Debate on PBHA Structure Rages

The battle between Phillips Brooks House Association Inc. (PBHA) and the administration has reached new heights in the past few days, and although an agreement seems near, the conflict may cause the service organization to lose its status as a student group, be evicted from Phillips Brooks House (PBH) and lose$750,000 per year in University funding.

Underlying this bitter dispute are two clashing visions of public service, and this dichotomy has existed for at least 15 years.

As the struggle has intensified in the last two years, students say administrators have repeatedly broken promises and directly lied in order to protect their vision.

For their part, administrators contend that students want to take advantage of considerable Harvard resources but are unwilling to give the University any control over where its money goes.

Difference in Vision

PBHA aims to promote social change in Cambridge and Boston and to provide an avenue for students to enhance their learning through public service, according to the organization's mission statement.

"We start bottom-up," says Hahrie C. Han '97, vice president of PBHA. "We begin by building relationships within the community and then structuring programs around them."

The College has no formal mission statement, but according to Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III, the College sees community service as an extracurricular activity.

Epps acknowledges that the administration would prefer less-risky modes of public service than PBHA would like, and the 1994 Report on the Structure of Harvard College says the need to simplify PBHA's programs comes from legitimate safety concerns.

The College seemingly would like public service to be administered much like the Housing and Neighborhood Development (HAND) program, in which the College faces less liability than in some PBHA programs.

PBHA officials say the goal of the administration--other than to save money--is to run public service from the top down so as to retain complete control.

"[The administrators] would like to have glossy Christmas parties at children's hospitals--that's their idea of public service," says John B. King '96-'95, a past president of PBHA.

Han says that the HAND program is the only type of public service that the administration can handle.

"If the administration ran PBHA the way it wanted to, [PBHA] would become an organization like HAND," Han says. "It would be like if the University took over The Crimson, it would become the Gazette."

Until the present year, HAND has had three student coordinates, all of whom have been paid by the University. This year, Jessica D. Steigerwald '90 has been appointed to replace the role of the student coordinators.

PBHA officials say the HAND program is limited by its administrative structure. They say they want to make sure that PBHA is not controlled in the same way as HAND.

"I don't want to come back at my fifth reunion and see PBHA as a few top-down big sibling programs," says PBHA President Andrew J. Ehrlich '96-'97.

The Conflicts

The current issue of conflict involves the creation of a governing board for PBHA.

PBHA officials say they want to create a board with voting non-student members in order to increase their fundraising capabilities and to strengthen their organization.

"We need a board, first for long-term continuity, second, for institutional memory, and third to acquire diversity of opinion," Ehrlich says.

Epps wrote in a May 21 letter to PBHA alumni that if students continued with their plans to create a voting non-student board, they would violate the rules of the student handbook and thus lose their status as a student organization.

Epps emphasized that the rule is significant because he uses it to keep out organizations such as the Boston Church of Christ that violate student autonomy.

But students say the technicality of the handbook is simply a cover for Harvard's larger concern of controlling public service.

"I think this is bull; that this stops with Dean Epps or Dean [of the College Harry R.] Lewis ['68]," King says. "My sense is that something with this high stakes, there's got to be involvement at higher levels."

"Dean [of the Faculty Jeremy R.] Knowles has tried to say he is not involved, [but decisions are] not being made without input from the president's office because they are going to be called with the fallout," King adds.

The new board met for the first time last Friday. It includes eight students, eight members representing faculty and alumni, Judith H. Kidd, the new assistant dean for public service, and a representative of the president's office.

Epps acknowledges that Harvard Student Agencies (HSA) has been granted an exception to the rule which requires students to be the only voting members of a governing board.

According to HSA President Matt Heid '97, HSA has seven students and 14 nonstudents who are voting members of its board.

Furthermore, in the case of HSA, this board has full power over the organization and picks its student president.

PBHA officials say that the HSA board has far more control than its board will ever possess. All of the members of the PBHA board will be selected by students and will also be subject to impeachment by students (with the exception of the appointed administrators).

Epps says that the exception for HSA was made more than 30 years ago, owing to the complexity and variety of skills needed to run the organization.

