Institute for public servants is good fit at Glenn College

Long-time U.S. senator and pioneer astronaut John H. Glenn left no shortage of legacies. Now he has another one.

Like so much that happened during Glenn’s 95-year life, the timing is perfect.

Glenn was born in 1921, six years before Charles Lindbergh’s solo flight across the Atlantic. His college years were interrupted by World War II and he was a fighter pilot in that war and the Korean War. He was a test pilot in the early days of the jet age, setting a supersonic record for transcontinental flight. He became one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts and the first American to orbit the Earth.

Because he would be 50 or so when the first American could hope to land on the moon, NASA deemed Glenn too old to be considered for the Apollo program.

So, he embarked on a new career of community service, one that saw him serve four terms in the U.S. Senate and then spend nearly two decades supporting the political ambitions of others, He helped found what evolved into the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University, and the senator remained active until shortly before his death in December 2016.

That school will now be home to the State of Ohio Leadership Institute, a creation of the Ohio Legislature that will help private citizens make the transition to elected public service.

Dr. Trevor Brown, dean of the Glenn School, says Sen. Glenn was involved in the new effort from the beginning because its mission was informed by his personal experience.

Brown says Glenn, “was a learned man, but he found that he didn’t know instinctively how to be a legislator.” Someone entering politics finds that it is a complex system. The institute will provide a place for novices to get a better grasp of their new responsibilities.

Rank of colonel

Being an elected official was an important part of John Glenn’s life, but it spanned only 24 of his 95 years. He held the title of senator, but he also had the rank of colonel, earned during an earlier 24 years in the Navy and Marine Corps.

His final 18 years were spent as a role model and mentor to others in public service, both elected and unelected.

Ohio lawmakers included $5 million in the budget bill for the institute, which will provide “leadership training and education for current and future elected officials and senior staff and local government,” according to an analysis by the state’s Legislative Service Commission.

House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, told the Columbus Dispatch, “You’ve got businessmen and women, you have moms and dads, you’ve got police and firefighters, all these folks are coming together ... to step up and say ‘Hey, I’ll put my name on the ballot, I’ll run.’”

Ohio State’s Brown told the Dispatch, “We need a place that cultivates compromise. We envision some portion of the programming being specifically directed at civility, at how to achieve compromise, how to negotiate in a civil way, how to conduct yourself in a way that is respectful of your responsibility as both a citizen and an elected official.”

He told The Vindicator that the institute will also focus on the need for transparency in government and on the state’s open meetings and public records laws.

Brown says the college is pursuing additional funding outside that provided by the legislature and is working to put together its first program by next summer, aimed at the Ohio Legislature that is elected in 2018 and will take office in 2019.

The initial efforts will be “academy-like” for those incoming officials, but eventually courses carrying undergraduate or graduate credit could be developed.

There are models for the college to follow, including the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia.

As we noted earlier, Glenn’s timing was exceptional, and the timing for the establishment of the institute couldn’t be better. Those involved note that the groundwork was laid before the caustic political events of 2016 and 2017. Nonetheless, there couldn’t be a better time to provide an environment where those chosen by the people to lead can learn to work together, regardless of political affiliation or preconceptions.