PBHA Stands Firm As Search Nears End

As the search for an assistant dean for public service nears its sixth month, campus public service leaders are chating under the yoke of administrative oversight.

In the past several weeks, the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA), Inc., student board has written two memos calling for better communication with the administration about the future structure of public service at Harvard.

"We want to retain the integrity and necessary moral responsibility of a human service agency that's run by undergraduates." PBHA President Vincent Pan '95-'96 said in an interview this week.

The memos come at a crucial time for PBHA, which runs more than 80 programs staffed by more than 1,700 Harvard student volunteers. The search for an assistant dean of public service and director of Phillips Brooks House (PBH) will come to a head in five interviews next week.

Student leaders said in interviews this week that they have two goals: to insure the integrity of the search process and to become more autonomous through a new structure.

"Because this search is something that we never felt was necessary, and because we haven't been terribly satisfied with how it has gone, we've begun to question why [Phillips] Brooks House is run the way it is," PBHA Treasurer Andrew J. Ehrlich '96 said yesterday.

PBHA has all along opposed the recommendation to combine the College's two-part public service structure under a single dean.

When Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles and new Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 insisted on searching for an assistant dean to head the structure, public service leaders offered a list of possible search mittee members. Those too were ignored.

Administrators have repeatedly declined to comment on the future of the public service structure, saying all changes will be in the hands of the new dean. In an e-mail message last night, Lewis said he could not comment on the most-recent memo because he had not yet discussed it with PBHA members.

In the current search process, PBHA members say their wishes are once again being disregarded as the search enters its second round.

While PBHA member are admittedly concerned with preserving their organization's autonomy, the consequences of the appointment have an impact more significant than just one new job.

As a result of last September's Maull-Lewis Report on the Structure of Harvard College, the new dean will not only run Phillips Brooks House but also revamp its structure.

In addition, a faculty standing committee on public service will be created to help the new assistant dean do his job.

If one of the two final candidates from inside Harvard--PBH Director Greg A. Johnson '72 and Assistant Director Ken G. Smith--gets the position of assistant dean, the organization will likely continue as it is, with perhaps more autonomy and increased input from community members.

If one of the three candidates from outside Harvard receives the job--one of whom, a PBHA source said, has been treated royally by the search committee--public service at Harvard will likely be administered by the Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS), like any other Harvard division.

Currently, PBHA has a nebulous relationship with the FAS. While the organization is supposedly overseen by a faculty committee, PBHA members say that committee has long been inactive.

Instead the organization has been run by an elected student board and a group of advisors, made up of community leaders, faculty and former PBHA members.

If the current organizational system is revamped in favor of FAS control, many PBHA students say they fear they will find themselves without a voice in the governance of their organization.

A New Direction

Whoever gets the much-disputed public service deanship, members of the PBHA board say they hope to reorganize their organization to protect their interests.

Currently the student-run non-profit coexists with University hired and administered staff made up of 10 full time employees.

PBHA members say they would like to see the student nonprofit organization coexisting with a different corporation--one run by community members who care deeply about PBH's goals.

"Ideally, we seek a situation where the PBH staff would be legally accountable to all of its constituents including the University and College, but also to the student leadership, alumni/ae, elected officials, community members and donors," reads an August 21 memo from the PBHA board of directors to the members of the PBHA Association Committee.

Pan says the planned committee could have oversight of staff hiring. An upcoming endowment campaign could pay staff members salaries with out FAS funding, he says.

Should the administration prove unfriendly to PBHA's plans, members say the organization could transfer its allegiance away from the FAS to another faculty within the University.

"Harvard gives us a lot. We don't want to leave the University," PBHA Treasurer Andrew Ehrlich '96 said yesterday.

But all these plans may come too late. A new dean for public service would have oversight over the College's entire public service structure. Knowles and Lewis have repeatedly said any changes in the public service structure would have to be approved by the new dean.

Maull-Lewis Recommendations

While PBHA leaders have argued vehemently against the College's proposed restructuring, the Maull-Lewis report lists five reasons for the recommendations to change the PBH structure:

* Public service programs recently have grown very rapidly, but their support systems vary greatly.

* The dual structure of PBH and the Office of Public Service "creates confusions of communication and responsibility."

* The greater complexity of the programs leads to greater concerns about safety, liability and responsibility.

* "Representatives of the Faculty have little voice in directions or priorities among public service activities."

