Semster Update from VP of Communications

KSSG UPDATE

Semester Highlights from Your Student Government

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Academic Affairs

Engaged students in selection process for five new faculty members
Facilitating awards process for outstanding advisors, faculty, teaching fellows and CAs
Exploring alternatives for over-subscribed courses, such as creating “Budgeting in a Box” workshop
Building linkages for joint-degree students with each other and between schools
Documenting the international content of cases and courses taught at KSG
Launching an action plan to improve the Core through a new MPP Task Force

Activities

Planned successful and fun events like the Boat Cruise, Harvard-Yale Tailgate, Winter Formal and weekly Quorum Calls -- all under a smaller budget!
Increased diversity and accessibility of events through co-sponsorship with groups such as the Outdoor Adventures Club, LGBT Caucus, German-Austrian Caucus, and our Open Forum television show
Maintained real responsiveness to student concerns, from supporting childcare during events to keeping ticket prices as low as possible

International Affairs

Improving networking for current students with alumni in their regions of origin, to assist students with careers, fundraising and other avenues of collaboration
Creating a web presence integrating information and functionalities for international students, including bulletin boards and discussion forums
Created a listserv of international students as a separate email group to address specific challenges and concerns of international students
Working with Academic Affairs to increase international content in curriculum
Planning the first International Day on February 22 to showcase the ethnic and cultural diversity of students from 87 countries through cuisine, art and literature

Finance
Overhauled the entire student group funding process with accurate records and responsible quarterly accounting
Reviewed 145 applications for this past quarter funding; allocated the full $23,000 available for activities this quarter; received only two appeals to new process
Ensured funds will be available for student group events all year, while correcting last year’s deficit

Student Services
Treating every student concern as a priority: in response to student emails, replaced the volleyball net, put new whiteboard markers in all Taubman carrels, and fixed sticking doors in Littauer
Meeting with architect consultants to maximize the use of space at KSG
Working with the Administration to install a student refrigerator near the Forum
Discovered the reason for The Swamp: KSG is built over an old railway yard, resting on 4-5 feet of dirt piled over 4-5 feet of concrete. Grass irrigation creates drainage needs that cannot be absorbed by 4-5 feet of dirt. Because our entire campus is also under the water table, the corner of the courtyard closest to Littauer is destined to be muddy.

Internal Affairs
Approved two bylaws amendments: the creation of a standing International Affairs Committee, and the transfer of academic advising issues from the Student Services committee to the Academic Affairs committee
Proposing further bylaws amendments to improve the election process and clarify the eligibility of write-in candidates
Recognized approximately 70 student groups eligible for KSSG funding

Communications
Obtained a bulletin board outside the Taubman computer lab to post announcements and updates from all KSSG committees
Updated the www.kssg.org website with a Student Services page to enable access to student group activity funding forms, room reservations and other services
Exploring methods to consolidate heavy email traffic about student group events into a single, daily email, to de-clutter mailboxes and improve coordination
Posting detailed minutes of all KSSG meetings at www.kssg.org

Committee on Public Service
Investigated reasons for low rate of graduates entering public service

Facilities Walk Through - Dec 3rd

On Friday the 30th, Rachel Hicks and I met with Larry Black from Facilities to discuss the various broken things that have been reported or we've found. The moral of that story is that if you endow a building fund, be sure to endow the maintenance fund too.

Then, this morning, I walked through Belfer and Taubman reviewing the spaces we thought might work for additional study space. You can read the nauseating details here.

There is some hope of squeezing in more study space. In the meantime, take advantage of the couches you find throughout Taubman and the very nice space above Starr Auditorium. Don't forget all the Harvard libraries are open to you for studying And keep in mind Littauer was designed for 300 students.

On the plus side - KSG is the only Harvard School to buy 100% renewable power for the buildings. A year ago they replaced over 800 light fixtures in Taubman, bringing the energy use in the building down 16%.

Student Services Meeting - Nov 30th

We had a productive Student Services Committee meeting on Friday morning. Here's a brief update of what's been taken care of and what's in flux.

