IOP Awards Grant Funds

The Institute of Politics (IOP) announced the creation of a new grant fund to support student groups involved in politics on Thursday.

The fund is part of a larger push to increase the institute’s interaction with undergraduates. It comes out of a recommendation last April by an IOP task force charged with restructuring the institute.

“We examined how to improve the way we related to student groups,” said Robert F. McCarthy ’02, student president of the IOP.

Though the IOP has previously sponsored student-run events that were carried out under the aegis of the institute, the new fund seeks to support any student group involved in politics.

“The goals of the IOP are to help inspire students into careers in public service or politics and to bridge the gap between academia and politics,” said Heather Woodruff ’03, IOP student projects chair. “If other student groups accomplish this in their own way, then we are happy to help them.”

McCarthy said the broad scope of the new fund represents a “huge increase in IOP support for student groups.”

The first of the grants were announced Thursday. The Society for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) has received a grant of $1,000 to send student representatives to Washington, D.C., to attend a conference and lobby members of Congress to support the U.S. space program. The Harvard AIDS Coalition received a $1,600 grant to host the Student Global AIDS Campaign’s 2001-2002 New England Conference.

Benjamin D. Wikler ’03, leader of the coalition, said his group found the entire grant program “terrific.”

“More than just money, they helped us solve our problems by finding lodging for a speaker [at the conference],” Wikler said.

Applications for the grants will be processed monthly with a turnaround time of about a week, said Gordon Li, IOP director of outreach and communications.