IOP Bans Non-Affiliates From Study Groups

The Institute of Politics (IOP) will permit only students and other Harvard affiliates to attend its study groups and will hold the study groups in the Houses this year, as part of a series of changes intended to draw more undergraduates to the programs.

Starting this semester, only those who are affiliated with Harvard as students, officers, staff members or faculty members or those with valid IDs from other colleges or universities will be allowed to participate in the IOP's seminars on topics from terrorism to bioethics.

Study group organizers also hope to draw more undergraduates this year by hosting the seminars in upperclass Houses instead of at the IOP. They said the groups will also cover a broader array of topics.

Ben Dobbs, study groups and internships coordinator at the IOP, said he hoped the changes would bring more undergraduates to the IOP.

"We feel that the new policy will give students the best opportunity to interact with the fellows and get the most out of the program," he said.

Other IOP events--including ARCO Forum speeches and IOP fellows' office hours--will remain open to all community members.

"The teaching fellows will still be accessible to the community," said Robert F. McCarthy '02, chair of the IOP's study groups committee.

He said that the committee sought the input of student organizations this year in choosing fellows and study group topics--catering to the interests of groups such as the Prisoner Advocacy Group and the Catholic Students Association.

In addition, the IOP hopes to draw new students with a student-led study group called Politics for Dummies, which is limited to Harvard first-year students and aimed at students who have little or no political background.

Dobbs said he believes the turnout at a study group open house on Thursday night shows that the changes are increasing student interest in the IOP.

"The tremendous turnout at our workshop is an indication that the changes are moving us in a positive direction," he said.

The study groups offered this year include The Paradox of the European Union; The War Room 2000: An Insider's Look at the 2000 Presidential Election; Building the Future in Latin America: Democracy's Promise?; The State of Health Care in America; God and Politics; Put Away: The Crisis of American Prisons; Terrorism: American Response to the Foreign Threat; The Ethics and Policy of Biotechnology; Persuasive Speaking for Leaders and Advocates and Politics for Dummies.

The study groups will begin the week of Oct. 10.