The Swamp
Apparently the big mud puddle in the courtyard that we all squelched through this summer is a long term problem. KSG is built on an old rail yard, so just a few feet below the green grass is a cement cap. There is no place for the irrigation water to drain to. To add to the problem, KSG is below the local water table so run off tends to pool in our courtyard regardless. Facilities has worked on the issue for years but haven't figure out how to change the way water moves downhill. What we need here is the Physics department I think!

Facilities
The facilities staff has begun polling the students on their space issues. It's an important piece of input and you should take a few minutes to fill it out!

We had asked about unlocking classrooms for group meetings after 6:00 PM. In the past there were theft problems when the rooms were open late. Rooms have been opened for studying around finals (and the schedule well publicized) and they weren't much use. The small rooms in Littauer 3 remain unlocked most evenings still. We're negotiating about leaving Land Hall unlocked because it has two group spaces. We'll see if we can resolve the security issues to do this. Student groups can reserve classrooms through ROAR if they want to use them after 6:00.

Library Services
There was a request to open the library earlier. It is one of the earliest to open at Harvard, beyond those open 24 hours. Opening earlier would require significant staff shuffling. Staying open later is much easier with the student staffing available. The library will be open later during finals as it was last year. More publicity will come out about this. For studying earlier, we're working to update the "Where can I study" list to emphasize quiet places early in the morning. We may try to post it outside the library as well. I would personally recommend checking out the balcony overlooking Starr in Belfer.

Rachel Hicks and Doug Levine are following up with the library on how they decide how many course packets to have on reserve. They use a formula today that takes class size into account. We'd like to see cost included, but we need to look at circulation statistics first to see about patterns of usage.


Food Service
There is a student discount which is basically the tax on the meal. If you bring your own mug, coffee is only $.90.

There is a comment board on the main door, which are you are encouraged to use to your heart's content!

Two committee members are working through a series of issues. Sodexho has only a one year contract and many things, including revamping the cafe space, are on hold until a long term contract is settled. In the meantime, we're seeing what we can resolve.

As a side note, the special student menu that student groups order off of was put together at student request and offers less expensive options, to make the KSSG student club money stretch farther.


Other Services
Rachel Hicks interviewed the two final candidates for the Director of Professional Development role which will hopefully be filled very shortly. There's ongoing work with IT and a variety of miscellaneous issues in progress. More updates to come!

KSSG Meeting - Nov 28th

Our bi-weekly KSSG meeting was very good this week.

KSG Finances
We had a wonderful presentation on KSG finances from the Office of Financial Services. The school is in the black. As tight as you feel in those classrooms, enrollment is a bit smaller as well, though on target with projections. We learned a lot about the endowment, the revenue streams and the expenses. The Kennedy School is uniquely well balanced in revenue streams - with other schools much more heavily dependent on their endowment or their tuition. All I can say is if you donate money when you're a wealthy alum, make the restrictions as minimal as possible. It's astoundingly complex managing all the gifts out there today.

KSSG Finances
Similarly, the KSSG finances are in the black. Manu's team managed 145 requests from student groups for $53,000. They handed out $23,000, with only 2 appeals. They've started the budgeting process for the Spring term. Two thirds of the student activity fee goes to club and student group activities.

American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment
I presented to the KSSG about the ACUPCC that Harvard is considering joining. This would publicly commit Harvard to going carbon neutral by the date of their choice and integrating sustainability into every student's experience. I'm recommending that KSSG ask Dean Ellwood to endorse the commitment. We discussed the issue in this meeting and next week we'll vote on it.

Committee Updates
Alex Alexander has successfully scheduled International Day on February 22nd.
Lionel is making great headway in building up an alumni network.
Taufiq asked that everyone participate in the advisor, CA and TA awards, as a positive way to improve the quality of the services.
Rachel discussed movement in the Services committee, but you can read all that in the services committee post.

When meeting minutes are available I'll post a link to them.

