of Commerce. graduate of Leadership Nashville, a 30- men, landscapers and housekeepers, “Nashville leaders welcomed and year-old initiative to train leaders. among other professions, the general organized them, then immigrant lead- “NNAC allowed us to build rela- public still does not seem to fully grasp ers continued the process,” says State tionships with the Nashville leaders,” the sheer numbers and diversity of the Representative Robert W. Briley, the Hussain says. “Still, if I said everything city’s new residents even though, for Democratic Majority Floor Leader and was perfect in Nashville, that would not example, the city has three Spanish grandson of a former Nashville mayor be accurate. Sometimes we have to be radio stations, along with three Spanish who spearheaded the consolidation of aggressive and fight for our rights. But and one Chinese newspaper. the Nashville and Davidson County once we start talking, we are allowed That seemed particularly true in governments in 1963. Briley repre- to be part of the city and we feel con- May 2001 when Tennessee became the sents neighborhoods in Nashville where nected to the mainstream.” Hussain is first state in the nation to allow immi- about 20 percent of his constituents are also participating in a networking proj- grants, both documented and undocu- foreign born. ect called The Davidson Group, first mented, to receive a driver’s license. NNAC placed added emphasis on created in 1980 to address black-white With that single piece of legislation, reaching out to employers, who had lit- racial tensions, that matches Nashville immigrants suddenly became a water-

36 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 cooler topic in Nashville because the Locke says. “It’s a win-win deal for the putrid real quick. There’s a lot of igno- city was instantly tagged as a welcoming employers and illegal aliens, and a losing rance that they are taking away jobs haven with an open-door policy for for- deal for everyone else. We’re subsidizing and influencing our heritage. It’s a new eigners. Efforts began almost immedi- many legal immigrants as well.” form of racism,” adds Briley, who at 39, ately to repeal the law when grumbling The immigration control argument is barely old enough to remember when increased about lengthy lines at driver has been fueled by two local talk radio Nashville was one of the first cities to test centers and immigrants using the hosts including Phil Valentine, who integrate its lunch counters and high license as formal identification. ran unsuccessfully for Congress and schools. “It’s politically acceptable to be Public reaction to the new law published a book advocating conser- racist against immigrants in some parts birthed two new vibrant, yet opposing vative values with a chapter entitled, of this city even when it’s not politically grassroots movements—one to limit the “Illegal Immigration is Dangerous acceptable to be racist against blacks, or flow of undocumented immigrants and to This Country.” Valentine recently at least not openly,” he concludes. “Nashville is the only community I know in the United States where the Chamber of Commerce and the business community have stepped up and said ‘Let’s make this work,’” says Frank Sharry of the National Immigration Forum. another to help integrate newcomers aired his show live from Washington, Theresa Harmon is a spokes- into society. Each group was as zealously D.C. as Congress debated a law that woman for Tennesseans for Responsible driven as the other and the immigrant forbids undocumented immigrants Immigration Policies (TRIP), which she and refugee debate in Nashville became from receiving drivers’ licenses and says was formed in reaction to the state’s loud and, at times, vicious. he regularly features guests like U.S. issuance of drivers’ licenses, which she One group voicing opposition to Representative Marsha Blackburn, a calls “our de facto national ID,” and “a ongoing immigration is Tennesseans for Tennessee Republican who was elected passport to legitimacy.” Harmon counters Immigration Control, whose spokes- on an immigration-control platform. the charge of racism in regard to immi- woman is Donna Locke. “Tennessee is One topic leading the talk show grants, saying, “It doesn’t have anything on the road to bankruptcy because of agenda is the recent national attention to do with racism. What gives anyone a massive, out-of-control immigration garnered by a county judge in a town right to break our laws? Meaning, what and because of the magnet for illegal near Nashville who ordered a Hispanic is unclear about the word ‘illegal’? What aliens that Tennessee has made itself,” mother to learn English or relinquish we’re seeing is a Balkanization of our laws. says Locke, adding her view that pro- custody of her 11-year-old daugh- Immigrants keep their culture and lan- immigrant groups that help newcomers ter. The judge has since retracted his guage, stay in an enclave and do not assim- after their arrival, along with the money original order, but the case, centered in ilate. They need to fit into our culture and resources dedicated to their assis- a largely white suburban town where and not make us fit into theirs. We tance, attract large concentrations of the number of Hispanics has dou- didn’t make these concessions for immi- immigrants to the South. bled in the last four years, carries all grants in the past. Why should we make “We’re getting illegals directly from the overt ramifications of cultural mis- them now?” their countries of origin, and we’re get- understandings. “Everyone says we need immigrant ting illegals from other states because The fevered pitch of the immi- workers for the economy,” Harmon of the driving privileges that Tennessee gration debate has some established continues. “If that were true, California offers, because of a free or nearly free Nashville natives cringing. “It’s anti- would have the greatest economy in the health-care program that Tennessee citi- immigration to a degree that is frighten- world and we all see that’s not the case. zens are paying to provide and because of ing to me,” says Representative Briley. When do you say enough is enough? employers willing to hire illegal aliens,” “Once that debate starts, it becomes Americans are the most generous

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 37 people on earth, but they want it to be states, including Utah, with a two- ing national policy on immigrant inte- up to them as far as when and where.” tiered system of issuing two different gration. Many in the general public Harmon was reared in a white drivers’ permits—one for legal citizens are also concerned about these issues: a middle-class Nashville neighborhood and another certificate for driving for national survey of likely voters released south of the downtown where many of undocumented citizens. The certifi- in March 2005 showed overwhelm- the foreign born have congregated and cate cannot be used for identification. ing and intense support for bipartisan where Rauf Ary operates his market. Because in 2005 Congress passed the federal legislation that would allow “This looks nothing like the Nashville Real ID Act, which requires states foreigners and undocumented immi- I grew up in,” Harmon says. “All the to issue drivers’ licenses only to legal grants to obtain work permits and earn signs are in Spanish. There is no English citizens, other states are looking at their way to citizenship. spoken here. We need to do something Tennessee’s system as an example of While opposing amnesty for undoc- about this.” future facilitation and structure. A umented workers, President George W. Three years ago, she moved her number of governors, however, includ- Bush has said that immigrants and ref- mother out of the neighborhood and ing Vermont’s Republican governor, ugees should be allowed to obtain legal sold her childhood home. “Despite Jim Douglas, have voiced concerns work permits. Building on that idea, a what you hear, blacks and whites have about the bureaucracy that the Real bipartisan coalition of U.S. senators, gotten along here,” she says. “But now ID Act may end up creating, and the led by Edward M. Kennedy and John the illegals are taking over the jobs that belong to blacks and legal Mexicans. I’m seeing white and "This looks nothing like the Nashville black flight when Hispanics move into the neighborhoods.” I grew up in," says Theresa Harmon.

Toward a National fact that it may impose an unfunded McCain, have introduced legislation Policy on Immigrants? federal mandate on the states. that, among other provisions, would While local groups have formed to During this year’s legislative session, create a pathway to earned legalization limit immigrant migration, other coali- Tennessee delegates have considered a for many undocumented immigrants. tions were created to strengthen immi- slew of bills that both limit and expand In response to the growing awareness grant and refugee rights (a pattern that immigrants’ rights and benefits. Five and demand for a unified national policy is being repeated in other communi- bills, endorsed by Harmon and TRIP, on immigrants, the Migration Policy ties, as well as nationally). One group, would require driver’s license exams to be Institute has convened a bipartisan task the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee given only in English, prohibit undocu- force of leaders and experts concerned Rights Coalition (TIRRC), was estab- mented immigrants from receiving state with and affected by immigrants. “While lished to stave off a repeal to the driver’s social services, require state employees the United States, with its immigration license law. “There was a backlash to to report undocumented workers to heritage, has long been a world leader in the law, but it helped push our group federal authorities, prohibit immigrants welcoming and integrating newcomers, forward. Since then, it’s made us more from possessing handguns and repeal there is a growing gap today between our organized,” says David Lubell, who the driver’s certificate. Four other bills, official immigration policies and reali- moved to Nashville from his native endorsed by Lubell and TIRRC, would ties on the ground,” the Institute’s task New York to become TIRRC state extend the drivers’ certificate duration, force statement proclaims. “Immigration coordinator. He said the organization give legal immigrants more access to issues are complex with wide-rang- does not believe immigrants should be drivers’ licenses and increase funding for ing consequences that span individual undocumented citizens and endorses a ESL teachers in public schools. rights, the rule of law, the way our cit- comprehensive national immigration Tennessee’s active calendar of divi- ies and labor markets operate, American policy to address the documentation sive legislation dealing with immigrants competitiveness, national security and and other needs of immigrants. exemplifies how state and local gov- the unique character of the United States The driver’s license law, however, ernments are struggling to chart their in the world.” was revised in 2004 and the new ver- own course through these troubled “Immigration issues are also con- sion makes Tennessee the first of two waters in the absence of an overarch- troversial and little consensus exists on