* All programs under Harvard sponsorship must proceed with "appropriate Faculty and administrative oversight," the report reads.

Ironically, Pan says conflicts with the administration come after what he considers to be the most successful summer in PBHA's history.

The organization's summer programs, which are continuations of its year-round service projects, were better run and better organized than every before, Pan says.

"The quality of services provided was much better across the board," he explains. "Whether having more training sessions, stricter guidelines in terms of water safety, vehicle use or first aid... It was more focused on the community.

With improvements coming from inside the organization rather than from FAS leadership, members of the PBHA board assert that the College's public service reform has become dominated by a concern for control rather than for accountability.

"Why, given that there's an individual [Johnson] who has been extremely successful in public service [at Harvard], do we need to make that individual reapply for his job?" Ehrlich asked in an interview yesterday.

Some have speculated that the restructuring comes because Johnson is not known among administration members as a "team player," Ehrlich said.

That could be a strike against him, he added.

For instance, an October 19, 1993, memo from Johnson, Director of Public Service Gail L. Epstein and Chair of the PBH Advisory Board Anne Peretz outlines possible cuts in PBH programs in response to a request of then-dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 to "muddle through" without two additional staff members due to FAS financial straits.

In the memo and in person, Johnson presented the administration with an ultimatum: Either give PBH two new staff members, or make the cuts in programming.

PBH was granted the staff members, but according to Ehrlich and Johnson, Johnson's suggestion has come up in a negative light in search committee discussions.

"I see what I did at that point as an appropriate and positive thing, something I should be rewarded for," Johnson said yesterday. "If that is used as a negative criterion in evaluating my candidacy [for the assistant deanship], then what that says is that a positive criteria would have been that someone in a similar situation would not have said that."

That kind of management--"pretending everything is well when it isn't"--is dangerous and is not the way PBH should be run, Johnson said.

Sources at PBH have told him that the search committee has referred to his 1993 decision in deliberations, Johnson said. As a result, he said, he has sought assurance that his suggestion for new staff members would not be part of the search committee's discussion.

Preserving the Search's Integrity

Student members of PBHA also say that maintaining the integrity of the search is vital to the future success of PBH's programs.

Pan, president of PBHA and a member of the search committee, said he wants to make sure "that it's a legitimate, open-minded committee that's looking to pick the best person with accurate information."

Although Pan and a student coordinator of Housing and Neighborhood Development (HAND), a public service program in the houses which is administered by Epstein, are on the search committee, Pan says it would be easy for the students to become "token."

This Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, five students from PBHA, two PBH staff members and Epstein will be allowed to talk to the candidates.

But Ehrlich said he has little hope that the search committee will take the students' point of view into consideration.

"My concern is that we've been consulted and not heeded so many times," Ehrlich said, referring to students' input for the qualifications for the new dean, the right person for the job and the entire search itself.

If the search committee does not choose Johnson or Smith as the new assistant dean, PBHA members said, students in the organization might write letters to its 13,000 alumni informing them of the situation or hold a large rally.

In August, PBH held a celebratory rally at the end of its summer programs, but it was not at all in protest, Ehrlich said.

Structural Possibilities

Whatever the outcome of the dean search, PBHA members and PBH staff say they will consider a new structure for the organization.

To do that, they want to gather together many different people to discuss with the administration possible structural changes.

Ehrlich, Pan and Eric D. Dawson '97 have already met with President Neil L. Rudenstine, Provost Albert Carnesale, Knowles and Lewis over the past month.

Ehrlich said that all four were amenable to suggestions about a different structure for PBH, although Rudenstine and Carnesale deferred to Lewis and Knowles on any decisions.

And a September 12 memo from PBHA to Dean of the College Lewis suggests a larger project: bringing together students, recent alumni, staff, Lewis, Administrative Dean Nancy L. Maull, President Rudenstine and seven current and former members of the PBH Association Committee to discuss the future of public service.

The memo cautions that the discussions will not "derail an existing process"--i.e., the search committee's deliberations--but rather to ensure that opinions from very different perspectives have been fully heard and discussed in a group setting."

It adds that "those who may be newest to PBH and public service are often placed in decision-making situations without realizing the incredible knowledge to be gained by consulting those who know and have built Harvard public service to its nationally renowned status."

But Johnson cautioned that structural changes will not fall into place overnight.

"This is not something that can be accomplished in the next six months," he said. "This is something that has to be an ongoing discussion. The new assistant dean should participate "in that discussion."

