Public Service Disputes Linger

Public service at Harvard: After more than a year and a half of battles, these words may well leave a bad taste in the mouths of many of those who have fought for control.

And like a bitter saccharine after taste, the disputes of last fall-centering on the appointment of a new dean of public service--may linger far after the reasons that inspired restructuring have been forgotten.

The struggle over public service has rebounded between administrators in University Hall and the student leaders of Phillips Brooks House(PBH).

But is ramifications have stretched much further--to the edges of Boston and Cambridge, in the communities where nearly 2,000 Harvard students volunteer, and to the borders of the nebulous boundaries between student power and administrative control.

"Basically, it's my feeling...that the current administrative structure is broken," Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) President-elect Andrew J. Ehrlich '96-'97 said last month, adding that only through a change in management would the organization regain partial autonomy.

"There has been a large degree of lack of trust, and that really negatively impacts the programs," he added.

With the entry on Jan. 2 of Judith H. Kidd as the new director of PBH and assistant dean of public service, student leaders have moved from staging demonstrations of anger, such as the Yard rally on Dec. 7, to planning major restructuring for the future.

And as Kidd gets her feet wet in her new job, the administration's goal seems to be turning the dialogue of public service on campus away from conflict and toward consensus.

"I think that we're in a period where I'd like to see some stabilization," Lewis said.

But the future of public service at Harvard seems far from clear. On June 30, Greg A. Johnson '72, former executive director of PBH and current executive director of Phillips Brooks House, Inc. (PBHA), Gail L. Epstein, director of public service programs at the Office of public service, and Ginny Read, staff assistant for the Office of Public Service (OPS), will be wiped off the Harvard payroll.

If PBHA's plans for a new board and the House and Neighborhood Development Program's (HAND's) request for a new staff member are any indication, the face of public service by then may be much changed.

Events of the Fall

When Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 appointed Kidd on November 7, members of PBHA were incensed but not surprised.

Such a restructuring had been in the works ever since Lewis, not yet dean at that time, had co-authored the Report on the Structure of Harvard College, which was released in September 1994.

According to administrators, Harvard's public service programs, including those in the Office of Public Service, were in dire need of restructuring in order to consolidate parallel programs and improve management practices.

Throughout the report's formation and after its release, PBHA members argued that their organization was not broken and did not need to be fixed.

Although students from PBHA and HAND were included in the search process for the new assistant dean, when Kidd was selected, many protested that their input was disregarded. Although they insisted that their anger was not directed toward Kidd herself but toward the search process, students at PBHA had overwhelmingly supported Johnson for the job.

A rally which brought hundreds of students to the John Harvard statue on December 7 vented student and faculty anger but did not sway Lewis or Professor of Government and Sociology Theda Skocpol, who heads the newly-created student-faculty committee on public service.

At that rally, faculty and students said they had no real voice in the search process.

"If several hundred...exceptional students are distressed by decisions made in the past year by the administration, an administration that is truly proud of those exceptional students should listen to them," Adams House Master Robert J. Kiely '60 said to students' applause.

Both Skocpol and Lewis have repeatedly insisted that student input was seriously considered in the search process.

A New PBHA Board?

PBHA is an independent, nonprofit corporation, autonomous from the University. However, Harvard pays the salaries of its 10 staff members, making it awkward when the University's and PBHA's interests conflict.

"The question is: Do we move to a situation where we are less dependent on the University for staff support?" Ehrlich asked last month. "It is my...opinion that being dependent on the University for staff support is a somewhat impossible situation."

"I don't believe that Harvard College doesn't care about public service," Ehrlich continued. "I believe Dean Lewis cares about it, and I believe Dean Kidd cares about it. But my sense...is that they have a very different view. They see public service very much as a student service, as opposed to both a student service and a community service."

Last week, PBHA took a large step toward becoming more independent from the University.

Members of the PBHA Association Committee, which plays an advisory role at PBH, met with PBHA staff and its student board to "formulate some type of a board that includes all of the major stakeholders," Johnson said.

The stakeholders, according to Johnson, are the students, the clients they serve in the community, the donors, the alumni, the Harvard administration and the Harvard faculty.

The new board, according to Ehrlich, would create "a situation where the programming changes being made by students now will continue to be made by students," but with "a level of accountability through a Board of Trustees."

"I think the one Achilles' heel of PBHA is that we have student turnover every two years," said Lisa D. Graustein '97, programming cochair, adding that the new board would provide continuity to the PBHA governance.

PBHA's Association Committee does not have the power that the proposed board would, since it is not in PBHA's bylaws, has not legal standing and can't raise money for itself, Ehrlich said this week.

