Students Protest KSG Aid Cut

The Kennedy School of Government (KSG) will limit financial assistance to graduates who pursue low-paying public service jobs, in a move that sparked an all-night protest by students who said they will be stuck with tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

In response to Dean Joseph S. Nye’s announcement of the change last week, about a dozen student protesters set up tents yesterday afternoon near the school’s Eliot Street entrance and pledged to remain there through the night.

The protesters called on the school to sustain the growth of the Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP), which aids KSG graduates who work in the public sector and earn less than $50,000 a year.

For recipients with incomes of less than $32,000, LRAP covers loan payments in full. And alumni who are married or who have a registered domestic partner can qualify for aid if they make up to $80,000.

Under the changes to the program announced by Nye, alumni will only be eligible to receive loan assistance for the first three years after graduation. Previously, the school placed no limit on the duration of benefits.

Nye said the decision to cap LRAP’s growth came as a result of the KSG’s continuing budget crunch.

“I cannot let the current open-ended commitment to LRAP undermine the school’s return to financial stability,” Nye wrote in an e-mail to KSG students Friday. He said the KSG will cap LRAP funding at its current level of $200,000 a year.

“Through much hard work...we have been able to bring the school’s budget into balance and are presently projecting a balanced budget for [fiscal year 2004] and a modest $50,000 surplus for [fiscal year 2005],” Nye wrote.

Protesters said the policy change would leave KSG students overburdened by loans, forcing graduates to enter the private sector.

“Without LRAP, a lot of us are forced to go the consulting route,” said Justin M. Tomczak, a second-year student in the KSG’s master’s of public policy program.

But in an interview with The Crimson yesterday, Nye said he doubted the changes would reduce the number of KSG graduates who take on public sector jobs.

“The Kennedy School gives 10 percent of its budget to financial aid, which is higher than any other school in the University,” Nye said.

In the last half decade, LRAP’s budget has increased nearly five-fold, and the program has expanded from 11 participants in 1999 to 65 beneficiaries today.

The program’s rapid growth is in part a result of Nye’s 2001 decision to raise the maximum household income of aid recipients from $32,000 to $50,000.

According to Nye, the school has always told students that LRAP benefits are conditional upon available funds.

“And there was no promise that [benefits] would persist for the lifetime of any one participant,” he wrote.

BROKEN PROMISES?

Protesters’ signs accused the school of “broken promises.”

“Because I perceived the LRAP to be a promissory commitment from the school to us, I took on $100,000 worth of debt,” said protester Andrew M. Simons, a second-year student in the school’s master’s in public administration/international development program.

Yesterday’s announcement left some students concerned that they would have to alter their postgraduation plans.

Before coming to Harvard, Simons worked for Samaritan’s Purse International Relief on an earthquake reconstruction effort in El Salvador, earning $25,000 a year.

He said he decided to come to Harvard under the assumption that LRAP would allow him to continue his work in El Salvador after graduation.

“Maybe I was a bit naive,” Simons said. “I’m finding out now I was too trusting of the administration.”

As an undergraduate at Taylor University in Indiana, Simons spent a semester studying in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala and was struck by the abject poverty he witnessed. “It wouldn’t be right for me to go back to the States and pretend I never saw that,” Simons said.

And Simons said he remains committed to nonprofit work. Last summer, he helped manage a hospital in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan. But Simons said the LRAP cap would make it more difficult for him to pursue his chosen career.

Tomczak, a native of Kennesaw, Ga., said that before the LRAP cap was announced, he had hoped to return home and pursue a career in Peach State politics. His plan was to take a low-paying job with the Georgia Republican Party and ultimately run for state representative.

But Tomczak said now he would likely have to take a private sector job before launching his political career.

Orion Kriegman, a second-year master’s in public policy/urban planning student, said that “part of my decision to come here was that I didn’t want finances to influence what I did next.”

Kriegman had previously worked for the Organization of American States, helping implement a Guatemalan peace accord. He said he still plans to pursue a career in community development after graduation, but added, “I was counting on [LRAP] to cover the fact that I’ve taken on a lot of loans.”

Kriegman described his opposition to the LRAP cap as “a matter of principle.” He said the KSG “is turning its back on what the school is supposed to be about.”

Protesters set up a collection plate to magnify the financial hardships that KSG graduates face. As of yesterday afternoon, the most generous donor was Joseph J. Stern, a lecturer in public policy who dropped a $20 bill into the bucket.

“Maybe if we can raise a token amount, we can convince the administration to chip in some of their spare change,” Tim Sultan, who is president of the Kennedy School Student Government, wrote in an e-mail.

“LRAP is a drop in the bucket of the school budget,” wrote Sultan, a former aide to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and a student in the KSG’s mid-career master’s in public administration program.

NYE LENDS AN EAR

Nye met with student protesters yesterday afternoon before catching an evening flight to the West Coast.

“They’re very reasonable people and we share the same objectives,” he said of the protesters.

But according to Sultan, “neither students nor alumni were consulted prior to making this important decision.”

He said Nye first informed student government leaders of the loan cap in a meeting last Thursday.

Nye wrote that the lack of student leaders’ input on financial matters resulted from the fact that “students are preoccupied with other things” during January and February, when the budget is set.

But Sultan characterized Nye’s explanation as a “cop-out.”

“Many of us were here the entire month of January...we’re disappointed that that’s the reason he’s given for the lack of student involvement,” Sultan said.

And while Nye and other administrators have agreed to include student representatives in budget discussions for fiscal year 2006, the student government “has not, however, been invited to participate in any budget decisions that would impact [fiscal year 2005],” Sultan said.

Nye said the school is actively seeking donors to supplement LRAP’s budget. He asked student leaders to help him raise funds for the program.

In the e-mail, Nye also wrote that he and other administrators “are open to alternative suggestions about how to allocate the monies for the LRAP program.”

Nye said yesterday that students and faculty have already presented ideas on how to revise the program’s policies.

“One idea that has been proposed is to reduce the income cap and lengthen the duration [of benefits],” Nye said. Such a plan would allow LRAP to target its aid to alumni with the lowest incomes.

He said he was also considering a proposal to give alumni greater flexibility—allowing graduates to accept lower levels of aid but receive LRAP benefits for a longer period.

“Dean Nye is not giving us an opportunity to keep this program fully funded,” Sultan said. “He said that’s not even a point of discussion now.”

LRAP beneficiaries include government employees as well as alumni who work for nonprofit organizations.

According to Nye, approximately 50 percent of KSG graduates take government jobs after graduation, and an additional 20 percent go to work for nonprofit organizations.

—Staff writer Daniel J. Hemel can be reached at hemel@fas.harvard.edu.