And that discussion is likely to grow more heated, as administrators and student leaders continue to differ over the future of the College's public service structure.

Hopefully, Pan said, administrative differences will not impede PBHA's real mission--providing student-run service to more than 1,000 members of the greater Boston community.

"I wonder if that doesn't get missed sometimes," Pan says. "Because obviously that is an ongoing story and it doesn't make the headlines sometimes but that is really the type of organization we are."

"We don't want to be in the headlines for battling the University," he adds.CrimsonGaberial B. EberERIC D. DAWSON '97, GREG A. JOHNSON '72 and VINCENT PAN '95-'96 yesterday

Administrators have repeatedly declined to comment on the future of the public service structure, saying all changes will be in the hands of the new dean. In an e-mail message last night, Lewis said he could not comment on the most-recent memo because he had not yet discussed it with PBHA members.

In the current search process, PBHA members say their wishes are once again being disregarded as the search enters its second round.

While PBHA member are admittedly concerned with preserving their organization's autonomy, the consequences of the appointment have an impact more significant than just one new job.

As a result of last September's Maull-Lewis Report on the Structure of Harvard College, the new dean will not only run Phillips Brooks House but also revamp its structure.

In addition, a faculty standing committee on public service will be created to help the new assistant dean do his job.

If one of the two final candidates from inside Harvard--PBH Director Greg A. Johnson '72 and Assistant Director Ken G. Smith--gets the position of assistant dean, the organization will likely continue as it is, with perhaps more autonomy and increased input from community members.

If one of the three candidates from outside Harvard receives the job--one of whom, a PBHA source said, has been treated royally by the search committee--public service at Harvard will likely be administered by the Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS), like any other Harvard division.

Currently, PBHA has a nebulous relationship with the FAS. While the organization is supposedly overseen by a faculty committee, PBHA members say that committee has long been inactive.

Instead the organization has been run by an elected student board and a group of advisors, made up of community leaders, faculty and former PBHA members.

If the current organizational system is revamped in favor of FAS control, many PBHA students say they fear they will find themselves without a voice in the governance of their organization.

A New Direction

Whoever gets the much-disputed public service deanship, members of the PBHA board say they hope to reorganize their organization to protect their interests.

Currently the student-run non-profit coexists with University hired and administered staff made up of 10 full time employees.

PBHA members say they would like to see the student nonprofit organization coexisting with a different corporation--one run by community members who care deeply about PBH's goals.

"Ideally, we seek a situation where the PBH staff would be legally accountable to all of its constituents including the University and College, but also to the student leadership, alumni/ae, elected officials, community members and donors," reads an August 21 memo from the PBHA board of directors to the members of the PBHA Association Committee.

Pan says the planned committee could have oversight of staff hiring. An upcoming endowment campaign could pay staff members salaries with out FAS funding, he says.

Should the administration prove unfriendly to PBHA's plans, members say the organization could transfer its allegiance away from the FAS to another faculty within the University.

"Harvard gives us a lot. We don't want to leave the University," PBHA Treasurer Andrew Ehrlich '96 said yesterday.

But all these plans may come too late. A new dean for public service would have oversight over the College's entire public service structure. Knowles and Lewis have repeatedly said any changes in the public service structure would have to be approved by the new dean.

Maull-Lewis Recommendations

While PBHA leaders have argued vehemently against the College's proposed restructuring, the Maull-Lewis report lists five reasons for the recommendations to change the PBH structure:

* Public service programs recently have grown very rapidly, but their support systems vary greatly.

* The dual structure of PBH and the Office of Public Service "creates confusions of communication and responsibility."

* The greater complexity of the programs leads to greater concerns about safety, liability and responsibility.

* "Representatives of the Faculty have little voice in directions or priorities among public service activities."

* All programs under Harvard sponsorship must proceed with "appropriate Faculty and administrative oversight," the report reads.

Ironically, Pan says conflicts with the administration come after what he considers to be the most successful summer in PBHA's history.

The organization's summer programs, which are continuations of its year-round service projects, were better run and better organized than every before, Pan says.

"The quality of services provided was much better across the board," he explains. "Whether having more training sessions, stricter guidelines in terms of water safety, vehicle use or first aid... It was more focused on the community.

With improvements coming from inside the organization rather than from FAS leadership, members of the PBHA board assert that the College's public service reform has become dominated by a concern for control rather than for accountability.

