Dole Institute director won’t miss academia

Smith happy to serve former senator, but not bureaucrats

Richard Norton Smith raised some eyebrows two years ago when he chose to work at Kansas University.

Some wondered why Smith, a nationally known presidential historian and television pundit who had directed four presidential libraries, would want to direct the Dole Institute of Politics. They figured leading a fledgling institute housing a senator’s papers was a demotion from his previous posts.

Now, as he prepares to leave KU, even Smith questions whether he made the right decision in coming to Lawrence. Frustrations over fund-raising and bureaucratic regulations — the same concerns that helped convince him to leave KU — have him concerned about the institute’s future.

“There was nothing pre-ordained about the two years,” he said of his short tenure at KU. “It wasn’t inevitable. It wasn’t inevitable at all. It’s a combination of things, the greatest of which is the positive opportunity the Lincoln project represents. But I’d say people have made it easier to leave.”

Smith, 50, is to start Dec. 1 as director of the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum, a $115 million facility spanning two city blocks in Springfield, Ill. He will be paid $150,000 a year, about $5,500 less than his current KU salary.

In some ways, Smith’s initial duties in Springfield will be similar to what he encountered in December 2001 when he came to Lawrence — overseeing completion and dedication of the building, and kick-starting programming.

Steve McAllister, dean of the KU school of law, will take over as interim director at the Dole Institute until a permanent replacement is named by next spring.

At the Dole Institute, Smith retooled the $11.3 million building to provide exhibit space and more public meeting space, in addition to housing former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole’s political papers. The building had been in the works since April 1997, when the institute was created.

Bureaucratic ‘deadweight’

Richard Norton Smith, director of the Dole Institute of Politics, is leaving his post after two years to head the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum in Springfield Ill.

Smith also spearheaded the dedication ceremony, which in July brought thousands of people to Lawrence for a celebration of World War II veterans. Former President Carter, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and NBC newsman Tom Brokaw were among the attendees.

But through those processes, Smith ran into what he calls “the deadweight of academic bureaucracy.”

He cites several examples for his frustration:

‘Forces conformity’

Smith acknowledged such instances may seem trivial but said they represented a negative attitude on campus, a hesitancy to think outside the box or dream about big ideas. At the same time, he said he realized he was sometimes a difficult person with whom to work.

“They talk about universities being hotbeds of political liberalism, and they’re also thought of as an incubator of new ideas, places where innovation is encouraged,” Smith said. “But that co-exists with — and sometimes is smothered by — operational conservatism, a bureaucracy at its worst, that forces conformity before it encourages creativity.”

His stint at KU was Smith’s first experience working at a university.

“If you’ve not spent your life in an academic setting, it’s like a parallel universe,” he said. “One could say it’s another planet. Whatever the academic temperament is, I don’t have it.”

Funding problems

Chancellor Robert Hemenway, who hired Smith, said he could understand Smith’s frustration with KU’s rules.

“Richard’s a person who’s very ambitious, not for himself but for the project he’s engaged with,” Hemenway said. “He’s a very strong person, and he pushes hard for what he wants to accomplish.”

From early in his tenure, Smith said the long-term success of the institute would depend on how much money it had for continuing programming.

Smith and Hemenway have said the institute needed about $25 million, which would provide about $1.25 million in annual operating funds. Now, the institute’s endowment sits near $4.5 million.

Smith expressed frustration at the KU Endowment Association’s fund-raising efforts in the time he’s been at KU. He said Endowment Association staff had raised $135,000 for the institute in that time, compared with about $4 million raised by Dole, Smith and others associated with the institute during the same period.

Endowment responds

“The Endowment Association has every right to toot its horn,” he said. “In a tough economy, after Sept. 11, they’ve raised $500 million (in its “KU First” capital campaign) and it’ll likely be $600 million before it’s all done. But within that, the Dole Institute is a very small portion.”

Dale Seuferling, president of the Endowment Association, said most of the association’s fund-raising efforts took place before Smith arrived and went to the building fund. Seuferling said he didn’t know the $135,000 total quoted by Smith was accurate, though he said Endowment Association staff had been involved in many of the donations, even if they didn’t spearhead the efforts.

Records show the association has contributed $6.5 million to the institute, said John Scarffe, an Endowment Association spokesman.

Seuferling said he now expected new fund-raising efforts to be partially on hold until a permanent director was named.

“Obviously, with Richard leaving for another job, that put that (fund-raising) a little in flux,” Seuferling said. “We have a transition issue. People want to know if the vision of the next director is going to be the same.”

One plan calls for the creation of a national advisory board to help with fund-raising efforts.

The future

Smith said McAllister was the right person to lead the institute through “the next chapter in its story.”

McAllister, who has been at KU since 1993, said his experience at KU should give him connections to help develop academic programming at the institute.

“I’m familiar with university policy and the reasons behind it,” McAllister said. “I’m more comfortable in that setting. It’s a trade-off. I’m sure there were things Richard wasn’t able to do.”

McAllister plans to hire Richard Konzem, former associate athletics director, as associate director for administration to replace Erik Nelson, who also will take a position at the Lincoln library and museum. McAllister also plans to hire Jonathan Earle, assistant professor of history, as a part-time associate director in charge of academic programming, and another part-time associate director for public programming.

For his part, McAllister said he was confident the Endowment Association was behind the Dole Institute.

The interim director’s plans include continuing the Presidential Lecture Series started by Smith, establishing a scholarship program for political science students, conducting seminars to tackle political issues and finishing Smith’s plan for an inaugural Dole Lecture in the spring — which he said could compare with Kansas State University’s Landon Lecture Series.

“It’s a tall order,” McAllister said. “There are so many people with so many views of what this thing can be.”

Loyal to Dole

Smith said he was drawn to KU, in part, by his loyalty to Dole, whom Smith served as a speech writer in 1978. The two have been friends since, and he has co-authored several books with Dole and his wife, Elizabeth.

Despite his frustrations, Smith said he had hoped the Dole Institute would meet the goals Dole and others had set — to explore political issues through a mix of scholarly and popular events.

“We’ve planted a seed,” Smith said. “That’s all we’ve done. I think I have a very modest sense of accomplishment.”

Asked if he would take the job again if he had to do it over, Smith hesitated.

“I’m too close to it,” he said. “I can’t answer that, honestly. I’d like to think the answer is yes. It’s certainly yes, when I think about Sen. Dole. That’s why I did it — that’s the most important criteria. The rest doesn’t really matter.”