PUBLIC LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT

Why so much depends on getting policy right 

Public policy has great power, both to improve people’s lives if it is planned and executed well and to cause significant suffering if it is not, Harvard Kennedy School Dean Doug Elmendorf said on the latest episode of PolicyCast. Elmendorf, who will step down this summer to resume teaching full time, spoke about the crucial role policy plays in everyday life, the often-imperfect ways it gets made, and the factors that shape it—including politics, values, education, and communication. He also addressed the issue of public distrust in policy and the vital role that values play in policymaking and educating public leaders, even when those values—including diversity, inclusion, and economic justice—are under attack. “Our job is to enunciate our values, and to explain how those values can help us serve the world,” he said. 

EDUCATION, TRAINING & LABOR

HKS faculty debate whether universities should take views on public issues

Should universities take positions on public issues? It is a hotly debated question, which has had very real consequences in Congress, the media, and on campuses since the October attack on Israel by Hamas. It was also the topic of the first Dean’s Discussion of the spring semester. Three HKS professors—Mathias Risse, Stephen Walt, and Cornell William Brooks—offered contrasting views. The conversation, moderated by Sarah Wald, highlighted the complexity facing institutions such as Harvard: If university leaders express themselves on a controversial topic, do they undermine free inquiry? Is neutrality understood as a conscious decision not to speak? Can a university create community without speaking with one voice on crucial issues?

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & DATA

Teaching how to lead in an AI environment

Since Open AI’s ChatGPT arrived at the end of 2022, generative artificial intelligence has been big news, with many companies scrambling to develop their own tools. The technology is already changing the way people work and learn, provoking excitement about its potential and anxiety about misuse. To help HKS students better understand generative AI—technology that can generate images or text based on prompts—faculty members Sharad Goel, Dan Levy, and Teddy Svoronos developed an interdisciplinary course module, “The Science and Implications of Generative AI.” The course addresses how the technology works through hands-on exercises and a curriculum that emphasizes how students—future policymakers and public leaders—“can harness AI technology responsibly for the benefit of society.” The faculty members have also made much of the module materials public, so that more people can benefit from these lessons.

MEDIA

Ten ways researchers can help journalists cover research

A common complaint among researchers is that journalists make a lot of mistakes when reporting on academic studies, describing study findings incorrectly, for example, or exaggerating a new paper’s findings. The Journalist’s Resource, housed at HKS’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy and founded by HKS Professor Tom Patterson, has compiled a tip sheet for academics to help journalists cover research. These include using plain language (“instead of saying there’s heterogeneity in the results of three experiments, you could say the trials produced different results”); noting the limits of how much a paper's findings can be generalized; clarifying technical concepts, such as standard deviations; and following up with feedback (“good journalists want to know if they got something wrong”).

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