10/8/2009

Sociologist's study of White House Fellows puts spotlight on nation's elites

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News staff

When President Lyndon Johnson created the White House Fellows Program in 1964, he hoped to encourage talented young Americans to become leaders. Forty-five years later, a study of the program conducted by Rice sociologist Michael Lindsay sheds light on how well it has fulfilled its goal.

Lindsay, assistant professor of sociology and the associate director of the Center on Race, Religion and Urban Life (CORRUL), spent the past year surveying fellows in the first comprehensive analysis of the program since its inception.


	WHITEHOUSE.GOV
	President Barack Obama, right, greets White House Fellows in the Oval Office.

“This group is a veritable who’s who of the American elite,” said Lindsay, who sent out a 72-question survey that received a 78 percent response rate from the program's 627 living fellows.

Lindsay's research seeks to answer if the program has achieved its lofty goals of enlisting the most capable people for a lifetime of civic service and leadership and if it has helped the federal government and the American people. The report, “Surveying America’s Leadership: A Study of White House Fellows,” examines the fellows' impact on society, their characteristics, the benefits of the fellowship experience, the fellows' relationships and connections, their personal lives and their viewpoints.

What distinguishes the White House Fellowship is the program’s success in training early career leaders who eventually rise to leading positions in virtually every sector of American society. Leaders represented in the study include corporate CEOs of such companies as Levi Strauss & Co. and JCPenney, political leaders such as presidential cabinet secretaries as well as U.S. senators and representatives, along with top leaders in higher education, nonprofit life and the media.

“This study shows some important ways that the federal government is recruiting not only future political leaders, but also training leaders for the private and nonprofit sectors,” Lindsay said.

Applicants go through several rigorous rounds of questionnaires and interviews to become White House Fellows. Between 12 and 19 are eventually selected for the one-year program, in which they work as senior aides to such top government officials as the president, the first lady, the vice president, a cabinet secretary or a member of the White House staff -- who become their "principal." They also participate in an educational program to enhance their fellowship experience.

Fellows come from all over the United States, with the largest contingent (40 percent) coming from the Northeast. Moreover, after their fellowships end, 49 percent choose to reside in the Northeast. A high percentage of fellows are involved in volunteer work. Many appear in national media and almost a quarter have published something before becoming fellows; 40 percent publish something afterward. Two out of five fellows changed career direction following their fellowship year.

A significant majority of White House Fellows have been men (76 percent), although that figure has fluctuated over the years. There has also been significant variation in racial diversity among the fellows, with 73 percent white, 13 percent black, 6 percent Hispanic, 6 percent Asian and 1 percent Native American. Nonwhite fellows typically make up more of a class during Democratic presidencies than Republican presidencies. The age of fellows has risen steadily, from an average age of 29.6 under the Johnson administration to 34 under the George W. Bush administration. Thirty-seven percent have served in the military.

A strong majority of fellows feel the program has helped their development as leaders. Thirty percent cited "travel" as the most memorable experience of their fellowship year.

While the fellowship program is explicitly nonpartisan, fellows tend to lean to the political left. The applicant pool is influenced by politics even before the first cut is made in the application process because many people apply to join an administration they supported during the electoral campaign. Furthermore, every President's Commission, which makes the final decision on applicants, has selected more fellows belonging to the party of the sitting president than fellows who are independent or who belong to another party.

Fellows make connections that can lead to career and personal opportunities beyond the White House. And those connections can form fellows' viewpoints of various institutions for the rest of their lives. For instance, fellows with no military experience express greater confidence in the military after spending a year in a class with military fellows.

Because the White House Fellows represent the closest thing to a cohort of national leaders across different sectors of society, survey results were compared with results from the American Leadership Study of 1971-72, which was the last scientific survey of American leaders across various sectors of public life.

One of the interesting findings of the comparison was that national leaders today are less trusting but also less cynical than America’s leaders in the early 1970s, Lindsay said. Twenty-one percent of survey respondents completely agree with the statement “most people can be trusted,” compared with 45 percent of respondents to the American Leadership Study in 1971. However, when asked if they agree with the statement “most people are interested only in personal gain,” 25 percent of leaders today agreed, whereas 38 percent agreed in 1971.

Today, leaders differ from the general public in striking ways. They express greater confidence in certain institutions -- such as the Supreme Court, the scientific community and the military -- and less confidence in others -- such as education and financial institutions -- than the general public does. Indeed, 67 percent of leaders express a “great deal of confidence” in the scientific community, compared with only 40 percent of the general public. Of average Americans, 29 percent express a great deal of confidence in education, compared with 19 percent of the White House Fellows.

For more information about the study or to download a copy of the report, visit the study’s Web site, www.whitehousefellowsproject.org.

The survey was made possible by Rice University's Faculty Initiatives Fund, the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.