Newt Gingrich was an upstart minority whip in the House of Representatives. O.J. Simpson was best known as a Hall of Fame running back. Nobody had ever heard of Forrest Gump. And the Kennedy School began its search for a new dean.

Indeed, it has been quite a long transition between permanent leaders at the Kennedy School--19 months will have elapsed between the beginning of the dean search in May, 1994, and the arrival of Joseph S. Nye Jr. in December, 1995.

In many ways, instability is the norm for the school--the Kennedy School has been in between deans almost half of the time since President Neil L. Rudenstine took office in 1991.

Nye's appointment offers an opportunity to break that pattern.

Administrators and faculty say they are confident that Nye will provide long-term stability to the Kennedy School administration. As a result, the new dean will face decisions and tasks critical to the school's future as soon as he takes over.

Right now, Nye is busy working 14-hour days and trekking around the world in his current capacity as U.S. assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs. In a telephone interview from his office at the Pentagon, he says that the demands of his job--including three more trips to Asia and another three to Europe--will leave him unable to devote much time to the school this fall.

But faculty and administrators are already pointing to a number of issues that will be on Nye's plate when he arrives in December.

The Campaign

Last year's dean search was the third in five years for the Kennedy School.

Robert D. Putnam resigned unexpectedly in May, 1991--after just two years on the job--to return to academia. Six months later, Albert Carnesale was named his permanent replacement.

But Carnesale's tenure was also short-lived. When Rudenstine unexpectedly found himself without a provost in the spring of 1994, he tapped the Kennedy School dean for a promotion to the University's second-highest post.

Since then, Carnesale has spent two summers and an entire academic year shuttling back and forth between Mass. Hall and Littauer. And even though most observers praise him for donning both hats for so long. Carnesale admits he has only been able to spend about 30 percent of his time on the Kennedy School. As a result, he said last spring, he has been unable to do as much of the fundraising he would have liked.

Indeed, one of the first issues on Nye's plate will be the ongoing capital campaign. The $125 million effort is the most ambitious in the school's history, and school officials disagree on whether the campaign has lost momentum during the interim period.

Stanton Professor of Urban Policy and Planning Alan A. Altshuler, who completed a two and a half year term as academic dean this summer, says the campaign efforts slowed down somewhat after Carnesale became provost.

"There's no question that the school has lost a certain amount of momentum during this year and a half," he says. "I think Carnesale has not abandoned the ship, but obviously, he's been somewhat diverted, and there are a good many potential donors who have been waiting to see what will happen to the school. There's always a certain degree of skittishness when you're in transition."

Other Kennedy School officials disagree. They say that the $66 million raised thus far is right on schedule--and indeed, the fraction of the total goal that has been raised is on par with that of other schools in the University.