K-School Students Win On Admissions

Kennedy School administrators decided this week to include students on the school's admissions committees, in response to a student group's demand last month for a voice in admissions decisions.

Graham T. Allison Jr. '62, dean of the school, will appoint two students as full members of each of the three committees--which admit students to the school's three graduate programs--probably by the end of January, Ira A. Jackson, associate dean, said yesterday.

The move will make the K-School and the School of Education the only graduate schools with students as full admissions committee members, Jackson said. Medical School students currently participate in a "preliminary review" of applications but have no vote on admissions decisions.

Lori A. Forman, chairman of a student association subcommittee on affirmative action that requested the move, yesterday called herself "very surprised with the immediacy" of the decision, adding the move "makes us more optimistic" that the school will respond to the subcommittee's other recommendations on affirmative action issues.

The subcommittee last month called for sweeping changes in the school's affirmative action policies, including admissions committee membership, the hiring of a full-time recruiter for minority students, and the creation of a mandatory day-long seminar for faculty on institutional racism and sexism.

Battle Not Won

Admissions committee membership "gives us a tremendous amount of responsibility in terms of making the system work, but it's not as if the battle's won," Forman said.

Tijuana Brass

Allison--whom Forman said will accept recommendations of students from program chairmen, faculty, and students--was in Mexico yesterday and was unavailable for comment.

The subcommittee's "feeling that minority students and women might lend some greater sensitivity to the needs and background of minority and female applicants" led administrators in part to act, Jackson said.

"At least some students will now know personally that whatever bias or imperfections they think exists doesn't exist," he added.

He stressed that a review of "the very positive previous experience" of one of the three admissions committees--that of the Masters of Public Policy (MPP) program, which included students as full members until 1979--also prompted the move.

The MPP committee's student membership was "discontinued" two years ago because of students' "big burdens of work," Jackson said, explaining that committee membership "means a lot of Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons devoted to reading files. It's a lot of work."

Robert E. Klitgaard '68, associate professor of public policy and chairman of the MMP committee when it had student members, said yesterday student membership gives the committee "more credibility in the student community," and a different perspective on candidates' "motivation and interest."

But he noted that "our experience has been that students tend to be more erratic raters," adding that studies have confirmed this perception. Student presence "may also inhibit faculty discussion of candidates," particularly in making comparisons with current students.

Albert L. Nichols, current chairman of the MPP committee, and a student member of the committee in 1975-76, said yesterday he has "no objections" to student membership, but noted that students "may have an exaggerated notion of the difference between student and faculty perspectives."

Forman lauded the decision, but expressed "concern that it might force the actual admissions process undergroud--that faculty might discuss it in the faculty dining room or while playing squash."

Jackson, however, said that "I don't have that apprehension. The (admissions) process wasn't short-circuited in the past and it won't be in the future.