The board's mission and membership have yet to be finalized, but another four-hour planning meeting is scheduled for Sunday.

Were the board to include all of the major stakeholders in public service at Harvard, it could be given the power to fund-raise in order to allow PBHA to hire its own staff.

"I think that's definitely a goal that a lot of people have," Graustein said. "I think right now we're looking at what can best serve PBHA, and if that's what can best serve PBHA, we'll do that."

Ehrlich said that such a structure, emphasizing accountability and programming, might improve PBHA's standing the eyes of the administration.

"I feel that the College has been very dismissive of the student leadership of PBHA, and if such a structure will make the administration listen, so much the better," he said.

Anne L. Peretz, a member of PBHA's Association Committee, said yesterday that there are essentially three options for the future of PBHA.

"One is a sort of status quo, that is where Harvard hires the staff and calls the shots in terms at least of staffing patterns," Peretz said. "Another is a united board, [including all the major stakeholders]. Option three is that if students do not feel adequately represented and respected in terms of the decision making and things that they care about, they would go farther out, and that's not a desirable alternative either."

Peretz added that the second option, a united board, would provide checks and balances for all the key players in Harvard public service.

"I think that the fear has been that the College, in its effort to contain its budget and its concern for the education of students, has sort of shortshrifted a bit the interests of the community and the value of public service to the groups it serves," she said.

Administrative Rancor

Kidd, Lewis and Skocpol all said that they did not think a new board was the best choice for PBHA at this juncture.

Kidd said the meeting was well thought-out, but that now is not the time for a new board.

"I don't feel that this needs to be restructured at this time," Kidd said. "My feeling is that this is an issue that needs to be worked out cooperatively and cannot be mandated and changed through structure. The issue is not structure. The issue is trust and agreement on basic principles."

Skocpol said that while a new board is the students' decision to make, it is not something to be arrived at hastily.

"I do think that before one goes through a big structural reorganization in any organization, it's a good idea to take a pause and think, what's the real purpose of this, what would be gained by this," Skocpol said. "Consultants would be happy to take your money, lawyers will take your money. What will this achieve for what I thought was the purpose fall this, which is student-run social service programs?"

She also expressed doubt that PBHA could raise enough money from alumni to pay staff salaries.

"Do they really have alumni that are prepared to give money to a separate organizationl Maybe they do, and then the question would be: Is the best thing for student public service at Harvard to cut itself off from the University... [and] its resources?" Skocpol said.

Peretz agreed with Skocpol that a PBHA board would not be able to hire nine staff members on a continuing basis without the University's support.

"I think we might be able to do it for a year or two, but I think it's very dicey," Peretz said. "Alumni like to give to Harvard."

That makes it all the more necessary that the University participate in a new board, Peretz said.

Kidd, Lewis and Skocpol were invited to last week's meeting to plan the board, but only Kidd attended.

"They have issued directives for various meetings to plan a new organizational structure, and I gather that a new board is supposed to be part of that," Skocpol said this week. "I didn't go and Dean Lewis didn't go, [because] we felt that it made a lot more sense to sit down and have a discussion about mutual concerns and ideas. What it means is we don't like to be ordered to a meeting that has a predetermined goal."

Lewis said that he has repeatedly offered to discuss PBHA programs but that student leaders have rarely taken up his offer.

"The agenda that was put before us was quite detailed and far advanced in its design," Lewis said in an interview Wednesday. "While we have repeatedly made ourselves available for more formal discussions to the leaders of PBHA about the concerns of the PBHA leadership, those kinds of discussions haven't happened very much."

Peretz said that she hopes the University listens to discussions of the new board carefully.

"I hope that the University decides to listen and to participate and not to prejudge and name-call something that is really being done in a very serious manner," she said.

Committee Conundrum

Whatever governing board is ultimately created, the main interaction between students and faculty members likely will occur in Skocpol's student-faculty committee on public service.

The committee is scheduled to meet for the first time on Feb. 11 in a party at Skocpol's house.

She has invited student public service affiliates besides those on the committee as well as committee members.

"I don't have a preset agenda for the committee," Skocpol said this week.

Because the committee was commissioned by the faculty, it consists of "approximately six faculty" and "at least three students. Its faculty membership currently stands at five, including Skocpol, and its student membership at three.

But representatives of the Undergraduate Council plan to submit an amendment to the Faculty Council in February changing the committee's role from "oversee[ing] all public service and volunteers programs" to "advis[ing] and support[ing] undergraduate public service and volunteer programs."

The amendment, to be submitted by Undergraduate Council member Edward B. Smith III '97, also proposes that the number of students be raised to five.