Meeting w/ Dean McCarthy - Nov 26

After a few weeks of juggling schedules I met with Dean Mhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifcCarthy to review the mid-career issues list to see what we might triage out to other parts of the KSG organization. The reps are hearing some things that might normally go to a Program Director and could be better handled in other parts of the administration.

You can read details here. For a summary, read on.

Program Director
As might be expected this personnel issue is taking longer to resolve than anyone hoped. The Dean can't legally share anything with us, other than to emphasize they're still spending a great deal of energy looking for solutions and stepping into the breach where they can. We're working to make sure our first mid-career seminar on is on Dean McCarthy's schedule so he can update us as a group in January.

Academics
Betty and Scott have been working extensively with the Dean through the Academic Affairs committee to bring our issues forward.

We discussed the concern that the approach to teaching about plagiarism was too militant. The Dean mentioned there used to be more writing tutors and they were easier to locate. Generally the best approach is to ask a CA, a TA or the professor if you're concerned that the idea you're working with may not be original. If you have any questions about what to cite and how, asking is the best policy. Learning to use also Refworks removes a lot of the fiddly burden of sorting out punctuation and so on.

Diversity
There's been a concern that not enough US diversity is represented at the Kennedy School. Dean McCarthy reports that we lead the nation in diversity in the MPP program but always find it harder to match that in the mid-career program for a variety of reasons. If you'd like to get involved, there is the diversity committee, which always lacks enough mid-career representation.

KSSG and Student Life
Apparently in past years, the mid-careers have run several successful campaigns for KSSG President, in part because they had August to organize. Even in the last few years there have been successful Mason Fellow Presidents. This year was a little off kilter because of the situation with the program director, but it's expected the trend of a politically active mid-career class will pick up again!

Our next meeting is December 5th!

Services Committee Update - Nov. 13

These are the notes from Rachel's update (the VP for Student Services) on the Student Services Committee's activities. Being on the committee, I thought I'd share them.

There's a long list of things for planning committee meeting on the 14th; fridge, Sodexho, library hours

The committee met once and a member is dedicated to each of the areas under our jurisdiction

Rachel had meetings with candidates for Office of Professional Development Director's job.

Rachel got a volleyball net up, replaced the pens in the Taubman carrels and got the doors fixed in Littauer.

Doug Levine will have bulletin board in Forum to post all of these updates.

- Letha

Issues Raised by the Class to the Reps

As you've been in touch with us, we've been compiling a list of issues raised. We've divided them into the committees that will work on them and have in some cases updated the status already.

We've published this list of issues in the Useful Links section in the right hand column. Or you can check it here.

We want to accomplish two things with this. The first is to keep you informed about what your colleagues are asking for and what we're doing about it. The second is to create some institutional knowledge for the Mid-Career class next year.

This is all about two-way communication though, so please do send us your comments and thoughts. Come to KSSG meetings, serve on committees, stay involved. We shape our experience of the school to a surprising degree.

Check-In with Dean McCarthy

On Friday, Dean McCarthy and Assistant Dean Kugal invited the class reps for the MPA and MPA/MC classes to a meeting. They were interested in hearing how things are, given that we've been without a Program Director for longer than anyone intended.

Lionel raised the important question, "what does the program director"? They listed out:
- Admissions and recruiting
- Representing the interests of the MPA programs, when academic decisions are made
- Leading advising and providing a bridge between the support we can get from our academic advisers and from careers service's coaches.
- Working on our seminars and other class specific projects

In past years, the program directors have been very available to the students, providing support, guidance, an ear and generally a portal to the administration. Dean McCarthy, Dean Kugel and Edith Stokely are trying to fill those roles today, but they know it is not the same thing.

We communicated that the lack of concrete news has left people wondering. Dean McCarthy emphasized how much time they've invested in the issue and that it is by no means a low priority for them. It's taken longer to resolve than they hoped and when they have news they can share, they will. Given the nature of personnel issues, what they can share is deeply circumscribed.

We discussed some options to provide more advising support. If you've found that your academic adviser isn't a good fit, you should do two things. Reach out to the professors you think are a good fit. Knock on doors, sign up on office hours, reach out. Also, talk with Erin Ward Bibo (erin_ward_bibo at harvard dot edu) about your options. She read our applications and tried to match us with the right advisers, but it's an imperfect process and she's happy to reconsider.

