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.