As the Dole Institute of Politics awaits its new director, current staff members are working to keep the institute’s mission moving forward.

And Steve McAllister, the law school dean who has been interim director since October, thinks the May appearance of former President Clinton did just that.

“I thought that was a fabulous start,” McAllister said of the inaugural installation of the Dole Lecture Series. “It’ll be hard to match that in future years. The new director will have to deal with that. It’s hard to match Clinton.”

McAllister is filling in for the departed Richard Norton Smith, the famed presidential historian who left to become director of the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill., months after the Dole Institute building was dedicated last summer.

Chancellor Robert Hemenway, who initially said he wanted to have a full-time director hired by the end of the spring semester, hasn’t provided details of who he is considering for director candidates. He has enlisted the assistance of Kim Wells, a former aide of former Sen. Bob Dole, to help in the search.

McAllister, who hoped to return to being dean of the School of Law full time by the end of the year, said he didn’t want to be considered for the Dole Institute job and he didn’t know who Hemenway is considering.

“I don’t know anything about it,” McAllister.

McAllister is keeping his attention focused on events scheduled for the fall. They include:

• Political Humor Month in November, with invited speakers such as Jon Stewart, Dan Aykroyd and Dole. It will replace the former Presidential Lecture Series.

“We’re looking for well-recognized names that will be a mix,” McAllister said. “We want some that will be attractive to students and other that are attractive to donors and other patrons.”

• A homeland security conference, possibly featuring Tom Ridge, national director of homeland security, in October or September.
• The Dole Leadership Prize presentation and lecture Sept. 13. This year’s winner is George McGovern.

Meanwhile, McAllister said the Dole Institute is continuing to need financial support. He said the institute’s endowment sits at slightly less than $5 million, and not much fund raising has been done during his tenure. Hemenway has said he thinks the institute needs a $20 million endowment to operate properly.

“Donors want to know who’s going to be there overseeing their donation, and (the KU Endowment Association) can’t give that to donors right now,” he said. “I think somebody’s poised to raise a lot of money.”

While the public programming is getting set for the fall semester, the institute’s staff is working to implement new academic programming for fall 2005. Congress recently approved $1 million for the Dole Scholars Program, which will provide scholarships to college students throughout the state.

Programs like that will help the institute expand its mission in the future, McAllister said.

“If it’s just a visitor center and speaker series, that’s fine,” he said. “But I think it can be a lot more than that, and a lot of people want it to be more than that.”