7 Habits of Highly Effective Class Marshals

Hundreds of friendly, ambitious Tracy Flicks annually make Annenberg their playground for showcasing their personality. Just like the buxom, pixie-haired starlet in Election, they once bounded down high school hallways in Anytown, USA, touting the handmade student council buttons they hoped would lead to political glory.

However, for a select group of Harvard students, the practice of political pandering continues to this day. Every year, Harvard’s senior class handpicks eight standouts to serve as class marshals—the coveted positions on the Class Committee that are often likened to college class presidents. The marshals organize senior events thoughout the year including senior bar and senior week; and years after they leave the world of Ivy gates, they gleefully organize class reunions and alumni events.

This year, the class marshal election was marked by intense campaigning. The race included 68 candidates, and in their quest for votes, many of these political ladder climbers sent e-mail pleas to friends, bought ad space in The Crimson and plastered dining halls with color-copied campaign posters. At the close of the race, only eight victors remained— Head Marshal Krishnan N. Subrahmanian, followed by L. Patrick Noonan, Deanna E. Barkett, James C. Coleman, Luke R. Long, Joe S. Linhart, Monique C. James and Harpaul A. Kohli.

In this story, several marshals give FM a lesson in the art of political success.

Meet and Greet at Meals

Rather than running back to Lamont or your lonely little dorm room to finish work, try lingering in the dining hall, saying ‘‘Hi” to people you know, or sitting with people you don’t. You may always be on the go—all the marshals say they are—but as Deanna says, “I love to sit and chat with everyone.” Monique says “dinner is definitely not to be rushed through” and she will spend an hour to an hour-and-a-half in her dining hall. Taking the rule to its extreme, Harpaul incurred the wrath of Domna herself freshman year with his lengthy dinner-table tête-à-têtes. “Domna would always come up to whoever I was talking to and tell them they needed to urge me to eat, not talk. But I couldn’t help lingering at meals for hours and hours because I have a hard time not listening to someone when what they’re saying is interesting.”

So…Are you seeing anyone?

Krishnan laughs heartily at this suggestion. “I’m the biggest dork in the world,” he explains. Seems Harvard ain’t the place to get your lovin’. Most of these marshals have had relationships outside of Harvard, ranging from Luke’s “most beautiful rodeo queen in Wyoming” to Deanna’s Boston University grad. Not that there’s anything wrong with Harvard’s men and women, but the focus seems to be more on friends and social groups, as Harpaul points out, not on long-term relationships. He admits, “I haven’t even been on a date, let alone embarked on a relationship, because I have to juggle so many friends and different social groups.”

Frosh Prince of Thay-air

Remember the awkwardness of the ice cream bash and the frantic search for Tercentenary Theatre? It seems these confident go-getters actually enjoyed freshman week. While others stressed about their Spanish placement test, the savvy marshals were working the room, or rather, the yard. But they didn’t stop with freshman week. As Monique says, “this meeting and greeting session lasted for the better part of the year.” It helps to have a semi-notorious entryway too. Pat proudly recalls that “the fifth-floor Thayer boys” were so social he says his assistant dean of freshmen labeled the posse “the worst corner of Harvard freshmen in Harvard history,” while Krish describes his Greenough suite as “a hotbed of freshman activity.”

Sex on the First Night

Fear of big classes? Suck it up, because it is the big cores that promise the path to popularity. Deanna took both Moral Reasoning 22, “Justice” and Literature and Arts B-51, “First Nights: Five Performance Premieres” her freshman fall, while Krish discovered the joys of Science B-29, “Evolution of Human Nature” and Social Analysis 10, “Principles of Economics.” Monique, on the other hand, says that “the biggest classes I had were my pre-meds that year” but quickly made up for this by taking “First Nights” and “Sex” her sophomore year.

Recruit This!

“No way am I doing recruiting,” Harpaul says, explaining that “the world of business is just not for me.” Most of these marshals are looking to fellowships, medical school and public service. Deanna is considering media and nonprofit work, echoing the idealistic ambitions of Harpaul, who hopes to “Teach for America or work on the 2004 presidential campaign.” Pat and Monique both hope to serve the community in scrubs, with medical school on the agenda in the not-too-distant future. The general philosophy, however, as Monique points out, is that “nothing is set in stone so we’ll see which way the wind blows.”

One Big Community College

Try your hand as a helping hand. “I’ve done prison education through [Philips Brooks House] for seven semesters,” says Harpaul. And he is not alone. Krish was a director of CityStep last year and is now one of the Cambridge Student Partnerships directors. Monique volunteers in Project Baby, and Pat is a prefect. With their plates full of theater, a cappella, varsity sports and the Caribbean Club, these selfless seniors have devoted much of their precious study time to helping out in the community.

Break the Mold

If Harpaul teaches us anything, it’s that there’s no conventional path to class super-stardom. Originally a member of the Class of 2002, Harpaul managed to establish himself as an ’03-er with considerable ease after taking time off. Moving effortlessly between social groups, this Catholic Students Association office-bearer is also heavily involved with Hillel and says he “consciously tries to cultivate friendships with people in other religious groups.” Although Harpaul is a Math and Philosophy concentrator who has “taken more literature classes than anything else,” his major extracurricular has been the Society of Physics Students. “I know a lot of the quieter people who are into science on campus,” notes Harpaul, who has been told that he represents “a quiet majority of Harvard students who maybe didn’t feel like they knew anyone else on the class marshal ballot.”

The Golden Rule

Ultimately, however, class marshal is not a popularity contest. The chosen eight say they didn’t do any of these things to become marshals, and were often extremely taken aback by the suggestion that they are “popular.” Instead, as Pat enthusiastically states, the marshals of 2003 are simply hoping to plan “the best senior year ever!”