We'll also be making an appointment with Dean McCarthy to review the list of issues you have raised with us and get some guidance on which ones belong in KSSG and which a director might have handled in a more typical year.

It was a very positive meeting and they reiterated their open door policy. They're concerned about how this is impacting our short year at the Kennedy School and want to be creative about finding solutions. If you have any thoughts, please feel free to contact us or go to them directly.

The Scoop on the Food

There's lots of questions about Sodexho, so let me share what I've learned so far.

Last year there was a bidding process held for the food service in the Forum. A student focus group was brought together and all of their feedback was added directly to the request for proposal that all three vendors responded to. Sodexho was the most responsive to the student requests for things like a lower cost menu for student events, more vegetarian options and greener practices.

However, the process was rushed and there were unaddressed concerns by constituencies other than the full time students, so they were given only a one year contract. Several performance metrics were set to see if they could address the issues raised.

We're working to get more feedback on how Sodexho is specifically addressing the student concerns raised last year so we can pass them on to you. There are also some discounts that might be available to students so we'll get the details to those also.

You do get a discount on coffee if you bring your own cup so lets save some plastic lids!

If you have thoughts or questions on the food service, do let me know.

KSSG Meeting 10/31

We had our second full KSSG meeting on Halloween. Now that the committees are largely formed movement is starting to happen.

Once Valerie Boyd (VP of Communications) gets the KSSG website updated and starts posting the minutes from the meetings, I'll link to them so you can read the details. Keep in mind the meetings are public so you can feel free to attend or ask that something to be added to the agenda.

Manu Tandon (mid-career and VP of Finance) did a great presentation on the deficit. Apparently last year money that the student clubs raised on their own was mixed with the Student Activity Fee money. When it was all said and done, about $16,000 of club raised money was spent by the larger KSSG. This money has to be returned to the clubs somehow.

To prevent a repeat, Manu's instituted a much more robust accounting system. Though I know there's grumbling that the process is too complicated for the clubs, his committee's really struggled with finding a fair but efficient way to distribute Student Activity Fee money to the clubs and doing the accounting properly. There are over 90 student organizations, which adds tremendous complexity.

As for how the deficit gets covered, Manu and Doug Levine (President) are still in talks with the administration.

Ann Hopper presented the budget for the Boston Tea Party and her plans for other events. The prohibitive cost for tickets and the lack of advanced notice were brought up to her. We also emphasized that when you add babysitting it would easily be a $75 or $100 evening out. Even though the tickets were subsidized, it's an open question how to bring the student cost down further while still offering a wide range of events.

A class representative from each class presented very briefly the top issues. Read the minutes when they're posted for details, but it was a huge range from fixing the squeaking chairs in Weiner to getting fresh pens in the Taubman study carrels to updating the curriculum and providing more family services. We listed as our top issues: a variety of academic issues, financial aid, family services, the alumni network and moving Dean Ellwood to support the American College and University Presidents Climate Initiatvie to President Faust.

And finally the VP's presented what their committees are working on. Tobias Vanderhoop (VP Internal Affairs) still needs committee members. Several projects are in motion in the Academic Affairs, International Affairs and Student services committees.

Harvard Graduate Council

At the KSSG meeting on October 31st, the KSG Harvard Graduate Council representatives gave a presentation about what HGC is and their goals as council members.

You can view a badly copied version of their very nice presentation here.

In short, they sit on a school wide council that encourages interaction between the Harvard Graduate Schools and represents the graduate students to the Harvard wide administration.

Space Review

On Monday, October 29th, Rachel Hicks, VP of Student Services met with architects hired by the KSG to review the school's physical setup and what might be improved, both short term and long term.

They discussed the lack of electrical outlets. Apparently we're at the maximum load the buildings were built to take and adding more outlets will require fairly extensive remodeling.

