News Briefs

Mid-Career Program Takes off at K-School

More professionals have enrolled in the Kennedy School of Government's Mid-Career Program in the last two years than in any other comparable period, the program's director said this week.

The program's growth, more than 20 percent since 1987, marks it as an emerging training ground for a broad variety of rising professionals who take a year off to study public management.

Enrollment at the 50-year-old program has jumped from 240 to 290 since 1987, said Program Director Sarah S. Williamson.

Foreign diplomats, military officers, a CIA member, numerous state representatives and a prominent Japanese newscaster are members of this year's class, said Robert E. Ayres, who is the Program's project coordinator.

The diversity of enrollees sets the K-School's program apart, Williamson said. For instance, she said, it is not unusual to have an Israeli rooming with an Iranian all for the good of public health.

Students echoed that view.

"I expected the faculty to be good and I thought the student body would be good, but overall the experience has been more than enriching," said Meryl G. Libbey '77, a deputy commissioner for the city of New York and member of this year's program.

Enrollees must have at least five years' experience in their field, Ayres said. All told, this year's class represents more than 3700 years of professional experience, Williamson said.

Ayres said participants can tailor a flexible curriculum to meet their interests, and courses range from "Political Economy" to "The First Amendment and the Media."

Chance Program Starts Second Year in Schools

Although most Harvard students may have forgotten the formidable college admissions process, one group on campus is striving to help local high school students meet the application challenge.

Now in its second full year, the Committee on Help for the Advancement of Needy Children through Education (CHANCE) will sponsor weekly meals and classes for Cambridge Rindge and Latin School students this fall, according to Patrick G. Jackson '91, one of the organization's directors.

"We motivate them and show them that college is a viable alternative," Jackson said. "We try to dispell the myth that college is an ivory tower."

The 40 students who will enroll in the program sponsored by Phillips Brooks House will take two required courses--one on writing skills and one on a subject of their choice, organizers said.

Some high school students who have participated in CHANCE praised the program's effectiveness in improving writing skills and motivating them to attend college.

Khari K. Streeter, 18, now a student at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, attributed part of his desire to attend college to CHANCE. "[It] definitely helped me. I got help with my writing skills immensely," he said.

Although CHANCE will begin classes on October 16, the program is still recruiting Harvard volunteers to serve as teachers and big brothers or sisters, Jackson said.

Student Groups Work Around Door-drop Ban

More than two weeks have passed since Kirkland and North Houses banned student organizations from distributing unsolicited publications to dorm rooms, and student groups have responded by trying to find ways to work around the policy.

Members of the Independent met with Kirkland House officials last week and were told that if they signed residents up for free subscriptions, they would be allowed to distribute to student rooms.

Since then, 95 percent of Kirkland residents have subscribed, and Independent staff plan to talk with North House masters to try to enact the same plan.

The Perspective protested the policy by sending an open letter to the House Masters, published in the Crimson, that maintained that the anti-door-drop-practice deprived "students of ideas and information."

Perspective business manager John A. Felitti '91 said, "even people who would normally read the publication won't if they have to pick it up at the dining hall and lug it back to their rooms."

Perspective staff have said that they would prefer not to institute a free subscriptions policy.