38 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 key policy questions,” the statement ity and to determine how to better ease immigrants and refugees are increas- continues. “Part of the explanation for the transition for Nashville’s foreign- ing in middle Tennessee. Hispanics this controversy and political division born arrivals. The mayor plans to use are making life worse, according to owes to the fact that immigration pol- the study in a performance audit of the forty-one percent of those surveyed, icy debates are often poorly informed, city/county Social Services Department compared with twenty-eight percent polarized and narrow. The ambition of to improve the level of services to in 1998. Negative reactions to Middle this task force is to inform and broaden foreign-born residents. Easterners were reported by thirty-nine those debates.” “The fact that the local government percent of respondents, while fifteen The need for adopting national commissioned this study shows that percent said the same about Asians. policies is clear to many, including they are concerned with understand- Seventy-four percent of those surveyed David Lubbell of TIRRC. He says, “It’s ing the perspective of the immigrants believed that U.S. immigration policy and the social service providers,” is “too open.” says Dan Cornfield of Vanderbilt Steven Camarota of the Center for University, the study’s principal Immigration Studies says Nashville’s investigator. reactions to the immigrant and refugee The study, which surveyed 64 influx is an indicator of the mood in the social service organizations and rest of the nation. “Nationally, there’s conducted 16 focus groups of 137 always a divide between public opinion immigrants, found that a majority and the elite opinion,” he says, “and of social service providers operated that’s the case in Nashville and other from outside the immigrant com- cities. The mayor, the businessmen and munity and offered services mainly the preacher of the Presbyterian church in English. The study also com- may have one reaction to their arrival, pared services to those in Atlanta, but the local union president may say Charlotte and Memphis and recom- another thing.” mended that Nashville adopt some So as Nashville is forced to con- of the best practices found in those front a critical crossroads in its history, cities such as Charlotte’s establish- the perennial question nags: Will the PHOTO BY DAVE G. HOUSER/CORBIS ment of a Mayor’s Advisory Board “Tocquevillian paradise” teeter as state Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, on immigrant issues. budgets are pinched and social service former home of the Grand Ole Opry. Today, Nashville is a handbook demands increase? Can the city’s econ- for the nation, an index of mistakes omy sustain and tolerate an open-gate and gains. It is certainly a much policy? Will it provide a blueprint for a myth that if Tennessee passes laws to more exotic and cosmopolitan city, national immigration reform? Can the prevent immigrants from coming here an eclectic collection of international city become a truly diverse compen- then the state won’t be affected by this food, art and entertainment. Three dium of mixed races and cultures? national phenomenon. To throw out all Hispanic-themed films were featured The answer is still unfolding before immigrants is not humane, not feasible in this year’s Nashville Film Festival. the eyes of those witnessing history in and it’s not going to happen. What we Austin Peay State University opened a the making. One of them is Carolyn need are federal guidelines.” Hispanic Cultural Center this year and McKenzie, the mother of a Tennessee In the meantime, Nashville contin- an exhibit at the Frist Center for the soldier in Iraq who was unaware of ues to seek the guidance and informa- Visual Arts includes the star-spangled the large presence of Kurdish refu- tion it needs to address the immigrant couture of Mexican-native designer gees until the January polling stations influx in lieu of a national directive. In Manuel. The country music duo Big were opened in Nashville. More than January 2005, a team of college and and Rich has incorporated bilingual 3,700 people voted there. “This is university researchers commissioned rap into their musical repertoire. not a normal Nashville kind of thing,” by Nashville/Davidson County mayor But a poll conducted by Middle she said. “I think it’s divine inter- Bill Purcell released a year-long study Tennessee State University in 2002 vention. We’re blessed to have them to assess the city’s social service capac- indicated that negative feelings about and to be able to have this opportunity.”■

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 39 CAREER AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION: “V

40 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 CAREER AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION: It’s Not Just V ocational ducation ” EAnymore by L u c y H o o d Blending academics, career training and technology leads to an educational experience that’s light-years away from the “home ec” and “shop” classes of past generations.

East Ridge High School in most of his classes with a barely passing grade, “and now Jesse Henson is a quiet student, the type who easily falls my lowest grade is a 78.” through the cracks. He doesn’t cause trouble, doesn’t skip Henson is one of 14 students in Denise Hearn’s school, and he doesn’t call attention to himself. For years, Construction English class, where she’s foregone Shakespeare he’s shown up—first at McBride Elementary School in and other works of literature in exchange for technical read- Chattanooga, then East Ridge Middle School and now at ing, instruction manuals, office memos, and other forms of East Ridge High School—and all that time, year after year, reading and writing that her students are likely to use on the he consistently brought home failing grades. He studied, he job as designers, contractors or welders. “I love literature,” she said, and he tried to do the work, but his grades were so low that no one ever believed him. It wasn’t until he entered the Lucy Hood is a freelance writer living in Washington, DC. Construction Academy at East Ridge at the beginning of his She has written extensively about education for the past nine junior year that his grades started to improve, and now he years, winning state, national and international awards for her credits the program with dramatically changing his life. “I reporting. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she also worked as

PHOTOS BY JOHN G. MOEBES/CORBIS; LEE STRICKLAND/GETTY IMAGES; ROB MELNYCHUK/GETTY IMAGES used to make 40s and 50s,” he said, ultimately squeaking by a correspondent in Mexico and Central America.

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 41 says, “and I’d love for the kids to have tems around the country. Chattanooga brought the largely African American a passion for it. But they don’t.” What is an SNS site; its East Ridge High population of Chattanooga city schools they do have is a need to learn practi- School was the first campus in the and the largely white population of cal skills that are relevant to their daily Chattanooga school system to create Hamilton County schools together lives, so that’s what she teaches, and the a career academy—a school within a under one superintendent. Since then, results, she said, have been dramatic. “I school that combines rigorous academ- East Ridge has become more diverse. Of get more class discussion with these stu- ics with vocational education. Twelve of the 900 students who attended last year, dents than I ever did with most of my Chattanooga’s seventeen high schools more than a fifth, or twenty-two per- other classes.” now have one or more career acad- cent, was African American, and eight emies, and each new acad- percent were English language learners emy breeds a new group of representing seventeen nationalities. But converts, people like Hearn Dedmon, who retired in May, said there who have become true are still reminders—often in the form of believers in this new educa- Confederate flags displayed in front of

ocational education —in many ways—no longer caters to students at the bottom end of the

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SCHOOLS FOR A NEW SOCIETY education spectrum... it has become

Hearn, who teaches English and an option for all students. social studies, was the kind of teacher who stood up in front of the classroom and lectured. “On a regular basis,” neighborhoodneighborhood homes—thathomes—that thethe schoolschool she says, “kids were telling me this is and the community it serves did not boring.” But she didn’t want to devi- appear to be fertile ground for change. ate from the way she had been doing Even so, change has come, not only things for twenty years, she didn’t want in the form of racial and ethnic diversity, to leave her comfort zone and she was but also in the form of academic diver- resistant to the changes that came when sity, and that change is attributable in