Skocpol said she had not seen the amendment, but said that she would be "strongly opposed to anything that increased the size of the committee" because that might make it unwieldy.

However, Skocpol said that she was open to dialogue.

"I'm perfectly happy to have a discussion of the student-faculty committee in the Faculty Council at any time," she said.

If submitted in February, the amendment could not be placed on the docket until the March 12 meeting of the full Faculty, said Secretary to the Faculty Council John B. Fox Jr.

By that point, the committee will already have started meeting.

As Smith said, "I guess [approving the amendment] would have a lot to do with how willing the full Faculty would be to change the charge of a committee that had already been meeting for several months, and I doubt that."

An amendment with slightly different language failed at December's Faculty meeting.

Hopes for HAND

PBHA is far from the only player in the public service controversy. HAND, a program run through the Harvard houses, is losing two professional staffers on June 30 and could be facing uncertainties in the months ahead.

In a meeting today with Kidd, the HAND central coordinators will broach the subject of hiring someone else to help run the program after Epstein and Read leave.

Epstein's office assists not only with the HAND program but with all public service programs at the College, which includes spending a great deal of time on PBH matters.

"We have asked the administration to hire a full-time professional staff person who would be the professional staff support for the HAND program, given that the Office of Public Service Programs is going to be closed after June 30," said Elizabeth C. Finger '96, on of the central HAND coordinators.

"This will still, in my eves, be a cost saving measure because it will be replacing three positions with one position." she said. In addition. "the central coordinators receive a stipend, which could be diverted to the position."

Kidd said yesterday that creating such a position is "a definite possibility."

Finger said that HAND is also considering revamping its student structure.

Currently, the program is run by three central student coordinators. The modification would create a HAND board with one representative from each house program and elected officers from that board, Finger said.

Another concern for the HAND program is space. The OPS will be closing June 30, and HAND coordinators, whose office is next door, are not yet sure where their program will go.

"I honestly cannot imagine there being room for the HAND office moving over without PBH getting more space," Epstein said this week.

Epstein also said that she hopes the resources that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences currently gives to the HAND office will be preserved after she leaves at the end of June.

"I would like the opportunity and certainly hope I will get the opportunity to educate the new leadership," she said, emphasizing that the skills and knowledge of the staff in the OPS are key to the program.

In addition, "this office... has been able to disseminate financial resources to all the public service programs, and I hope those resources will continue to be available in some fashion Epstein said.

At an Impasse?

As Kidd settles in and meets with more people, public service issues will likely become clearer. And all parties involved seem to agree that keeping public service programs running is key especially in the face of governmental cutbacks.

But it members of the administration are unwilling to participate in the creation of a new PBHA board, administrators and PBHA could clash again.

And that might leave a bitter aftertaste lasting not only for a semester, but for years.HARVARD UNIVERSITY

And as Kidd gets her feet wet in her new job, the administration's goal seems to be turning the dialogue of public service on campus away from conflict and toward consensus.

"I think that we're in a period where I'd like to see some stabilization," Lewis said.

But the future of public service at Harvard seems far from clear. On June 30, Greg A. Johnson '72, former executive director of PBH and current executive director of Phillips Brooks House, Inc. (PBHA), Gail L. Epstein, director of public service programs at the Office of public service, and Ginny Read, staff assistant for the Office of Public Service (OPS), will be wiped off the Harvard payroll.

If PBHA's plans for a new board and the House and Neighborhood Development Program's (HAND's) request for a new staff member are any indication, the face of public service by then may be much changed.

Events of the Fall

When Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 appointed Kidd on November 7, members of PBHA were incensed but not surprised.

Such a restructuring had been in the works ever since Lewis, not yet dean at that time, had co-authored the Report on the Structure of Harvard College, which was released in September 1994.

According to administrators, Harvard's public service programs, including those in the Office of Public Service, were in dire need of restructuring in order to consolidate parallel programs and improve management practices.

Throughout the report's formation and after its release, PBHA members argued that their organization was not broken and did not need to be fixed.

Although students from PBHA and HAND were included in the search process for the new assistant dean, when Kidd was selected, many protested that their input was disregarded. Although they insisted that their anger was not directed toward Kidd herself but toward the search process, students at PBHA had overwhelmingly supported Johnson for the job.

A rally which brought hundreds of students to the John Harvard statue on December 7 vented student and faculty anger but did not sway Lewis or Professor of Government and Sociology Theda Skocpol, who heads the newly-created student-faculty committee on public service.

At that rally, faculty and students said they had no real voice in the search process.