"[HSA] needed specialists of a variety of kinds," says Epps. "There was not such competency in FAS.... Also at issue is the sheer complexity of the organization."

But PBHA officials think that there is no reason that their case is different.

"I see us as a non-profit analogue of HSA," says Roy E. Bahat '98, treasurer of PBHA.

Epps also says he thinks PBHA could create special trustee seats on the board that would provide PBHA with the advice and guidance that it is seeking.

But PBHA officials say that role is already being fulfilled successfully by its Association Committee.

The Association Committee has 15 local members and 11 national members and is chaired by Anne H. Peretz, who will sit on the new board of trustees as well.

According to Ehrlich, the idea of the new board is to involve representatives from the Harvard community in important decisions relating to community service.

But Kidd says giving PBHA its own board that will distribute the funds given by Harvard is similar to a donor being asked to give money with no strings attached.

"If you were taking money from an independent donor, you would have to treat that donor with respect," the new assistant dean says. "[Donors] never give away money without strictures.... That would be outlandish."

But Bahat says he does not think the purpose of giving is receive.

"A donor donates to a cause because he believes in it, not because he wants to attach strings," Bahat says.

One additional issue of conflict between the University and PBHA is who will direct PBHA programs.

Epps says he wants Kidd to be appointed head of PBHA so that she will have a dual position as assistant dean of public service and director of PBHA.

But the students say Kidd can not become executive director of PBHA because she is employed by the College.

"The person we appoint needs to report directly to the [PBHA] board," Han says. "We need to hire a person with special competence and skills in public service, someone to represent our organization in the public eye."

But Kidd criticizes the students, saying they will only accept a leader who catters to their whims.

"Students have a resistance to taking advice from anyone...unless they choose someone with no backbone," Kidd says.

Students say the purpose of the board is to give many different communities a stake in the future of public service at Harvard.

"It sends a message that we take the idea of accountability very seriously, and it sends a message to the students," says Eric D. Dawson '97, last year's vice president of PBHA.

Kidd's Appointment

The Report on the Structure of Harvard College recommends enacting the College's vision of public service in part by appointing an assistant dean of public service in order to create a clear line of accountability for these programs.

In November, Lewis appointed Kidd over the strong objections of the students who sat on the search committee.

Many in the PBHA community say Kidd's appointment is a sign of the administration's desire to control public service by hiring someone whose first loyalty is to the University and its budget.

Students had overwhelmingly favored retaining Greg Johnson '72, the longtime executive director of PBH.

"The purpose of selecting Kidd was more fiscal than administrative," says Vincent Pan '95-'96, a former president of PBHA.

"[The report] ostensibly aimed to figure out how to better public service at Harvard, but actually it was a way of eliminating Greg Johnson and concentrating power in the Dean's office," King says.

The decision to hire Kidd also led to the elimination of the position of Gail L. Epstein, director of public service program for Harvard College and coordinator of the HAND program.

At the time, the decision was opposed by many current and past members of HAND, including Steigerwald.

"As long as students believe that HAND's unique programs will be destroyed by the abrupt removal of Gail...I believe the students," Steigerwald says.

Students have criticized Kidd, who has been involved mainly with grant-making and fundraising during her time at Boston University, the Bank of Boston and City Year, a Boston service organization, for what they describe as poor leadership.

According to students at PBHA, Kidd has operated as a chief executive officer of a corporation rather than as a partner in furthering public service.

Specifically, she has met with and renewed contracts with the city of Cambridge for various service programs without the presence of PBHA officials.

"I don't feel Judith really has a good grasp of how PBHA runs," Han says.

"They have hired a fundraising marionette," says Timothy P. McCarthy '93, who coordinated HAND his senior year.

Kidd's personal style of leadership also seems to be unpopular with students at PBH.

"We gave her a very fair chance," Han says. "But she's made it very difficult for us to believe she is working with us in a good faith effort."

But Kidd says that she has worked well with the students.

"Individually working with the students has always been excellent," she says.

Broken Promises

PBHA officials say the administration's desire to centralize power to control public service programs has caused them to break written promises to Johnson and Epstein.