East Ridge High School implemented Felicia Lee, student in large part to a man named Ron Tanner, the Career Construction Academy East Ridge High School's president of Chattanooga-based C&I three years ago as part of Carnegie Construction Academy. General Contractors. Tanner is also Corporation of New York’s Schools for active at the national level in fostering a New Society (SNS) initiative, which tional hybrid where a thesaurus and a workforce development programs for is designed to foster large-scale change welding torch go hand in hand. the Association of General Contractors in urban schools. With additional sup- East Ridge was an unlikely place to (AGC), and he was looking for a way port from the Bill & Melinda Gates start a reform effort of any kind. Not all to expand the pool of qualified electri- Foundation, the five-year initiative— that long ago, the student population cians, plumbers, carpenters and brick- which emphasizes the idea that in order was almost exclusively white, and the sur- layers when he approached Hamilton to improve education for all students, rounding community had a reputation County School administrators four entire school districts must reinvent the for discriminating against minorities, years ago. He wanted them to know way they deliver education—is provid- says former principal Cheri Dedmon. that there are well-paying jobs for high ing $60 million to seven school sys- That was before the 1996 merger that school graduates in the construction

42 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 trade, but the work is hard, and they practical skills he’s learning in his voca- Chattanooga was once located at a criti- require strong academic skills. “You talk tional classes. And, he knows that “if I cal juncture on the Western and Atlantic to anybody who is going to hire some- want to take vocational classes, I have to Railroad, and for decades it thrived as a one,” he says, “and almost everyone is uphold my end here in the academics.” railroad hub connecting East to West. going to say, ‘I want them to be able to Collins plans to graduate in December, Surrounded by mountains rich with solve problems and to be able to com- and when he does, he intends to go to coal and iron, it was also a thriving municate.’” And so it was that Tanner a technical college, maybe join the U.S. industrial town, and its reliance primar- and Dedmon started to talk. Initially, Navy. He’s intrigued, he says, by the idea ily on industry and to a lesser extent the with each clinging to his or her respec- of underwater construction—upgrad- railroad carried it through good times tive form of jargon, Dedmon said, the ing bridges and deep-sea oilrigs. and bad—post-war revivals and the talks progressed very slowly. “It took Another student of the Construction Great Depression—up until the 1960s. a long time to realize we wanted the Academy at East Ridge is Felicia Lee, By then, the train had been eclipsed by same thing,” she said. In the end, they who also feels that the real-life-oriented the automobile, and the city’s industrial created what has become an award- classes have given her both an academic and manufacturing base had dwindled to a fraction of its former self, leaving behind a stream of contaminants that in 1969 earned Chattanooga the dubious honor of being the most polluted city ocational education —in many ways—no longer in the nation. The city acted quickly to clean up the environment, but it con- caters to students at the bottom end of the tinued to face economic woes, and with the onset of the Civil Rights movement, racial tensions ran high. Since the early education spectrum... it has become 1990s, however, there’s been a renais- sance of sorts in Chattanooga, one that an option for all students. includes a revival of the city’s down- town area, an expansion of the service sector and efforts have been made to winningwinning vocationalvocational programprogram thatthat doesdoes boostboost aandnd a vvisionision ooff hherer ffuture—sheuture—she bridge the gap between the city’s black just what both of them wanted to begin hopes to become an architect. Of and white populations. with: it prepares students for the work- her experiences in the Construction Against this backdrop, city and force, it prepares them for apprentice- Academy she says, “When you have county leaders voted in 1996 to merge ships and it prepares them for college. things you get to work with hands on, it the two school systems serving stu- As for student Zac Collins, he makes you more interested and excited dents in the city of Chattanooga and wanted none of the above. He simply about going to class.” Felicia, who surrounding Hamilton County, and wanted to be out of school. He’d failed struggled through the earlier grades of Superintendent Jesse Register was the fourth and seventh grades, and school, adds that before she entered the lured away from his job at the Iredell- being “out” of school for him meant Construction Academy, “I didn’t care, Statesville schools in North Carolina to dropping out. And that’s what he would I didn’t want to go to school, I didn’t run the new school district known as have done, he says, if it hadn’t been for want to learn. But now, I feel that I’ve Hamilton County Schools. “They were the Construction Academy. “I would’ve progressed a lot.” two 20,000-student school systems,” he gotten my GED, if anything,” says said, “one urban and high poverty, the Collins who admits that he’s made mis- Chattanooga other suburban and middle class.” One takes in life. He failed the fourth and Founded on a bend in the Tennessee was also largely African American and seventh grades, he says, because he was River, Chattanooga is located in the the other largely white, and Register lazy, but he also has a very genuine dis- southeastern part of the state. A little far- inherited a pending desegregation like for academics. “I don’t like school,” ther south, and Chattanooga would be complaint from the U.S. Department he explains. But he does like the hands- the fourth largest city in Georgia instead of Education’s Office of Civil Rights on work of welding, carpentry and other of the fourth largest city in Tennessee. demanding that he integrate the schools.

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 43 Hence one of his first reform efforts was were inaccessible, and we didn’t think wants, how many it wants and the time- the creation of a pupil assignment plan we had a very good idea of what career table for creating each one. East Ridge that included the creation of 15 mag- and technology education should look is moving slowly and deliberately with net schools aimed at drawing white and like.” The two vocational schools were two academies—one for ninth graders black students across their traditional created in the late 1960s, and they and the Construction Academy. But boundary lines. “It was either that or became dumping grounds for kids who Central High School opted for a much busing,” he said, “and [busing] didn’t struggled with academics. They also faster track. It started with one ninth- make sense with the landscape, the riv- removed students from what educator grade academy in the 2003-2004 school ers and the mountains.” Valerie Copeland Rutledge calls “all the year and added three more theme- Since then, Hamilton County school regular parts of school.” Rutledge taught based academies last year. For the cur- administrators have implemented sev- in Hamilton county schools for twenty rent school year, there will be a total eral initiatives to improve the quality of years before she became director of the of twenty-seven academies—including their schools and facilitate a merger that Teacher Preparation Academy at the seven ninth grade academies—at twelve still—nearly ten years later—encoun- University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, of the county’s seventeen high schools. ters undercurrents of resistance. “There and she saw firsthand how the voca- are still people in this county,” Register tional program used to work. “It cre- Beyond Chattanooga said, “who would like to see it run the ated a divide,” she said. Voc ed students The academy concept is part of a way it used to be.” But he must contend could not participate in the gamut of new trend in vocational education, one with the reality at hand, and to do that school-wide activities that define the that responds to the demand for higher he’s recently adopted a two-pronged high school experience—student body academic standards and the changing approach. One, he convinced the school elections, pep rallies, etc. “When all of needs of a modern-day workforce. And board to implement a unified diploma, these things were going on,” she says, it is similar in some ways to the trend becoming one of the few public school “they were at vocational school or on that initially brought vocational educa- systems in the country to do away with the bus going to vocational school.” tion into the classroom at the turn of a more traditional three-tiered system Register and his staff now have a the 20th century, when there were wide- that puts the college-bound kids on one much better sense of what career and spread concerns that America’s youth path, vocational kids on another and technology education should look was not prepared for the Industrial a third group of kids on a track that’s like. It should take the form of a career Revolution. At the time, apprenticeships somewhere in-between. Beginning with academy, meaning it should be a small were the norm and schools focused on last year’s entering freshman, all high school setting, and it should foster a the teaching of academic subjects and school students in Chattanooga and its sense of belonging for students who moral and civic values. “Learning the suburbs will be prepared to enter col- might otherwise feel lost on a large technical skills of a particular occupa- lege when they finish high school. sprawling campus. The academy should tion still occurred on the job, not in the The second part of Register’s most offer classes in all core subject areas classroom,” write Norton Grubb and recent reform effort is a multimillion- as well as a range of career-oriented Marvin Lazerson in their 2004 book, The dollar overhaul of all seventeen high options, and it should have strong ties Education Gospel (Harvard University schools. So far the price tag is an esti- to the business community, much like Press, 2004). That began to change, the mated $20 million, including $8 mil- East Ridge does with the AGC of East authors say, with the convergence of lion from Carnegie Corporation’s SNS Tennessee. In addition, school admin- three key developments: a precipitous initiative. In Chattanooga, a key com- istrators require that each academy drop in the youth labor movement, the ponent of the SNS work is vocational be designed to attract students who declining use of apprenticeships and the education—a term that harks back to reflect the demographics and academic Industrial Revolution itself. By mid-cen- the days of “home ec” and auto shop. achievement of the school as a whole to tury, vocational education had become Today, vocational education is much ensure that it doesn’t cater to a skewed a crucial component of the comprehen- more sophisticated and educators refer number of students from any given race, sive American high school. In fact, the to it as career and technology educa- ethnicity, or any particular rung on the authors note, “It created the compre- tion, or CTE. “We had two vocational grading scale. Beyond these parameters, hensive high school,” which, in the years high schools,” Register says, adding, however, it’s up to the individual school following World War II, was “the citadel “The biggest problem was that they to determine what kind of academy it of American democracy, defending the