"If several hundred...exceptional students are distressed by decisions made in the past year by the administration, an administration that is truly proud of those exceptional students should listen to them," Adams House Master Robert J. Kiely '60 said to students' applause.

Both Skocpol and Lewis have repeatedly insisted that student input was seriously considered in the search process.

A New PBHA Board?

PBHA is an independent, nonprofit corporation, autonomous from the University. However, Harvard pays the salaries of its 10 staff members, making it awkward when the University's and PBHA's interests conflict.

"The question is: Do we move to a situation where we are less dependent on the University for staff support?" Ehrlich asked last month. "It is my...opinion that being dependent on the University for staff support is a somewhat impossible situation."

"I don't believe that Harvard College doesn't care about public service," Ehrlich continued. "I believe Dean Lewis cares about it, and I believe Dean Kidd cares about it. But my sense...is that they have a very different view. They see public service very much as a student service, as opposed to both a student service and a community service."

Last week, PBHA took a large step toward becoming more independent from the University.

Members of the PBHA Association Committee, which plays an advisory role at PBH, met with PBHA staff and its student board to "formulate some type of a board that includes all of the major stakeholders," Johnson said.

The stakeholders, according to Johnson, are the students, the clients they serve in the community, the donors, the alumni, the Harvard administration and the Harvard faculty.

The new board, according to Ehrlich, would create "a situation where the programming changes being made by students now will continue to be made by students," but with "a level of accountability through a Board of Trustees."

"I think the one Achilles' heel of PBHA is that we have student turnover every two years," said Lisa D. Graustein '97, programming cochair, adding that the new board would provide continuity to the PBHA governance.

PBHA's Association Committee does not have the power that the proposed board would, since it is not in PBHA's bylaws, has not legal standing and can't raise money for itself, Ehrlich said this week.

The board's mission and membership have yet to be finalized, but another four-hour planning meeting is scheduled for Sunday.

Were the board to include all of the major stakeholders in public service at Harvard, it could be given the power to fund-raise in order to allow PBHA to hire its own staff.

"I think that's definitely a goal that a lot of people have," Graustein said. "I think right now we're looking at what can best serve PBHA, and if that's what can best serve PBHA, we'll do that."

Ehrlich said that such a structure, emphasizing accountability and programming, might improve PBHA's standing the eyes of the administration.

"I feel that the College has been very dismissive of the student leadership of PBHA, and if such a structure will make the administration listen, so much the better," he said.

Anne L. Peretz, a member of PBHA's Association Committee, said yesterday that there are essentially three options for the future of PBHA.

"One is a sort of status quo, that is where Harvard hires the staff and calls the shots in terms at least of staffing patterns," Peretz said. "Another is a united board, [including all the major stakeholders]. Option three is that if students do not feel adequately represented and respected in terms of the decision making and things that they care about, they would go farther out, and that's not a desirable alternative either."

Peretz added that the second option, a united board, would provide checks and balances for all the key players in Harvard public service.

"I think that the fear has been that the College, in its effort to contain its budget and its concern for the education of students, has sort of shortshrifted a bit the interests of the community and the value of public service to the groups it serves," she said.

Administrative Rancor

Kidd, Lewis and Skocpol all said that they did not think a new board was the best choice for PBHA at this juncture.

Kidd said the meeting was well thought-out, but that now is not the time for a new board.

"I don't feel that this needs to be restructured at this time," Kidd said. "My feeling is that this is an issue that needs to be worked out cooperatively and cannot be mandated and changed through structure. The issue is not structure. The issue is trust and agreement on basic principles."

Skocpol said that while a new board is the students' decision to make, it is not something to be arrived at hastily.

"I do think that before one goes through a big structural reorganization in any organization, it's a good idea to take a pause and think, what's the real purpose of this, what would be gained by this," Skocpol said. "Consultants would be happy to take your money, lawyers will take your money. What will this achieve for what I thought was the purpose fall this, which is student-run social service programs?"

She also expressed doubt that PBHA could raise enough money from alumni to pay staff salaries.

"Do they really have alumni that are prepared to give money to a separate organizationl Maybe they do, and then the question would be: Is the best thing for student public service at Harvard to cut itself off from the University... [and] its resources?" Skocpol said.

Peretz agreed with Skocpol that a PBHA board would not be able to hire nine staff members on a continuing basis without the University's support.

"I think we might be able to do it for a year or two, but I think it's very dicey," Peretz said. "Alumni like to give to Harvard."

That makes it all the more necessary that the University participate in a new board, Peretz said.

Kidd, Lewis and Skocpol were invited to last week's meeting to plan the board, but only Kidd attended.