The students say Knowles promised to retain Epstein and Johnson until after a full review of their positions could be conducted in a memo Knowles wrote in November 1994 to then-dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57.

"[T]he assistant dean will be able to assess, during the academic year 1995-1996, the internal structure and strengths of the staff...before making changes consistent with the maintenance of the current overall size of the staff," Knowles wrote in that memo.

Kidd says she plans to conduct a comprehensive review next year, after the controversy surrounding her appointment has settled down.

But students say such a review should come before the dismissals of Johnson and Epstein.

"It was my impression that the Director of Office of Public Service and the Director of PBH were to be included in such a review," Ehrlich says.

Some students have even suggested that Knowles never had any intention of keeping his promise.

"The thing you have to understand is that...administrators lie," Pan says.

"Throughout the year I was president, there was such a pattern of lying and disingenuousness," King says.

History of Conflict

Relations between the University and PBHA have never been rosy. Past PBHA students have also found themselves fighting against Harvard's interests.

In 1986, a PBHA program called Cambridge Youth Enrichment Project (CYEP), which helped organize tenants to fight against their landlords, became a sticking point between Harvard and the city of Cambridge.

The program was underfunded by the University, a fact that many Cambridge residents resented. The Cambridge City Council then passed a bill denouncing Harvard for its refusal to support PBHA.

In the end, President Derek C. Bok was forced to make a deal with the city of Cambridge in which Harvard agreed to match the city's $16,000 donation to CYEP.

In the late '80s, a PBHA committee called the Committee on Economic Change worked to organize the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW).

PBHA organized meetings for HUCTW in Phillips Brooks House against University officials' wishes.

Liability Insurance

The dispute that PBHA members say caused the University to centralize power over public service was one of liability.

In the summer of 1994, PBHA began impeachment proceedings against Harvetta E. Nero '96, secretary of PBHA's board of directors, for violating the association's driving policy.

Nero was one of several staffers who were involved in accidents that jeopardized the organization's insurance policy.

According to King, Harvard refused to renew insurance coverage of the approximately 18 vans PBHA rents during the summer unless the association's board took prompt action to change the vehicle policy of who could drive its vans.

The PBHA cabinet met in a four-hour emergency session and passed a new policy that required drivers found at fault in an accident in an association van to have their certification revoked until they were recertified.

Nero's problem was one of a series of cases over the years that have pitted PBHA against the administration, a battle that may soon be nearing a resolution.

"I'm very upbeat about the progress of the negotiations," Ehrlich says. "I'm confident we will reach an agreement."Crimson File Photos

PBHA officials say the HAND program is limited by its administrative structure. They say they want to make sure that PBHA is not controlled in the same way as HAND.

"I don't want to come back at my fifth reunion and see PBHA as a few top-down big sibling programs," says PBHA President Andrew J. Ehrlich '96-'97.

The Conflicts

The current issue of conflict involves the creation of a governing board for PBHA.

PBHA officials say they want to create a board with voting non-student members in order to increase their fundraising capabilities and to strengthen their organization.

"We need a board, first for long-term continuity, second, for institutional memory, and third to acquire diversity of opinion," Ehrlich says.

Epps wrote in a May 21 letter to PBHA alumni that if students continued with their plans to create a voting non-student board, they would violate the rules of the student handbook and thus lose their status as a student organization.

Epps emphasized that the rule is significant because he uses it to keep out organizations such as the Boston Church of Christ that violate student autonomy.

But students say the technicality of the handbook is simply a cover for Harvard's larger concern of controlling public service.

"I think this is bull; that this stops with Dean Epps or Dean [of the College Harry R.] Lewis ['68]," King says. "My sense is that something with this high stakes, there's got to be involvement at higher levels."

"Dean [of the Faculty Jeremy R.] Knowles has tried to say he is not involved, [but decisions are] not being made without input from the president's office because they are going to be called with the fallout," King adds.

The new board met for the first time last Friday. It includes eight students, eight members representing faculty and alumni, Judith H. Kidd, the new assistant dean for public service, and a representative of the president's office.