44 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 make it more relevant and meaningful to kids.” In short, educators are begin- ning to see how vocational education can help—not hinder—their efforts to improve test scores and graduation rates. Brand calls it a “reemergence.” Gene Bottoms of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), calls it an “awakening.” Either way, it’s a renewed effort—at least in some places—to make vocational education a key com- ponent of high school reform. “Quality CTE can play a major role for some youngsters,” Bottoms says. “It can help them see the reason for taking more demanding academics. It gives them a way to see a goal through high school. And, increasingly, it’s a way to link together high school and postsec- ondary studies.” Bottoms is the director of a high school reform program called High Schools That Work (HSTW), a

© CORBIS SREB initiative. Launched in 1987, What students sometimes need most is to learn practical skills it urges high schools to follow 10 key that are relevant to their daily lives. principles, including a commitment to vocational education and high academic American way of life and expressing the Behind Act of 2001, as nationwide pol- standards. It also calls on teachers and triumph of education.” icy. But critics like Grubb and Lazerson administrators to keep score—not only But in recent years, “the high school say that crucial aspects of a high school by analyzing student performance data, has lost its luster,” argue Grubb and education—including vocational educa- but also by way of extensive teacher and Lazerson, and vocational education tion—have been overlooked by the dual student surveys. “One of the impor- has been losing ground to the push strategies of testing and accountability. tant things about the HSTW model,” for higher standards, which began in Some efforts to upgrade vocational says Betty Jordan of the West Virginia 1983 when the National Commission education were far enough along that Department of Education, “is that it on Excellence in Education released they simply adapted to the onset of encourages folks to use multiple sources the report A Nation at Risk. The report standards-based reform, says Betsy of data to make decisions.” The stu- famously warned that deteriorating stan- Brand, director of the Washington, dent survey alone asks—among other dards were leading to a “rising tide of DC-based Youth Policy Forum. While things—about the kinds of courses stu- mediocrity” in American education, and educators focused almost exclusively dents are taking, how much reading is ever since, policymakers have made aca- on language and math, however, many involved, if they stand in front of class demic standards a top priority. In their vocational education programs floun- to make presentations and if vocational effort to help young Americans become dered. “There are only so many hours teachers incorporate math skills in their more successful students who are better in the day,” Brand explains. “But people lesson plans. West Virginia adopted the prepared to participate in an increasingly have kind of gotten over this big hump SREB format as its official blueprint for knowledge-based economy, politicians of standards,” she notes. “We realize high school reform in the mid 1990s, and educators have implemented the we have to change instruction, because and ever since there’s been a gradual use of accountability measures and stan- that’s what it really comes down to, and improvement in test scores and gradu- dardized tests, initially on a piecemeal we could use a lot of the approaches ation rates. “We’re really making an basis and later, with the No Child Left of CTE to improve instruction and to impact on school culture,” Jordan says.

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 45 High Schools That Work is one director of Carnegie Corporation’s academies. One is Math, Technology of several models that have evolved in Urban High School Initiatives. In these and Science, which includes course- the past ten-to-twenty years to upgrade places, it has become an option for all work in three pathways—engineering, vocational education for a 21st century students. “This is for a broader range of environmental science and allied health; society. Career academies, much like kids than most people think,” Warren another is the Humanities, Fine Arts the ones in Chattanooga, are another. said. “And it’s important that it be for a and Communications Academy, which And a third is known as pathways. broader range of kids. Some very bright includes courses in fine arts, journal- The pathways approach, which is not students cannot connect to more tradi- ism, public relations, creative writ- affiliated with any particular organiza- tional instruction and some supposedly ing and criminal justice; and the third tion, calls on students to follow a career not-very-bright students may discover is Technology, Communications and path—or a major—while they’re in new talents and a sense of purpose in Business, which offers classes in mar- high school. In Oregon, where path- these schools.” keting, information technology, finance ways are used extensively throughout and accounting. In addition, all three the state, the process begins in the Central High School vocational academies provide classes freshman and sophomore years. That’s Eric Summer will be a senior at in the core subject areas, but math, when “rich career information is given Central High School when classes English, science and history often have to students so they can get a handle on resume this fall, and it wouldn’t be the a career focus. the idea that some day ‘I might have to work,’” says Jim Schoelkopf of the Oregon Department of Education. At the end of their sophomore year, students select a career major to pur- “ ouou ttalkalk ttoo aanybodynybody who is going to hire sue for the next two years. They may pick from six career areas (such as Arts and Communications or Business and someone andand aalmostlmost everyone is going to say, I want them Management), and the goal is to pro- vide students with enough information to be able to solve problems and to communicate.” and enough firsthand experience to help them make wise decisions when they graduate. “They may find they don’t want to do something” Schoelkopf said, least bit surprising if he was the first The biggest difference for Summer, “and that’s learning. Let’s give them an one through the door when the first bell once a withdrawn, lackluster student, early exposure, but not track them.” rang on August 15. “I’ve never in my was the sense of belonging provided Regardless of the approach—be it life wanted to end my break and be in by the academy, and the astute eye of High Schools That Work, career acad- school,” he said. “I almost don’t want English teacher James Pinon, who knew emies or pathways—there are two com- my summer break to start. I want to go how to reach Summer, draw him out mon themes in this new form of career straight into senior year.” Summers is and tap into his strengths. “You’re not and technology education. One is an enrolled in the humanities academy at just a number anymore,” says Summer, emphasis on academic standards and Central, where each circular wing of the who last year was the junior class presi- the other is a much broader definition 36-year-old building now has an acad- dent. A staunch Republican, Summer of vocation, one that includes a vast emy that caters either to the ninth grade now has plans to study law and become array of courses that teach kids how or one of three vocational themes. It a politician. Another entering senior to become nurses, doctors, architects, started with a ninth grade academy two who has found a calling in Central’s builders, teachers, dentists, marketing years ago, and going on the idea that career academies is Nathan Newton. “I executives and veterinarians. Vocational what’s good for the ninth grade is good really want to own my own company,” education—in many places—no longer for everybody, the school went to wall- he says: a landscaping business, “prob- caters to students at the bottom end of to-wall academies last year. Now, stu- ably here in Chattanooga.” The inspira- the education spectrum, says Constancia dents in 10th, 11th and 12th grades may tion for Newton’s entrepreneurial spirit Warren, senior program officer and choose between three career-oriented stems from his classes in the business

46 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 academy, where he credits three teach- istrators and the vast majority of teach- flourished. She now teaches English 10, ers in particular for encouraging him ers at Central, but a mere two years ago 11 and 12, each with a business spin. to participate not only in class, but in during the year-long planning phase, When she teaches Shakespeare’s Twelfth various clubs and competitions. Last that was not the case. High school Night, for example, she emphasizes the year, for example, he was vice president teachers tend to work independently, entrepreneurial roles of the two leading of Future Business Leaders of America explains Finley King, lead teacher at women in the play. For writing assign- and president of Distributive Education Central’s business academy. They’re not ments that call for comparisons and Clubs of America. “Before we were just known for working together, he says, contrasts, she asks her students to go a number,” Newton says. “Now, in busi- and they’re not used ness school, we’re all associates.” to being account- Central High School had 1,060 able to each other in kids last year. Of those, thirty-nine per- a team-like setting. cent were recipients of free or reduced- So, “you start moving price lunch, forty percent were African classrooms, and you American and sixty percent white. But get some disgruntled just as important was the geographic teachers.” One of breakdown: fifty percent suburban, those was Ora Moore,