They also discussed how inaccessible much of the facility is for those in wheelchairs or even on crutches, the broken (and squeaky) furniture, the lack of group work space and meeting space of student organizations, ways to better utilize the library and make it more inviting.

Facilities will do a walk around with Rachel and any other students who want to join her (you don't have to sit on the committee to be involved) to identify quick fixes we could implement this year. Similarly they will work on ways to report broken furniture and other facilities problems like sticky doors.

Ideas and involvement are very welcome. Send your thoughts to Rachel Hicks, or me.

KSSG Committees

I know, KSSG seems to have an awful lot of committees. What is with all these VP's and their Committees?! Are there even enough class reps to staff them all?

In brief, here's what each committee is focussed on:
Manu Tandon - VP Finance, manage the funds generated by your student activity fee and maximize the student life experience by disbursing to clubs, pics and KSSG events like the Christmas ball.

Ann Hopper - VP Events, come up with all those KSSG events you keep seeing in your inbox. From Quorum Call to the ball, this committee keeps your student life hopping!

Taufiq Rahim - VP Academic Affairs, makes the case for the student view on all issues academic. This ranges from advising to curriculum to liaising with the school's Diversity Committee.

Valerie Boyd - VP Communications, communicate out to you what KSSG does, host town meetings, publish a newsletter and manage the website.

Alex Alexander - VP International Student Affairs, very new, this committee works on issues specific to the 455 student strong international KSG community.

Jeff Ginsberg - Committee of Public Service, a new, ad hoc committee this year to focus on LRAP and other financial aid opportunities.

Rachel Hicks - VP Student Services, managing all things administrative in the life of a student. From IT, to facilities, from registrar to Sodexho, this committee works to improve services.

Tobias Vanderhoop - VP Internal Affairs, managing the elections, clubs and other internal aspects of student government.

There aren't enough class reps to fully staff all these committees, so many of them reach out to the larger student body for additional help. You get to join in making the Kennedy School fabulous, without having to run for office!

IT Review

On Monday, October 22nd, Alex Alexander (VP of International Affairs), Rachel Hicks (VP of Student Services) and I met with a consultant, Don Oppenheimer, who has been hired to do a strategic evaluation of IT services at the Kennedy School. It was a productive conversation, but mostly long range. John Haigh, the Executive Dean, is somewhat new to the KSG and has launched this initiative.

We let him know we thought the IT services should be world class, given both the stature of Harvard and the price we pay to attend. We also communicated very clearly our thoughts on:

- the lotus notes web mail system
- the complexity of two logins and the security concerns around non-complex passwords
- the lack of electrical plugs in classrooms and common areas
- the uneven quality of support in the computer lab
- the somewhat unstructured training the mid-careers received in August
- how there are resources available to us, but we often can't find things on the many websites, from student services to a central calender of events
- the lack of a single place to go for faculty or student contact information

Of course, IT is highly decentralized at the Kennedy School, as it tends to be all over Harvard. He had some useful feedback on our concerns.

There is an understanding that Lotus isn't ideal, but it's been intertwined with many of the administration's other applications so it's not going to be an easy thing to move to another system quickly.

There has not historically been a capital budget or a central IT policy, so each of the 19 centers does it's own technology budgeting and handles its own procurement, web site and other technical details. This adds real complexity to managing the systems.

There are about 2,000 users, including the 900+ students, so it's a complex, diverse set of needs and skill levels. Even so there is no call or service ticket tracking system for issue coming into IT.

This process will result in a set of recommendations, one of which will likely be to hire a Chief Information Officer. If that goes is accepted then they will consider how to incorporate students in the hiring process. In the short term, Mr. Oppenheimer pass along our concerns and see what might be addressed. As a follow up, through Marc Pelka (KSSG Exec. VP) we've already passed along some concerns to IT and will follow up with a meeting of our own before the end of the term.

Welcome to the MC Reps Website

We're excited to share our progress with you and we want your feedback and input on a constant basis. How are we doing? What are you worrying about? What part of the student experience is working for you and what part is not?

Stay in touch with us, through the comments on this site and through email. Take the poll on the right and let us know your priorities! We're at your service!