The United States Public Service Academy will be the civilian counterpart to the military service academies. It will recruit top students and faculty from across the nation and the world, offer an intensive undergraduate education focused on leadership development and public service, and place graduates in public sector jobs to address critical national needs. Like their military academy peers, Academy students will receive full scholarships that will cover all their expenses during their four undergraduate years. In return, Academy graduates must commit to spending five years serving their nation by working in public institutions in health care, law enforcement, emergency management, and other essential fields at the local, state, and national levels. They will be placed in positions where they will fill critical needs.

The Academy will be the nation’s sixth federal service academy. Because it will be created after more than two hundred years of historical experience with military academies, it has the potential to learn from its predecessors. The five military academies, for example, have set exemplary standards of excellence in their leadership development programs, and the Academy will benefit tremendously from those models. At the same time, however, the Academy’s unique character — promoting public service, not military service — gives it the freedom, and obligation, to depart wherever justified from the norms and traditions of the military academies. For example, the Academy will not impose various restrictions that apply to military academies, including the exclusion of students on the basis of sexual orientation or disability. As an academically competitive but demographically inclusive institution, the Academy will offer service opportunities to thousands of young people who have the passion to serve the nation in a civilian capacity.

A Unique Mission
The Academy will be unlike any civilian college in America. While it will offer one of the nation’s preeminent bachelor’s degrees, it will do so explicitly in support of a higher mission: developing strong public sector leaders with the character, intellect, and experience they need to serve our nation honorably and effectively. Life as a student will be designed to be an intensive, all-consuming experience in which students will have to sacrifice many personal freedoms enjoyed by peers in other universities. The campus culture, with its focus on service and serving others’ interests rather than one’s own, will be very demanding. Like the military academies, the Academy will foster this campus culture of service through an intense program in which various learning experiences — classroom work, community service, study abroad, public service internships — reinforce the overarching goal of leadership development. The campus ethos and daily pace of life will be more akin to a military academy than a typical liberal arts college. Students will follow a structured day of classes — Academy uniforms and class attendance will be mandatory — and they will be required to participate in cultural programs, social events, and service projects throughout their college careers. Taken as a whole, these corps-building activities will foster unity, develop discipline, and instill an ethic of service that will remain with Academy students throughout a lifetime of public sector leadership.

The Goal: Competence and Character
There will be two primary categories of student development: competence (intellectual, public service, leadership) and character (moral, ethical, social). Taken together, these categories help frame the Academy experience.

a. Competence: Our nation depends on competent public servants — they must not only have the requisite knowledge, they also must know how to apply that knowledge to solve critical problems. Academy students will become competent in three basic areas:

• Intellect: Academy students will invest heavily in developing their intellect because public servants must think critically and creatively to anticipate and respond effectively in a dynamic and changing world. They will be well-grounded in a wide range of subjects, from history to economics to foreign languages. Because the knowledge requirements of public service are dynamic, the Academy will help students become independent and self-directed learners who continue their intellectual development throughout their careers.

• Service: Academy students will learn to see themselves as protectors of the American Constitution and its system of checks and balances. Through an emphasis on civic education and the obligations of service, both inside and outside of the classroom, the Academy will help students internalize a constitutional ethos. This ethos does not imply a political persuasion; instead, it represents a non-partisan sense of service that places the common good above individual self-interest.

• Leadership: Academy students will become competent leaders who can effectively recognize and manage the resources entrusted to them and influence followers to achieve socially responsible goals. They will learn how to think clearly, decide wisely, and act decisively under pressure and in a variety of situations. The Academy will provide concurrent and relevant coursework, service opportunities, and extracurricular activities to create an interplay between learning the science of leadership in the classroom while learning the art of leadership outside the classroom.

b. Character: Our nation depends on public servants who are not only competent, but also fair, honest, trustworthy, compassionate, and courageous — they must have strong character. The Academy experience will include numerous opportunities for instruction, role modeling, and mentoring to ensure that students will develop character in three areas:

• Moral character: An individual’s moral search is an inherent, even vital component of any robust undergraduate education. Academy students must recognize that they are part of something larger than themselves, and they will be encouraged to engage in a lifelong search for meaning. For some students, this search may encompass religion; for others, it may be a secular quest. On their spiritual journeys, they must also demonstrate an appreciation and respect for the beliefs of others, regardless of potential differences with their own personal faith or belief systems.

• Ethical character: Students must be able to reconcile the ethical norms of public service with their constantly evolving personal set of values. This is part of personal and professional integrity, the alignment of individual and professional values in such a way that beliefs and behaviors are internally consistent across all areas of one’s life.

• Social character: Because public service is fundamentally a social endeavor, social development will be an integral part of the Academy experience. To be effective, public servants must interact well with superiors, peers, subordinates, and the public, and they must develop mature judgment for determining appropriate behavior across a wide range of both formal and informal situations. They must be sensitive to cultural differences within our own society as well as among nations, and conduct themselves as professionals with dignity, tact, and diplomacy. Mature communications skills, appropriate deportment, and compassionate consideration for others are all attributes that reflect good public service bearing and contribute to social effectiveness.

Leaders with CHARACTER
Public service is more than a job; it is a calling and a duty. Our nation’s safety and prosperity depend as much on strong public institutions as on military prowess, and our public sector leaders must embody the highest standards of ethical behavior. Public servants are stewards of the public’s resources and bear a responsibility to make public institutions effective and efficient on behalf of the people. This responsibility includes a moral obligation to serve honorably. The Academy thus will place character at the center of its leadership development program.