"Why, given that there's an individual [Johnson] who has been extremely successful in public service [at Harvard], do we need to make that individual reapply for his job?" Ehrlich asked in an interview yesterday.

Some have speculated that the restructuring comes because Johnson is not known among administration members as a "team player," Ehrlich said.

That could be a strike against him, he added.

For instance, an October 19, 1993, memo from Johnson, Director of Public Service Gail L. Epstein and Chair of the PBH Advisory Board Anne Peretz outlines possible cuts in PBH programs in response to a request of then-dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 to "muddle through" without two additional staff members due to FAS financial straits.

In the memo and in person, Johnson presented the administration with an ultimatum: Either give PBH two new staff members, or make the cuts in programming.

PBH was granted the staff members, but according to Ehrlich and Johnson, Johnson's suggestion has come up in a negative light in search committee discussions.

"I see what I did at that point as an appropriate and positive thing, something I should be rewarded for," Johnson said yesterday. "If that is used as a negative criterion in evaluating my candidacy [for the assistant deanship], then what that says is that a positive criteria would have been that someone in a similar situation would not have said that."

That kind of management--"pretending everything is well when it isn't"--is dangerous and is not the way PBH should be run, Johnson said.

Sources at PBH have told him that the search committee has referred to his 1993 decision in deliberations, Johnson said. As a result, he said, he has sought assurance that his suggestion for new staff members would not be part of the search committee's discussion.

Preserving the Search's Integrity

Student members of PBHA also say that maintaining the integrity of the search is vital to the future success of PBH's programs.

Pan, president of PBHA and a member of the search committee, said he wants to make sure "that it's a legitimate, open-minded committee that's looking to pick the best person with accurate information."

Although Pan and a student coordinator of Housing and Neighborhood Development (HAND), a public service program in the houses which is administered by Epstein, are on the search committee, Pan says it would be easy for the students to become "token."

This Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, five students from PBHA, two PBH staff members and Epstein will be allowed to talk to the candidates.

But Ehrlich said he has little hope that the search committee will take the students' point of view into consideration.

"My concern is that we've been consulted and not heeded so many times," Ehrlich said, referring to students' input for the qualifications for the new dean, the right person for the job and the entire search itself.

If the search committee does not choose Johnson or Smith as the new assistant dean, PBHA members said, students in the organization might write letters to its 13,000 alumni informing them of the situation or hold a large rally.

In August, PBH held a celebratory rally at the end of its summer programs, but it was not at all in protest, Ehrlich said.

Structural Possibilities

Whatever the outcome of the dean search, PBHA members and PBH staff say they will consider a new structure for the organization.

To do that, they want to gather together many different people to discuss with the administration possible structural changes.

Ehrlich, Pan and Eric D. Dawson '97 have already met with President Neil L. Rudenstine, Provost Albert Carnesale, Knowles and Lewis over the past month.

Ehrlich said that all four were amenable to suggestions about a different structure for PBH, although Rudenstine and Carnesale deferred to Lewis and Knowles on any decisions.

And a September 12 memo from PBHA to Dean of the College Lewis suggests a larger project: bringing together students, recent alumni, staff, Lewis, Administrative Dean Nancy L. Maull, President Rudenstine and seven current and former members of the PBH Association Committee to discuss the future of public service.

The memo cautions that the discussions will not "derail an existing process"--i.e., the search committee's deliberations--but rather to ensure that opinions from very different perspectives have been fully heard and discussed in a group setting."

It adds that "those who may be newest to PBH and public service are often placed in decision-making situations without realizing the incredible knowledge to be gained by consulting those who know and have built Harvard public service to its nationally renowned status."

But Johnson cautioned that structural changes will not fall into place overnight.

"This is not something that can be accomplished in the next six months," he said. "This is something that has to be an ongoing discussion. The new assistant dean should participate "in that discussion."

And that discussion is likely to grow more heated, as administrators and student leaders continue to differ over the future of the College's public service structure.

Hopefully, Pan said, administrative differences will not impede PBHA's real mission--providing student-run service to more than 1,000 members of the greater Boston community.

"I wonder if that doesn't get missed sometimes," Pan says. "Because obviously that is an ongoing story and it doesn't make the headlines sometimes but that is really the type of organization we are."

"We don't want to be in the headlines for battling the University," he adds.CrimsonGaberial B. EberERIC D. DAWSON '97, GREG A. JOHNSON '72 and VINCENT PAN '95-'96 yesterday