“ ou talk to anybody who is going to hire someone and almost everyone is going to say, I want them to be able to solve problems and to communicate.” PHOTO BY MECKY/GETTY IMAGES

twenty percent rural and thirty per- who had been teaching in Chattanooga shopping and to create a visual and oral cent urban. Just ten years ago Central schools for thirty-six years. She could presentation examining the pros and was suburban and rural, but not urban, not envision moving into the leaky por- cons of two similar products. And her and it catered to a largely white student table building where she now teaches 10th graders practice their writing skills body. It’s one of the places where some English to business academy students. with business letters and office memos. people would like to go back in time to For most of her career, she’d been teach- “Kids do like it,” she says, “and it does the days when there were two distinct ing sophomore English, and she had help them.” As for Moore herself, she’s school systems and bringing the two absolutely no desire to change. The gone from skeptic to advocate in one worlds together has not always been an humanities academy with a focus on short year. She likes the cohesive and easy task. But one of the things that has language arts, she thought, would have cooperative nature of the business acad- helped create a sense of belonging is the been acceptable, but she almost quit emy faculty, and, ironically, she likes academy concept, and one of the most when she was assigned to the business her newfound freedom. Since she’s the immediate payoffs has been a dramatic academy. “It was very disconcerting to only English teacher in the academy, drop in discipline problems. In the first me,” she says, comparing it to being she pretty much develops her own cur- semester of the 2003-2004 school year, stranded in the Tennessee River. “I don’t riculum. Even the portable classroom there were 342 suspensions; during the like water, and I don’t know how to has its perks. “If we do away with the first semester of last year, there were 142. swim,” she explains. “And I didn’t know leaking roof and the ants,” she says, “it’s The benefits of going to wall-to-wall if I was going to drown or not.” kind of nice to be away from the noise academies now seem obvious to admin- Moore did not drown. In fact, she of the big house.” ■

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 47 RecentEvents

Carnegie-Knight one of America’s leading founda- Force, focusing on research and Initiative on the Future tions focused on journalism, so creating a platform for educators of Journalism Education that both philanthropic institu- to speak on policy and journalism is Launched tions could contribute their education issues. Three years ago, the Corporation expertise and experience to the On May 26, 2005, the initia- began a dialogue with various deans more than $6 million undertak- tive was formally launched at the of journalism schools to see how ing, which is called the Carnegie- Corporation’s offices, with a press America’s major research universi- Knight Initiative on the Future of event and luncheon discussion ties could improve journalism Journalism Education. attended by Gregorian, Carter, The Carnegie-Knight Initiative and the five journalism deans and PHOTO BY EVEROD NELSON. curricula and thus challenge both Vartan Gregorian, President of students and the news industry involves three distinct efforts: director along with representa- Carnegie Corporation of New York, at this pivotal time of change 1. Curriculum Enrichment tives of the participating universi- greets students participating in the for American journalism. Vartan that will integrate the schools of ties. More information about the Summer Institute at ABC News. Gregorian, president of Carnegie journalism more deeply into the initiative can be found on the Corporation, asked five journalism life of the university. Corporation’s web site at http:// Commenting on the scope and leaders at America’s most prestigious 2. News 21 Incubators: annual www.carnegie.org/sub/program/ intent of the Carnegie-Knight universities (see below) to develop national investigative reporting initiative.html. Initiative, Vartan Gregorian said, a vision for journalism education projects overseen by campus pro- In June, Gregorian hosted a “Schools of journalism at exemplary in the 21st century. Gregorian cre- fessors and distributed nationally reception at the Corporation for American research universities, ated a partnership with Hodding through both traditional and ten students from the schools where the academic disciplines Carter, president of the John S. innovative media. involved in the initiative who had still coexist, are positioned to draw and James L. Knight Foundation, 3. The Carnegie-Knight Task been chosen to participate in a upon the full intellectual and edu- lead-off program for the effort: cational resources of the university a one-time summer institute at environment to help produce the ABC News, designed to provide skilled, responsible, expert, knowl- the students with the opportunity edgeable and highly proficient to experience and observe all journalism leaders that our soci- the constellations of the ABC ety—indeed the world—has need Network from World News Tonight of, especially in these complex and to ABC Radio to ABC.com. As challenging times. Our democracy part of the institute, the students depends on journalism to keep its were also trained in ABC News institutions challenged and respon- ethics and procedures and on sive to the public’s needs, and the new digital equipment that quality of the profession demands permits both taping and editing the best a university can offer.”

PHOTO BY EVEROD NELSON of news material. Left to Right, Bottom: Ellen Katz, Trustee, Northwestern University; In August, the Corporation 2005 Academic Vartan Gregorian, President, Carnegie Corporation of New York; announced that five additional Leadership Awards Hodding Carter III, President and CEO, John S. and James L. journalism schools at major Support for higher education Knight Foundation. Left to Right, Top: Alan Brinkley, Provost, research universities had been Columbia University; David Klatell, Vice Dean, Graduate School of has a long history at Carnegie Journalism, Columbia University; Don McQuade, Vice Chancellor, asked to submit proposals for Corporation of New York. In University of California at Berkeley; Max Nikias, Provost and curriculum enrichment aimed at particular, the Corporation has Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, University of Southern revitalizing journalism education. traditionally recognized the impor- California; Orville Schell, Dean, Graduate School of Journalism, Those schools are the College of tance of leadership in fostering University of California at Berkeley; Geoffrey Cowan, Dean, Journalism and Communications, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern curricular, administrative and University of Florida; Philip California; Loren Ghiglione, Dean, Medill School of Journalism, social change on American cam- Northwestern University; John Haigh, Executive Dean, John F. Merrill College of Journalism, puses. Back in 1959, under the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; Alex Jones, University of Maryland; Missouri presidency of educational visionary Director, Joan Shorenstein Center for Press, Politics and Public School of Journalism, University John Gardner, the grants program Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; of Missouri; S.I. Newhouse School sought to be “as responsive as Eric Newton, Director of Journalism Initiatives, John S. and James of Public Communications, L. Knight Foundation; Merrill Brown, National Editorial Director possible to the expressed concerns and Coordinator, News 21; Susan King, Vice President, Carnegie Syracuse University; and the School of college and university leaders” Corporation of New York and National Coordinator, Carnegie-Knight of Communication, University and to “lend itself to the kinds of Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education. of Texas at Austin. giving which will strengthen the 48 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 institution in terms which the have proven that presidential lead- Women in the Developing World: don’t know even where I would president considers necessary.” ership and faculty quality are the Questions for Public Policy, which be: maybe in a remote village In March 2005, the critical elements that distinguish explores relevant issues such as somewhere.” Corporation demonstrated a one university from another.” cost, cultural barriers and politi- Mary Kanya raised the issue renewed commitment to this core cal will. To launch the report, the of HIV/AIDS and the impact goal by presenting its inaugural University-Level Corporation provided support that it is having on all levels of Academic Leadership Awards Education for Women to the Washington, D.C.-based education in sub-Saharan Africa, to three outstanding university in the Developing Women’s Foreign Policy Group since it is now the leading cause presidents: Jared L. Cohon of World: Questions to host a roundtable discussion of death in the region. “For Carnegie Mellon University, for Public Policy—A with leading experts on women example,” she said, because of Henry S. Bienen of Northwestern and higher education that focused AIDS-related factors such as chil- Carnegie Challenge University and Don M. Randel on the importance of univer- dren being removed from school Paper is Launched of the University of Chicago. sity-level education for women to care for ill parents and family In the developing nations of (Randel will assume the presi- in development. Participants members, orphanhood, and even Africa, there is a growing under- dency of the Andrew W. Mellon included Edith Ssempala, the children not living long enough standing that women have an Foundation in July 2006). These Ugandan Ambassador to the to complete their schooling, “in important role to play in helping leaders have been recognized for United States; Mary Kanya, the the Central African Republic and their countries become full and achievements in higher education Swaziland Ambassador to the Swaziland, school enrollment is active participants in the global that lift an institution from the U.S.; and Barbara Herz, author reported to have fallen by 20-36 community, including the world- ordinary to the exemplary, ener- of the Carnegie Challenge Paper. percent.” wide economic marketplace. Still, gizing not only the campus but Audience members who joined Barbara Herz, the economist there has been little documenta- also the larger community, engag- in the discussion were a cross- who wrote the Challenge Paper, tion or research that articulates ing all in a broad sense of reform, section of national and interna- said, “We know that education is how individuals, communities purpose and commitment. Each tional representatives from the the single best way to accelerate a and society are benefited when honoree will receive $500,000 to foreign policy, educational, shift to smaller, healthier, better- women in development become be used for their academic priori- nonprofit, government and educated families, and at the sec- doctors, lawyers, professors and ties. More than an award, this is diplomatic communities. ondary level, the evidence for that senior civil servants. an investment intended to further “Education is, obviously, is very strong. We also know that In order to encourage an inter- Carnegie Corporation’s long- today, the foundation for women’s education empowers women. But, national dialogue about ways to standing goals for higher educa- empowerment,” said Edith unfortunately, we don’t yet have increase access to higher education tion by affording each president, Ssempala. “It bridges the inequal- the research evidence to make this for women in Africa and pro- in Gardner’s words, “money to do ity gap between women and men. case at the university level, and mote a research agenda that will the things for which he could not I know for sure that, personally we don’t have the evidence on the document its benefits, Carnegie get money elsewhere.” [without higher education], I broader social benefits. We can Corporation of New York recently For the past several years, the would not be addressing you now. all see it and we believe it, but we released a Challenge Paper enti- Corporation’s president and pro- I would not be in Washington. I need documented research results tled University-Level Education for gram officers have visited universi- so that governments and interna- ties across the nation to obtain tional agencies will be prompted firsthand knowledge of their work. to invest more heavily in higher And they’ve seen, time after time, education for women in countries how engaged leadership sets a where they might need it the university apart. “These academic most.” She added, “Gender-fair leaders have been articulate voices women’s higher education can in defense of liberal arts, robust contribute not only to the trans- undergraduate education, the formation of women’s lives but university’s role in K-12 education also to the advancement of soci- and commitment to their cities ety itself.” and communities,” said president Copies of University-Level Vartan Gregorian in making the Education for Women in the awards. “All three have demon- PHOTO BY RODNEY CHOICE Developing World: Questions for strated the fact that true leadership From Left to Right: Susan King, Vice President, Public Affairs, Public Policy can be downloaded Carnegie Corporation of New York; Patricia Ellis, Executive is much more than effective man- from the Corporation’s web site Director, Women’s Foreign Policy Group; Edith Ssempala, Uganda’s agement. They all believe in a tra- Ambassador to the U.S., Mary Kanya, Swaziland’s Ambassador to at http://www.carnegie.org/pdf/ dition of academic excellence and the U.S.; and Barbara Herz, author of the Carnegie Challenge Paper. wom_edu_dev_world.pdf.