"They have issued directives for various meetings to plan a new organizational structure, and I gather that a new board is supposed to be part of that," Skocpol said this week. "I didn't go and Dean Lewis didn't go, [because] we felt that it made a lot more sense to sit down and have a discussion about mutual concerns and ideas. What it means is we don't like to be ordered to a meeting that has a predetermined goal."

Lewis said that he has repeatedly offered to discuss PBHA programs but that student leaders have rarely taken up his offer.

"The agenda that was put before us was quite detailed and far advanced in its design," Lewis said in an interview Wednesday. "While we have repeatedly made ourselves available for more formal discussions to the leaders of PBHA about the concerns of the PBHA leadership, those kinds of discussions haven't happened very much."

Peretz said that she hopes the University listens to discussions of the new board carefully.

"I hope that the University decides to listen and to participate and not to prejudge and name-call something that is really being done in a very serious manner," she said.

Committee Conundrum

Whatever governing board is ultimately created, the main interaction between students and faculty members likely will occur in Skocpol's student-faculty committee on public service.

The committee is scheduled to meet for the first time on Feb. 11 in a party at Skocpol's house.

She has invited student public service affiliates besides those on the committee as well as committee members.

"I don't have a preset agenda for the committee," Skocpol said this week.

Because the committee was commissioned by the faculty, it consists of "approximately six faculty" and "at least three students. Its faculty membership currently stands at five, including Skocpol, and its student membership at three.

But representatives of the Undergraduate Council plan to submit an amendment to the Faculty Council in February changing the committee's role from "oversee[ing] all public service and volunteers programs" to "advis[ing] and support[ing] undergraduate public service and volunteer programs."

The amendment, to be submitted by Undergraduate Council member Edward B. Smith III '97, also proposes that the number of students be raised to five.

Skocpol said she had not seen the amendment, but said that she would be "strongly opposed to anything that increased the size of the committee" because that might make it unwieldy.

However, Skocpol said that she was open to dialogue.

"I'm perfectly happy to have a discussion of the student-faculty committee in the Faculty Council at any time," she said.

If submitted in February, the amendment could not be placed on the docket until the March 12 meeting of the full Faculty, said Secretary to the Faculty Council John B. Fox Jr.

By that point, the committee will already have started meeting.

As Smith said, "I guess [approving the amendment] would have a lot to do with how willing the full Faculty would be to change the charge of a committee that had already been meeting for several months, and I doubt that."

An amendment with slightly different language failed at December's Faculty meeting.

Hopes for HAND

PBHA is far from the only player in the public service controversy. HAND, a program run through the Harvard houses, is losing two professional staffers on June 30 and could be facing uncertainties in the months ahead.

In a meeting today with Kidd, the HAND central coordinators will broach the subject of hiring someone else to help run the program after Epstein and Read leave.

Epstein's office assists not only with the HAND program but with all public service programs at the College, which includes spending a great deal of time on PBH matters.

"We have asked the administration to hire a full-time professional staff person who would be the professional staff support for the HAND program, given that the Office of Public Service Programs is going to be closed after June 30," said Elizabeth C. Finger '96, on of the central HAND coordinators.

"This will still, in my eves, be a cost saving measure because it will be replacing three positions with one position." she said. In addition. "the central coordinators receive a stipend, which could be diverted to the position."

Kidd said yesterday that creating such a position is "a definite possibility."

Finger said that HAND is also considering revamping its student structure.

Currently, the program is run by three central student coordinators. The modification would create a HAND board with one representative from each house program and elected officers from that board, Finger said.

Another concern for the HAND program is space. The OPS will be closing June 30, and HAND coordinators, whose office is next door, are not yet sure where their program will go.

"I honestly cannot imagine there being room for the HAND office moving over without PBH getting more space," Epstein said this week.

Epstein also said that she hopes the resources that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences currently gives to the HAND office will be preserved after she leaves at the end of June.

"I would like the opportunity and certainly hope I will get the opportunity to educate the new leadership," she said, emphasizing that the skills and knowledge of the staff in the OPS are key to the program.

In addition, "this office... has been able to disseminate financial resources to all the public service programs, and I hope those resources will continue to be available in some fashion Epstein said.

At an Impasse?

As Kidd settles in and meets with more people, public service issues will likely become clearer. And all parties involved seem to agree that keeping public service programs running is key especially in the face of governmental cutbacks.

But it members of the administration are unwilling to participate in the creation of a new PBHA board, administrators and PBHA could clash again.

And that might leave a bitter aftertaste lasting not only for a semester, but for years.HARVARD UNIVERSITY