University President Search Adds Incentives to Increase Student Input—Web Site Respondents Have Eye on iPod Nano

Send in your top choice for the next University president, and you could win an iPod nano.

The student advisory group for the University presidential search launched their official Web site yesterday, along with a survey soliciting input from students from all of the University’s schools. The survey, which will be up until Oct. 20, asks broad questions about what students like and dislike about their educational experiences at Harvard.

Later questions solicit input about what challenges and strengths the University president should “build upon,” and the final question asks students to name a maximum of three characteristics the new president should have.

And as added incentive, all participants have a shot at winning iPods or digital cameras in a lottery.

Matthew J. Murray, a first-year student at the Law School and the chair of the student advisory group, said last night that such broad questions were intentional.

“The search committee is interested in knowing what students think about the University,” he said. “They hope to capture that vantage point and get a sense of what’s on students’ minds.”

Murray and 13 other members of the student search committee—students who come from the College as well as the Harvard graduate schools—were selected in May of this year. Together with the faculty advisory group, they will report to the Presidential Search Committee, comprised of members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers. The committee does not include Interim President Derek C. Bok.

Murray describes the role of the committee as one of “synthesizing” input from students and passing on such information to the search committee.

He said that student advisors have regular contact with members of the search committee, “sometimes directly and other times through the general counsel or secretary.”

“I think that the search committee has shown that it is sincerely interested in what students have to say by creating this group, by giving us the resources and freedom to seek input,” he added last night. “The search committee is taking student input quite seriously.”

The student advisory group will hold an event—open to students at all schools—on Oct. 16 to educate students about the president’s job. Bok will give an address and answer questions from the audience.

The website can be found at www.studentinput.harvard.edu.