The New Travel Policy Is A Paradigm For Offical Change

To the editors:



Your recent editorial (“Go Forth,” Oct. 11) highlighted the many immediate benefits of the College’s new policy on international travel. In addition to the broadened options for students, it might also be helpful to note how the process of policy review might change the paradigm for issues relevant to undergraduates.

Throughout the last two semesters, scores of students became passionate about the issue of travel policy reform. Enlisting allies through an online petition, seeking the help of the Undergraduate Council, publishing a potent editorial in The Crimson, consulting with allies in the faculty, and amicably (but no less forcefully) lobbying University Hall, students saw the matter through from start to finish.

Once Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 assembled a committee (comprising faculty, members of the administration, and a student) to examine the topic, the students’ voice was not only heard but heeded. The committee’s work was truly a collaboration of all parties, and the result is a policy with which most seem to be pleased—a result all too uncommon in contentious situations like this one.

My hope is that our work in this matter will extend far beyond the realm of travel policy. Students stand to benefit tremendously from having a powerful voice, successful campaigns, collaborative working groups, and resulting policies that satisfy the entire community. Though this campaign was perhaps unprecedented in its speed, success, and level of student inclusion, I can only hope that its process will not remain unique for long.



MATTHEW R. GREENFIELD ’08

October 13, 2005



The writer was the student representative to the committee which recommended the College’s revised travel policy.