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 49 FoundationRound up

release an overarching report on best practices and innova- Database of Public tions in doctoral education that School Information was supported by the Atlantic Now Available Online Diversity Within the Philanthropies, the Henry Luce A new web site—SchoolMatters.com Academy Continues Foundation, Pew Charitable —provides free statistical data to be an Issue Trusts and Carnegie Corporation. Aging Baby Boomers and analyses about public schools, According to a recent report For more information, go to Concerned About districts and state education sys- from The Woodrow Wilson www.woodrow.org. Future Health and tems. It includes information National Fellowship Foundation Financial Security about student achievement at called Diversity and the Ph.D., A new report by the the national and state levels and African Americans and Hispanics Commonwealth Foundation financial data for every school remain significantly underrepre- asserts that almost seven-in-ten district along with student sented in the highest echelons (69 percent) of all Americans of the academic community. demographics such as class size Election Experts Offer between the ages of 50 and 70 and teacher qualifications. While the two groups com- Recommendations for support the idea of paying one The online database, the bined account for 32 percent of Voting Reform percent of their wage earnings largest searchable collection of all American citizens in the typi- A working group of election law to a Medicare health account public education performance, cal age range of Ph.D. candidates scholars and voting reform experts to help pay for long-term care was developed in response to (25-40), only 11 percent received has released a series of practical services or uncovered health care the education community’s need doctoral degrees in 2003, the recommendations for election expenses when they retire. for an impartial and transparent most recent year for which reform in a report called Balancing The report, Will You Still analysis of American educational figures were available. Access and Integrity: The Report of Need Me? The Health and data. By making the information The latest information comes the Century Foundation Working Financial Security of Older publicly available, educators and from a study of nationwide Group on State Implementation of Americans, is based on a sur- policymakers will be able to programs that seek to recruit Election Reform. vey of older adults about their identify and track promising and retain students of color in The report, presented at the health and financial concerns. trends in school reform as well American doctoral programs. 2005 annual meeting of the The study found that a major- as compare state and national Researchers identified critical National Association of Secretaries ity worried that their retirement data. Equally important, parents impediments to the success of of State, is intended to help state income and savings will be will be able to compare informa- these programs, including recent legislators and election officials inadequate for living and health tion about local school districts court challenges to affirmative improve voting procedures in time care costs after they quit work- with demographically similar action, reduced fellowship sup- for the 2006 and 2008 elections. ing. Almost half (48 percent) of school districts across the country. port and limited communication The goal of the working group is older Americans have retirement SchoolMatters.com is a pro- between the programs. to ensure accuracy and integrity in savings of less than $50,000. gram of the National Education “We still have a great expertise the voting process and to guarantee Nearly two-in-five (38 percent) Data Partnership (NEDP), gap in the United States,” noted that all eligible voters will be able have retirement savings of less a collaborative effort of the Robert Weisbuch, past president to cast ballots and have their than $25,000. Council of Chief State School of Woodrow Wilson and a con- votes counted. The study also found that a Officers, Standard & Poors’ tributor to the report. “Our next While the federal Help America strong majority of those from School Evaluation Services and generation of college students will Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 age 50 to 64 would like to par- the Center for Educational include dramatically more students addressed some of the issues sur- ticipate in Medicare before they Leadership and Technology of color, but their teachers will rounding the flawed 2000 elec- turn 65. Among wage earners Corporation. NEDP is sup- remain overwhelmingly white.” tion, the Century Foundation’s between 50 and 64 years of age ported by The Broad and Bill The study was created through working group found that with incomes between $25,000 & Melinda Gates foundations. the foundation’s Responsive ambiguities and inconsistencies and $39,000, 31 percent indi- For more information, go to Ph.D. initiative and received in election laws and procedures cated they were uninsured or www.SchoolMatters.com. support from the Atlantic continue to exist and may cause had been without coverage at Philanthropies and the Andrew problems in the future. some point since turning fifty. W. Mellon Foundation. In fall With the view that most For more information, go to 2005, the Responsive Ph.D., election reform must be imple- www.cmwf.org. a consortium of 20 national mented at the state level, there is research universities, will little chance of further imminent 50 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 action from Congress, and with “Along with the rest of the has teamed up with Foreign HAVA mandating that many of world, the Freeman Foundation Affairs, one of America’s most the reforms be implemented by and its trustees have been influential publications on inter- the end of this year, the working immensely shocked and distressed national relations, to create the group looked at practical ways to at the havoc and loss of life in new Public Agenda Confidence solve the problems that HAVA the countries of Southeast Asia in U.S. Foreign Policy Index. The may have inadvertently created. that have resulted from this tsu- Index will regularly explore the Nonprofit Joins with The report suggests improve- nami” said Houghton Freeman, public’s perceptions of America’s Biotech Industry to Fight ments for each phase of the voting Chairman of the Freeman role in the world on a wide range Neglected Diseases process, including voter registra- Foundation. “As the Freeman of issues. Unlike other surveys, Right now, less than 10 percent tion, provisional ballots, felon Foundation’s main mission is the Index looks past the ups of health funding goes toward purges and testing and certifica- in the educational field, we feel and downs of daily events and finding cures for the diseases tion of voting systems. Chief it most appropriate that we do explores the public’s underlying that account for 90 percent of among the recommendations is what we can to help alleviate beliefs about America’s role in the the world’s disease burden. BIO the necessity for establishing clear some of the problems created in world, strategies for addressing Ventures for Global Health rules and procedures that can be Southeast Thailand and in Aceh’s foreign policy challenges and key (BVGH), a nonprofit organiza- easily understood by the voters educational sector by this terrible concerns about the direction of tion established in 2004, aims and election workers. act of nature.” U.S. international relations. to change this by eliminating For more information about the Sampoerna Foundation Chief Results from the first Index funding, market and information election reform recommendations, Operations Officer Elan Merdy find Americans worried about barriers that have in the past go to www.reformelections.org or agreed. “We need to make sure issues surrounding the United prevented biotechnology compa- www.tcf.org. that Aceh’s children do not lose States’ relationship with the nies from investing in research their right to a formal education Islamic world. Seventy-five per- for cures. because of the catastrophe that cent of the country is concerned The new initiative stems from devastated their land. They about losing trust and friendship a $5.4 million grant by the Bill have lost their homes; let us abroad and growing hatred of & Melinda Gates Foundation that will help BVGH launch a Freeman Foundation not have them lose their future, America in Muslim countries; series of business cases to assess Gives $1.75 Million for too. We need to work with other two-thirds feel the world has and build market opportunities Education in Tsunami- domestic and international a negative view of the United organizations to restore Aceh’s States. More telling, one-in-ten for the neglected diseases. Many Affected Regions biotechnology companies lack The Institute of International educational sector.” actually used the word “bully” or the capacity to evaluate develop- Education (IIE), a world leader in The Freeman Foundation “bullying,” without prompting, ing world markets. BVGH will international exchange, received a is a U.S. private philanthropic to describe how America is fill this void by developing new donation of $l.75 million from the organization that aims to viewed from abroad. models for emerging markets that Freeman Foundation to support improve understanding and Asked to rank American secu- can be used by the industry. Its rebuilding educational resources in to strengthen ties between the rity priorities, three-quarters give first effort will be to evaluate the tsunami-affected areas of Thailand United States and the countries the United States a “C” grade or market opportunity for tubercu- and in Aceh, Indonesia. of the Pacific Rim. lower in protecting our borders. losis vaccines. In Thailand, IIE/Southeast Asia For more information, go The report also mentions another BVGH is a nonprofit orga- will work with the Rajaprajanugroh to www.iie.org. important issue on people’s nization founded in 2004 by Foundation and the Somdet Phra minds—illegal immigration the Biotechnology Industry Thep’s Charity Fund to reconstruct and the protection of American Organization with support from schools destroyed by the December jobs—and includes a special the Gates and Rockefeller foun- 2005 tsunami and provide educa- note that the latter two problems dations. It seeks to narrow the tional services to displaced students. are nearing a point where the gap between biotechnology’s great In Aceh, IIE’s partner organiza- public’s concerns will be promise and the unmet health tion, The Indonesian International New Survey Probes too strong to be ignored. needs of the developing world. Education Foundation (IIEF) America's Foreign More information about For more information, go to will work with the Sampoerna Policy Concerns the survey results and meth- www.bvgh.org. Foundation to rebuild schools Public Agenda, a nonprofit odology are available at and to help high school students organization that conducts non- www.publicagenda.org or prepare for the national university partisan public policy research, www.foreignaffairs.org. entrance examination. F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 51 BacTHE kPage

