The celebrities are gone. The military re-enactors have pulled up camp. The veterans have headed home.

And now the real work is about to begin at the Dole Institute of Politics.

Nearly two weeks after the building was dedicated with much fanfare, institute director Richard Norton Smith says academic programs — and raising money to support them — will be his next focus.

But he still isn’t sure exactly what form those programs will take.

“There hasn’t been a lot of time (since the dedication),” he said. “Give us a week or two to decompress. We focused the last two years on putting on the dedication. If the last two weeks have been any indication, we should have credibility when we say watch us and it will happen.”

The building, on Kansas University’s west campus, has drawn about 13,000 visitors since it opened July 19, Smith said.

Lots of possibilities

Now, Smith wants to create an academic advisory committee to help shape what he calls the institute’s “academic component.” Programs could include visiting scholars, a leadership training program and a series of debates involving state and national political leaders.

Diana Carlin, dean of international programs and the Graduate School, said she sees potential in the Dole Institute, including the papers of former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole it houses and the satellite uplink and downlink that will connect KU to the world.

From left, Glee Jensen, David Herman and Rita Pennybaker chat as Bonnie Schwartz takes a photo of the stained-glass flag at the Dole Institute of Politics. The group toured Lawrence, including the Dole Institute, on Friday. Now that the dedication events are over, the institute's future remains murky, although plenty of ideas have come forward.

Carlin has proposed conducting panel discussions involving KU experts and leaders from other parts of the world on such issues as national security in the wake of terrorism or international trade. KU already has exchange agreements with many international universities.

“There are endless topics you could come up with,” Carlin said. “We can link up with partners in other parts of the world. I like this notion of using it as a forum for really discussing serious policy issues and bringing minds together.”

She said she wasn’t concerned that the institute’s programming seemed more conceptual than concrete right now.

“I feel very confident that Richard is so very creative and so open to ideas,” she said. “He understands this has to be more than a building that houses archives.”

The benefits might extend beyond KU students and faculty. Randy Weseman, superintendent of Lawrence Public Schools, is hoping children in Lawrence also can take advantage of the Dole Institute.

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“I want to see it as more than just field trips and, ‘Gee, let’s look at the stained glass flag,'” Weseman said. “I want to use the resources that are there — the use of primary documents, the real thing, plus letting students talk to the interesting people and historians that come in there.”

He said he was anxious to meet with Dole Institute leaders to discuss a future relationship.

“I think it’s very conceptual,” he said. “We haven’t sat down and said, ‘Let’s do this,’ because it’s so new. But there is strong interest.”

‘Unique’ programming

Whatever the academic mission is for the Dole Institute, Smith said he was sure of one thing — he wants it to appeal to the masses, as the nearly sold-out Dole Lecture Series, featuring prominent historians, did last fall. Another series is planned for November.

“It will not be a bunch of professors talking to each other in a room and publishing the proceedings to scholarly indifference,” Smith said.

And no matter what shape they take, he said the programs would cost money. He’s said the institute needs a $20 million endowment to operate successfully.

Smith plans to establish a national board of trustees, comprised of donors, to help raise money. The KU Endowment Association also will be involved in the process.

Policy institutes based on congressional papers at other universities sometimes don’t outlive their namesakes. Smith is hoping to change that with the Dole Institute.

“In some ways it’s that we’re in uncharted waters,” he said. “I don’t mean to sound dismissive, but whatever we do academically, it has to be as unique as the building itself.”