Less than a year after departing politics for academia, Wilson School visiting professor and former Iowa congressman Jim Leach '64 will take a leave of absence from the University to accept a post at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Leach, who will serve as director of the school's Institute of Politics for the current academic year, cited the opportunity to help students enter the political scene and embark on service careers.
"The Institute of Politics is an engaging and dynamic place," he said in a statement, "and I am eager to begin working closely with students and staff, faculty and fellows to energize young people to embrace the challenges and opportunities of politics and public service."
This semester was slated to be Leach's second of three semesters teaching at his alma mater. The longtime Iowa congressman — who voted against the Iraq war and was known as one of Capitol Hill's most liberal Republicans — was ousted from his House seat after the 2006 midterm elections, a casualty of public dissatisfaction with a foreign policy he himself had opposed.
At Princeton, Leach was scheduled to teach a course on the international relations of East Asia, but the class was cancelled once it was clear that Leach would probably leave, interim Wilson School Dean Nolan McCarty said.
McCarty said he does not blame Leach for his decision. "Running the Institute in an election year is a prestigious position," he said. "We understand why he was intrigued by the position. We hope he'll be there only for one year and will return."
He added that, though "any arrangement about his return is something we would work out in the future ... we expect him to return and we would be delighted" to have him back.
While Leach's appointment to his Harvard post is solely for the current academic year, "if he was interested in staying longer, then I'm sure that the school would consider him," said Melodie Jackson, associate dean for communications and public affairs at the Kennedy School.
She added, however, that the Kennedy School has not yet talked with Leach about giving him a longterm position and will continue to search for a permanent director during his time there.
"Given his experience and political service ... he would be a good choice for what is going to be a busy political year," Jackson said.
Though Leach served as a member of the University's Board of Trustees from 2002 to 2006, his full transition from public service to academia came suddenly, following his unexpected electoral defeat.
After coming to the University last spring, Leach declared his intention "to teach diversity of thought and depth of thought" in an interview with The Daily Princetonian, adding that he has "worked for 30 years in an environment where thinking has been shallower, at times, than the country and the world deserve."
A politics major and a member of the wrestling team at Princeton, Leach became directly involved in politics after graduation by joining the staff of Donald Rumsfeld '54, then a representative from Illinois.
The move launched him into a life of public service, which included working at the State Department, the Office of Economic Opportunity and the United Nations. In 1977, Leach was elected as a Republican to Congress, where he chaired the Committee on Banking and Financial Services and the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs.
On Capitol Hill, Leach spearheaded the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which reformed the financial services industry, and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which prohibited U.S. banks and credit card companies from accepting electronic transactions from online gambling businesses. Leach's successful promotion of the bill drew the ire of the gambling lobby, which campaigned against him during the 2006 election.
A moderate Republican, Leach supported abortion rights and the minimum wage and was a vocal critic of the Iraq war. Nevertheless, like other moderate GOP members, he fell victim to the 2006 Democratic electoral triumph, with second district Iowa voters ousting him in favor of Democratic challenger Dave Loebsack by a margin of fewer than 6,000 votes.
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