Pat Mitchell brings the perspec- ing world to the anywhere, anytime age miracles for the public good. sibilities of extending these new tech- tive and experience of a distinguished digital world of the future, the ques- That original vision has been nologies to serve the public good. three-decade career as a journalist, tion remains: is the point of all this realized in ways beyond anything producer, and teacher to her leadership merely to find better and flashier John Gardner or Lyndon Johnson Why Not? as president and CEO of PBS. During ways to entertain, amuse, and dis- imagined. PBS and its 348 member For instance, we wonder: why her five year tenure, PBS has strength- tract ourselves? Is the promise just stations touch the lives of citizens not use digital technology to help ened the public service media mission to be able to watch American Idol on in countless ways. Seventy percent meet the growing educational needs to become the #1 most trusted source our cell phones, download the latest of American households tune in to in this country, such as the need to of news and information, #1 choice of episode of SUV Riders from Hell and watch our award-winning programs strengthen early childhood literacy America’s teachers for multimedia con- catch up on the latest O’Reilly Fac- at some point every week, with an and school readiness; the need to tent, #1 among parents of preschoolers tor on our Blackberries? Or is there a audience on any given night—even close learning gaps in math and sci- for programs that focus on reading and wider purpose to the media miracles in this 500 channel universe—that ence; and the need to train teachers school readiness, and in a recent Roper of the digital age? is twice as large as our nearest cable in the use of new technologies so Poll, named the most trusted national At PBS, we believe that the prom- competitors, including HBO. Our they can make full use of these inno- institution in the country. ises of the digital future are too pow- programming is complemented by vative tools to better engage today’s erful not to be used or managed to PBS.org, which is the third most students who are multi-tasking and realize their fullest potential for the visited .org web site in the world, text-messaging their way through The Digital Future

Initiative: by Pat Mitchell President & CEO PBS Envisions Tomorrow Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)

public good. It is a vision of broad- with learners of all ages visiting more classes? Why not use the new digital cast media that has always been than one million times a day to view technology to create a massive con- shared by Carnegie Corporation of 175,000 pages of content. And, as a tent library with educational value On the day he signed the Public New York. After all, it was Carnegie result of 35 years of putting children for learners of all ages, accessible to Broadcasting Act that would eventu- Corporation President John Gard- and education first, PBS is also the them anytime, anywhere and in the ally lead to the creation of PBS and ner who created the Carnegie Com- top choice of American teachers for format most useful to them? NPR, President Lyndon Johnson mission on Educational Television video in the classroom and a leading Who is in a better position to looked across a media landscape that back in the early 1960s to conduct source of online lesson plans—not to be the curators and creators of that had been described as a “vast waste- a landmark study of how to improve mention the source through which library than PBS—with our long land” just a few years before, and public broadcasting, eventually pro- more than two million Americans history in education, and with a issued a challenge. Pointing to what posing the creation of the Corpora- have received their GEDs. national network of stations serving he called the “miracles of communi- tion for Public Television to expand Little wonder that when the every community in every state? cation,” the challenge, the president federal funding of public television. American people were recently asked We also wonder: why not use this said, “Was not making miracles . . . Based on Gardner’s vision and which institutions they trust by the technology to create a trusted public but whether those miracles could be Carnegie Corporation’s work, PBS Roper Public Affairs and Media Sur- health information network that can managed for the public good.” was created not to be a media busi- vey, Americans named PBS as their be accessed anywhere and anytime, While it was an important chal- ness, but a not-for-profit media ser- most trusted national institution— that will answer questions an aging lenge for the three-network, just- vice—a public/private partnership, for the second year in a row. America has on issues like diabetes, gone-color broadcasting world of unique in this country’s media land- Like every other media enterprise Alzheimer’s, or the medication that 1968, Johnson’s question is even scape, supported in large part by the and every consumer of media, our has just been prescribed to us? And more relevant today. volunteer contributions of citizens imaginations race when we consider who is in a better position to create As we move through the fast writing checks. Our purpose is not the possibilities for creativity and such a network than PBS—which evolving technological changes that to sell to the public. Our mission innovation that new digital technol- already has the widest partner- will ultimately move us away from and purpose is to serve the public— ogies offer for our broadcasting. But ship among health professionals in a linear network, analog broadcast- in Lyndon Johnson’s words, to man- our imaginations also race at the pos- America—thanks, in large part, to