The Academy’s overarching emphasis on character will pervade every activity within the student experience. Because Academy students will be expected to become exemplars of public leadership, the Academy will set high standards based on clear principles and values that are articulated explicitly and enforced implicitly throughout a student’s four years on campus. Academy graduates will be role models who have internalized the following values of public service:

• Duty: Do one’s duty and strive to subordinate one’s personal interests to the good of the people.

• Excellence: Commit oneself to continuous study and conscientious stewardship of the public trust.

• Integrity: Be sincere in taking actions, trustworthy in assuming responsibilities, and steadfast in adhering to principles.

• Respect: Model civility and respect for others in social and professional settings.

• Courage: Perform acts of moral courage consistently.

Leaders with INTELLECT
America depends on knowledgeable public sector leaders who can carry out their duties effectively and efficiently. Public servants must think critically and creatively to anticipate and respond effectively in a dynamic and changing world. The Academy will prepare its students for the intellectual demands of public sector leadership through an intensive academic program that involves a larger base of core courses than typical liberal arts colleges. Academy students will be well-grounded in a wide range of subjects, from history to economics to foreign languages. Because the knowledge requirements of public service are dynamic, the Academy will help students become independent and self-directed learners who continue their intellectual development throughout their careers. In addition to their in-depth study of a particular field, all Academy students will develop knowledge in three key areas:

• Civic Education: an appreciation of the rights and responsibilities implied by the ideals of America’s founding documents and the continuing struggle to achieve those ideals in contemporary life

• International Education: the mastery of a foreign language and cultural adaptability in a foreign country

• Service and Leadership Education: the ability to establish goals, motivate others, communicate effectively, and evaluate performance to accomplish a mission

Leaders with EXPERIENCE
While Academy graduates obviously will not be seasoned veterans in the public sector, neither will they be shallow, untested neophytes. The Academy’s mission demands that students connect the classroom and community through a consistent commitment to sharing and applying their knowledge in a variety of real-world circumstances, both on and off campus. These practical experiences will be designed to make students more mature and wordly-wise than their peers at other civilian universities. The experience they gain will be reflected by their demonstrating the following traits:

• personal devotion to the duties of civilian public service

• intellectual curiosity, creativity, and adaptability to respond to shifting challenges

• temperamental composure to think clearly, decide wisely, and act decisively under pressure

• inspiration and motivation to lead people and organizations

• cultural humility to adapt to and excel in a variety of social and professional settings

Leadership Principles
What will distinguish the Academy from other civilian colleges is its focus on leadership development. The Academy will offer a progressive leadership development program that builds students’ leadership abilities as they advance from first year to fourth year. It will provide concurrent and relevant coursework, service opportunities, and extracurricular activities to help students learn the science of leadership in the classroom while learning the art of leadership outside the classroom.

Public service in the twenty-first century demands flexible, adaptive, and creative leadership that does not always follow hierarchical models. Public servants are leaders and followers simultaneously, and they often work in collaborative environments. Yet even (and especially) in this new leadership environment, students must understand the interdependent dynamics of the leader-follower relationship. Leaders and followers alike recognize their mutual dependence — the success of the any endeavor depends upon both fulfilling their respective duties and holding each other accountable for achieving shared goals. During four years of leadership activities, mentoring, and reflection, Academy students will internalize the following principles of leadership and followership:

• Mission: Leaders establish clear, attainable objectives and standards; followers contribute their best effort to accomplish the mission and achieve the standards.

• Motivation: Leaders motivate and inspire others to achieve positive goals, seeking to build a foundation of mutual trust and confidence; followers affirm their commitment by faithfully implementing the steps necessary to achieve shared goals.

• Communication: Leaders foster an environment of honest, open, and constructive communication; followers offer their candid and objective professional advice, which leaders consider and adopt, where appropriate.

• Evaluation: Leaders promote morale and provide constructive evaluation of duty performance to help subordinates improve and develop; followers accept guidance and constructive critique in the spirit of teamwork, cooperation, and development.

Curricular Principles
Curricular Principles
The Academy will build a series of educational opportunities designed to develop students into young leaders. From a student’s perspective, these opportunities will be experienced holistically; from an organizational standpoint, however, they must be understood as a set of sequenced activities that follow a logic based on the developmental and educational needs of the student. The Academy’s academic program will be designed to be:

• Mission-focused: All formal activities and events within the Academy experience will contribute directly or indirectly to the development of students into public leaders of character. It should be possible to trace the developmental impact of any planned activity or event back to our mission.

• Experiential: Integrating theory and practice will be a key organizing principle for the Academy. Students will not be isolated in their academic work. Throughout their college careers, they will be actively engaged in the world through comprehensive civic education, service learning, and international education programs that will improve living conditions, develop global understanding, and contribute to students’ sense of responsibility and leadership.

• Sequential/Progressive: The Academy will sequence its developmental activities and challenges to accommodate students’ general progression from new student through graduation. The longer students are at the Academy, the more responsibility they will be given and the greater the expectations will be for their performance. Students’ early experiences will be very structured; but by the time they reach their final semester, their experience will more closely match the structure and expectations for their post-Academy work as public servants.

• Integrated/Coordinated: All developmental activities and experiences will be aligned and consistent across student development areas. Students will receive clear and consistent signals about what is important, no matter what the context or source. To follow this principle, all members of the staff and faculty will clearly understand not only the mission of the Academy, but also the concepts and intent behind that mission.