IOP Poll Solicits Student Opinions

The Institute of Politics (IOP) is lending its ears to the student body in an effort to improve its service to the Harvard community and draw more students through its doors.

The IOP, in conjunction with the consulting firm Sagawa/Jospin, has undertaken a wide-reaching effort to identify what is working at its John F. Kennedy School of Government headquarters, and what needs to be improved.

“We’re in the process of doing a strategic plan for the institute,” said IOP Director and former New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen. “I just started in July, and I thought it would be a good place to begin and really take a look at all of our programming, see how people feel about that, and see if it can be even better.”

As part of the information-gathering process, Sagama/Jospin and the IOP have interviewed and distributed an online survey to members of a group Shaheen deemed “stakeholders” in the IOP: students at the Kennedy School, active undergraduate IOP participants, members of on-campus political organizations, and those who had shown some past interest in the institute.

“We really want to see which things that we’re doing are popular with students, and where there are areas that we can work on,” Shaheen said.

IOP Student Advisory Committee (SAC) member Ashwin Kaja ’07 said he is encouraged by the attempts to reform the IOP, but is concerned that there is a widely-held perception that the IOP may be pushing students away and towards smaller on-campus advocacy groups.

“I think the IOP is looked upon kind of as an isolated place where a lot of times the people tend to be political hacks rather than people trying to make a difference,” Kaja said. “The key is to get [Shaheen] to realize that there are certain problems and certain issues with the IOP and the rest of the campus.”

Fellow SAC member and Harvard Democrats President Eric P. Lesser ’07 commended Shaheen’s effort, but also echoed some of Kaja’s concerns.

He noted that members of the Democrats, the kind of politically-inclined people the IOP wants to attract, are not necessarily active members of the IOP.

“It is a little bit intimidating,” Lesser said. “[There are] a lot of people, it’s very big, and it’s very easy to kind of get lost in the shuffle. There needs to be an openness and a welcoming to the place.”

Shaheen said that she hopes the strategic review will help the IOP become more attractive to students.

“If there is that perception, then we would like to know that, and we would like to hear from students about how we can make it a more welcoming place,” she said.

—Staff writer Nicholas A. Ciani can be reached at nciani@fas.harvard.edu.