52 carnegie reporter — F a l l 2oo5 programs like The Forgetting, about mission, our decades of experience work we have underway in com- tioned media enterprise to not only Alzheimer’s disease, in which we and accomplishment, our leadership munities across America today and succeed in the digital future, but to asked local PBS stations to partner position both on the air and online, the unique contributions and skills lead it. Eighty-nine percent of our with health professionals in their our vital presence in communities for which PBS is most valued and stations have already converted at community, resulting in a program across America and our longstanding known. least their transmission facilities to with an impact exponentially greater relationships with national and local digital, in anticipation of the federal than the broadcast alone, touching institutions of all kinds—in addi- A Need for mandate for conversion by 2007. nearly 100 million Americans. tion to the trust we enjoy among the New Resources But we need help to convert the rest. We also wonder: in this post-9/11 American people—PBS is uniquely But if PBS and its member sta- When the DFI report is released, it world of uncertainty in every com- poised today, not only to harness the tions are going to be able to pursue will also include alternative models munity, why not develop that same power of these new media technolo- this innovative vision for the future, for public funding that could ensure technology to serve as a national gies to serve more people, but to act, we are going to need to find new PBS’ future for years to come. emergency information network for in many ways, as the digital heart of resources, which is the greatest chal- officials and citizens that can provide America. lenge to public television in America The Meaning first-responder instructions, evacua- It is going to take a larger sense today. To put it in stark terms, PBS of Democracy tion routes and direct links to emer- of our own vision to reconstitute has about the same amount to invest When Lyndon Johnson issued gency care institutions in the event ourselves from public broadcasting in our entire national program his challenge in 1968, public broad- of natural or terrorist disaster? Who to public service media. But I believe service, from Frontline to Nova to casting found its reason for being is capable of providing more reliable so much in the potential of PBS Mystery! to Nature and 2,000 other in the so-called “scarcity rationale.” information than the organization and its member stations to use the hours, as HBO spends to promote— Simply put, that means there is only already seen as the most trusted pub- transformative potential of digital not produce, but promote—The so much of the analog spectrum, lic institution in America? technology to create positive change Sopranos. and since the airwaves belong to We also wonder: has there ever been for the future that I have committed In the United Kingdom, British the public in the first place, some a greater need for a more informed my last year as president of PBS to citizens pay an annual license fee on of the spectrum should be set aside and engaged citizenry to understand spreading this message and building their televisions of more than $200 for the public—which is how public how complex global issues affect us this platform. to support the BBC. In Japan, it’s media was born. But now that we’re all than there is today? Why not use $240 per household. In America, moving away from the finite analog the digital, mobile, virtual, personal The Digital we pay $1 per person, per year for spectrum to a seemingly infinite dig- world of the media of the future to Future Initiative public television. All together, fed- ital universe, the scarcity argument also build highly engaged communi- To help us envision this future and eral dollars account for about 15 is gone. But if scarcity no longer ties around the important work of create a blueprint for new services, percent of the funding for the pub- applies, here is something that still strengthening the democratic val- PBS has put together a small group lic television system. The rest comes does: democracy. ues of this country as we attempt to of business and policy leaders called from significant support from foun- The basic idea of democracy is export such values abroad? Is there the Digital Future Initiative (DFI). dations, corporations and “viewers that the public should rule. In a any institution more respected as Funded by the John D. and Cath- like you.” For every dollar of pub- neighborhood, we might debate and a balanced voice of public opinion erine T. MacArthur Foundation, lic money PBS invests, we leverage decide issues in a meeting, but often than PBS? Every year, Corporation the DFI is led by former Netscape another three or four times that we’ll also use a newsletter. In a coun- for Public Broadcasting surveys find Chairman Jim Barksdale and former amount in private money. try of nearly 300 million people, that an overwhelming majority of FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, and So, the question remains, as we need that “newsletter”—in the Americans from all political affilia- includes colleagues from member we face this digital future: are we, form of media that can reach, and tions perceive PBS as balanced, wel- stations, the Corporation for Public as a democracy, dependent upon be used, by a far-flung people. In a coming to liberal viewpoints, con- Broadcasting, National Public Radio informed and engaged communi- democracy, the public needs its own servative viewpoints and everything and the Association of Public Televi- ties, willing to commit additional media, media it can use to get reli- in-between welcome. Who better to sion Stations. resources to ensure a vibrant and able information, media it can use to use digital media to boost civil society By the spring of 2006, the panel viable independent public service consider and shape its own identity. than the organization America trusts will issue a report that will be the media enterprise now and in the It’s not just about using media to to moderate presidential debates? beginning of a national dialogue future? The American people have sell something or promote some- For every commercial media about how the assets of public already spoken on the issue: 82 per- thing. It’s about using the power of company in America today, the broadcasting can be fully optimized cent of Americans who were asked our public airwaves to educate, to obvious answer to the question, to connect with the needs of citizens rank PBS as the best value for their inform and to inspire, while giving Why not? is because it doesn’t pay, of all ages in every community. The tax dollars, second only to national all of our citizens the opportunity to because the business model of com- real strength of the Digital Future defense, and most agreed we need know more, to achieve more and be mercial media demands that the Initiative is that it is not the start more funding, not less. more. There is no better use for the programs they fund get ratings and of a whole new future for PBS, but With public funding, PBS and its modern miracles of communication make a profit. But with our unique rather a continuation of the kind of member stations are the best-posi- than that. ■

F a l l 2oo5 — carnegie reporter 53 CARNEGIE 2005 Andrew Carnegie Medals of Philanthropy Fall 2005 Carnegie Corporation of New York 437 Madison Avenue New York, New York 10022 n October 4, 2005 six international philanthropists Phone: (212) 371-3200 received the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in the Fax: (212) 754-4073 Debating Chamber of Scotland’s Parliament at Holyrood, Web site: www.carnegie.org O Vice President, Public Affairs: Edinburgh. This is a fitting moment in history for the United Susan Robinson King Kingdom-based Carnegie Trusts to host the presentation in Scotland, Editor; Director, Publications and Public Affairs: Eleanor Lerman where Andrew Carnegie was born. The Carnegie United Kingdom Associate Editor; Photo Editor: Aimée Sisco Trust, The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, The Carnegie Editor/Writer: Karen Theroux Foundation Roundup Editor: Grace Walters Dunfermline Trust and The Carnegie Hero Fund Trust are all preparing to Coordinator of Dissemination and Media Programs: Ambika Kapur relocate to Pittencrieff Park, the “paradise of childhood” Carnegie purchased Researcher: Ronald Sexton for the town of Dunfermline, his birthplace, in 1903. Cover Photo: Gettyimages.com The Carnegie foundations in Britain and Ireland view co-location on a sin- Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philan- thropic foundation created by Andrew Carnegie in gle site as an important part of their strategy to confront the philanthropic 1911 to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding among the people challenges of the 21st century. Coming together offers greater opportu- of the United States. Subsequently, its charter was nities for synergy among the foundations, maximizing funding benefits amended to permit the use of funds for the same purposes in certain countries that are or have been for the people of Scotland, Great Britain and Ireland. “This is a unique members of the British overseas Commonwealth. The goal of the Carnegie Reporter is to be a hub opportunity to celebrate the co-location decision with colleagues from of ideas and a forum for dialogue about the work around the world, highlighting the important place that Dunfermline and of foundations. Carnegie have in the world of modern philanthropy,” explained Carnegie’s Board of Trustees Helene L. Kaplan, Chairman great-grandson, William Thomson CBE. Martin L. Leibowitz, Vice Chairman Vartan Gregorian, Ex officio “The Andrew Carnegie Medals of Philanthropy are presented every two years to honor leaders Bruce Alberts who understand how modern philanthropy plays a critical role in building and sustaining our demo- Pedro Aspe Geoffrey T. Boisi cratic institutions,” said Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York. In 1901, Richard H. Brodhead when Andrew Carnegie sold his steel empire, he made $480 million (worth more than $10 billion Fiona Druckenmiller James B. Hunt, Jr. today) and began his career in philanthropy. The Andrew Carnegie Medals of Philanthropy were Thomas H. Kean Olara A. Otunnu established in 2001 to mark the centennial of Carnegie’s philanthropic beginnings. At this millennial William A. Owens turning point, the 22 institutions Carnegie created also came together to rededicate themselves to the Norman Pearlstine Thomas R. Pickering individual missions Andrew Carnegie charged them with and to renew their shared vision of his goal Richard W. Riley Janet L. Robinson “to do real and permanent good in this world.” Raymond W. Smith Recognized worldwide for their vision, commitment and generosity, this year’s honorees are: His Highness, the Aga Khan; Anna Southall, Chair of the Barrow Cadbury Trust, on behalf of the Cadbury family; Eleanor Hewlett Gimon, on behalf of the Hewlett family; Susan Packard Orr on behalf of the Packard family; Sir Tom Farmer, founder of Kwik-Fit; and Agnes Gund, president emeri- ©2005 Carnegie Corporation of New York. All rights in photographs, illustrations, artworks and other tus of the New York Museum of Modern Art. graphic materials are reserved to Carnegie Corporation of New York and/or the copyright holders (licensors).

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