Chadbourne Award Ends Before it Begins

Two days ago, Harvard Law School student, Hollis North proctor, and former Undergraduate Council representative Aaron D. Chadbourne ’06 announced an award bearing his own name.

Chadbourne’s Web site called for nominations and a description of the award was sent over the Dunster House open list, but last night an administrator called to inform Chadbourne of a University policy regulating the establishment of awards that would jeopardize his position as a proctor if he created an award himself.

“Had I been fully aware of this policy, I wouldn’t have even gone down this road,” Chadbourne said, adding that he had not come across the rule when searching online before announcing the award on his Web site, which has since been redesigned and moved from aaronchadbourne.com to http://achadbourne.wordpress.com.

Chadbourne altered his site after speaking with the administrator, whom he declined to identify but whom he said supported the spirit of the award recognizing student advocacy.

The Aaron D. Chadbourne Award for Student Advocacy, according to the original site, would “recognize a student who has made a positive and lasting impact on Harvard, for the benefit of the student body, by forging and leveraging relationships with Harvard administrators and faculty members.”

Chadbourne said he had not yet determined the amount of the award.

“As a student myself, I am not in the position to endow millions of dollars to give a huge prize,” Chadbourne said.

University policy calls for a minimum of $25,000 to establish the cheapest variety of permanent award.

Originally questioned as an April Fool’s joke over the UC general e-mail list, the self-titled award was announced under a blurry panorama centered on Lowell House, where Chadbourne lived as an undergraduate, and was accompanied by a paragraph detailing Chadbourne’s involvement in student government. While at Harvard, Chadbourne was a UC representative for three terms and served as chair of the Student Affairs Committee (SAC) in 2005.

Chadbourne said that his decision to name the now-defunct award for himself was not motivated by self-promotion, as some have suggested over the past few days.

“I just wanted to put my name behind it,” Chadbourne said.

Chadbourne said he plans to continue to look for other ways to recognize student advocacy, though it does not seem likely that Chadbourne has inspired many followers.

“Would I ever name an award after myself?” UC member John T. Staff V ’10 said, “No.”

—Staff writer Chelsea L. Shover can be reached at clshover@fas.harvard.edu.