EDITORIAL: A new home for Fels: Wharton

Penn should keep the Fels program but needs to find a school to house it. How about Wharton? But the University will be lacking without Fels. Graduate School of Fine Arts Dean Gary Hack is accurate in saying Penn would not be a "great university" without a government administration program. Penn needs to keep Fels in order to remain competitive with other Ivy League Schools. The program may not be as well-known as Harvard's Kennedy School or Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School but Fels gives students practical training doing fieldwork instead of teaching just governmental theory. The program has also produced viable policy makers for this community. Chaka Fattah, a graduate of Fels, represents West Philadelphia in the U.S. House of Representatives. While the program has internal problems to solve, it needs to be housed by another school as it reorganizes itself. GSFA is not the right place for it. Wharton, however, is. While some may argue that a government administration program might fit in School of Arts and Sciences because of similar curriculum -- such as urban studies and political science -- the school has its own financial difficulties it must address. If Fels were to be housed by Wharton, funds could be made available to help the program get back on its feet. And since the program already has its own faculty, it's not as if Finance professors would be used to teach Fels students. Wharton could administer Fels in a similar manner to the graduate programs it has that don't directly relate to business -- for example the US-Japan Management Studies Center and the West Philadelphia Project. Also, facilities for the program could be improved as it temporarily uses Wharton's. Being in a top-ranked business school will undoubtedly help the program's reputation. The national name recognition that the program needs could be gained on the coat-tails of Wharton. Fels is not ready to be its own school. But we feel the University should not prematurely end its government administration program. Philadelphia, after all, is the city where U.S. government was founded.