NEH Chairman Quits Post for Academic Life

Sheldon Hackney, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, is leaving his post to return to teaching history at the University of Pennsylvania.

Hackney, president of Penn for 12 years before coming to Washington in 1993, plans to offer a course on American identity to explore some of the same questions of pluralism that were at the heart of his most visible humanities effort, a program called the National Conversation.

Hackney said his departure is not related to the current reduced mission of the NEH or budget problems. The humanities agency and the National Endowment for the Arts are facing questions from a number of congressmen who acknowledge the benefits of culture, but don’t think the federal government should continue its role as a financial backer.

“The decision has nothing to do with the endowment or its future. It has to do with what I need to do with my own life and what my family needs,” Hackney said.

The agency that Hackney inherited, said some who watched it closely, had been bruised by identification with the conservative policies of his predecessors, Lynne Cheney and William Bennett. Hackney is known as a progressive Southerner and a friend of President Clinton.

The NEH was created by Congress in 1965 and generally supports scholarship and research through competitive grants. Among the projects the agency supports are museum programs, literacy projects, cultural tourism, teachers’ summer seminars and the making of documentaries. Last year it helped three series on the Public Broadcasting System: “The West,” “The Story of Theodore Roosevelt” and “The Great War.”

After a bruising debate over funds in 1995, the NEH was subject to a 40% cut, from $177 million to $110 million for fiscal 1996. The agency’s budget held steady at $110 million this year, and Clinton has requested an increase to $136 million for next year.

An interim head for the agency will likely be chosen from among the agency’s senior staff.