THE DAILY TEXAN

 June 13, 2006

 Project Seeks New Diverse Government Leadership

 By Ian Warren

 
The University of Texas hosted the Next Generation Project in the Lyndon B. Johnson Library Monday. The assembly stressed the importance of transparency, accountability and better use of technology in international institutions and domestic bureaucracies.

Partially inspired by the events of Sept. 11, the Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina, The American Assembly, a nonpartisan public affairs forum, has created a project to address these issues.

Their vehicle is the Next Generation Project, directed by the University's own Francis Gavin, professor of public affairs, who says that the project will "identify talented young leaders with new ideas." These newfound politicians will not come from the northeast, the usual origin of all things political, according to the group's web site.

Instead, these fresh thoughts and faces will come from traditionally underrepresented regions, vocations and demographics. Gavin said that these people will "diversify the project's perspectives," while still remaining nonpartisan on the complex issues. To stress the importance of breaking away from conventional practices, the project has scheduled multiple assemblies.

The panel, which included media adviser for President Bush's 2004 campaign and former Daily Texan editor Mark McKinnon, agreed that accountability and transparency are important for international institutions. Gavin said technology and applying the lessons learned in the private sector to the public sector are the keys to better monitoring institutions like the United Nations and NATO.

"The answers will come from outside of government," McKinnon said.

As for the critique of bureaucratic inefficiency, technology may be the answer for them, too.

Speed, warning and sharing are not words in a bureaucrat's vocabulary, said Admiral B.R. Inman, former head of the U.S. National Security Agency. Nevertheless, the group was optimistic that technology could be used to speed up the gathering and processing of information by the organizations.

The project will be completed in the summer of 2008