Epps acknowledges that Harvard Student Agencies (HSA) has been granted an exception to the rule which requires students to be the only voting members of a governing board.

According to HSA President Matt Heid '97, HSA has seven students and 14 nonstudents who are voting members of its board.

Furthermore, in the case of HSA, this board has full power over the organization and picks its student president.

PBHA officials say that the HSA board has far more control than its board will ever possess. All of the members of the PBHA board will be selected by students and will also be subject to impeachment by students (with the exception of the appointed administrators).

Epps says that the exception for HSA was made more than 30 years ago, owing to the complexity and variety of skills needed to run the organization.

"[HSA] needed specialists of a variety of kinds," says Epps. "There was not such competency in FAS.... Also at issue is the sheer complexity of the organization."

But PBHA officials think that there is no reason that their case is different.

"I see us as a non-profit analogue of HSA," says Roy E. Bahat '98, treasurer of PBHA.

Epps also says he thinks PBHA could create special trustee seats on the board that would provide PBHA with the advice and guidance that it is seeking.

But PBHA officials say that role is already being fulfilled successfully by its Association Committee.

The Association Committee has 15 local members and 11 national members and is chaired by Anne H. Peretz, who will sit on the new board of trustees as well.

According to Ehrlich, the idea of the new board is to involve representatives from the Harvard community in important decisions relating to community service.

But Kidd says giving PBHA its own board that will distribute the funds given by Harvard is similar to a donor being asked to give money with no strings attached.

"If you were taking money from an independent donor, you would have to treat that donor with respect," the new assistant dean says. "[Donors] never give away money without strictures.... That would be outlandish."

But Bahat says he does not think the purpose of giving is receive.

"A donor donates to a cause because he believes in it, not because he wants to attach strings," Bahat says.

One additional issue of conflict between the University and PBHA is who will direct PBHA programs.

Epps says he wants Kidd to be appointed head of PBHA so that she will have a dual position as assistant dean of public service and director of PBHA.

But the students say Kidd can not become executive director of PBHA because she is employed by the College.

"The person we appoint needs to report directly to the [PBHA] board," Han says. "We need to hire a person with special competence and skills in public service, someone to represent our organization in the public eye."

But Kidd criticizes the students, saying they will only accept a leader who catters to their whims.

"Students have a resistance to taking advice from anyone...unless they choose someone with no backbone," Kidd says.

Students say the purpose of the board is to give many different communities a stake in the future of public service at Harvard.

"It sends a message that we take the idea of accountability very seriously, and it sends a message to the students," says Eric D. Dawson '97, last year's vice president of PBHA.

Kidd's Appointment

The Report on the Structure of Harvard College recommends enacting the College's vision of public service in part by appointing an assistant dean of public service in order to create a clear line of accountability for these programs.

In November, Lewis appointed Kidd over the strong objections of the students who sat on the search committee.

Many in the PBHA community say Kidd's appointment is a sign of the administration's desire to control public service by hiring someone whose first loyalty is to the University and its budget.

Students had overwhelmingly favored retaining Greg Johnson '72, the longtime executive director of PBH.

"The purpose of selecting Kidd was more fiscal than administrative," says Vincent Pan '95-'96, a former president of PBHA.

"[The report] ostensibly aimed to figure out how to better public service at Harvard, but actually it was a way of eliminating Greg Johnson and concentrating power in the Dean's office," King says.

The decision to hire Kidd also led to the elimination of the position of Gail L. Epstein, director of public service program for Harvard College and coordinator of the HAND program.

At the time, the decision was opposed by many current and past members of HAND, including Steigerwald.

"As long as students believe that HAND's unique programs will be destroyed by the abrupt removal of Gail...I believe the students," Steigerwald says.

Students have criticized Kidd, who has been involved mainly with grant-making and fundraising during her time at Boston University, the Bank of Boston and City Year, a Boston service organization, for what they describe as poor leadership.

According to students at PBHA, Kidd has operated as a chief executive officer of a corporation rather than as a partner in furthering public service.

Specifically, she has met with and renewed contracts with the city of Cambridge for various service programs without the presence of PBHA officials.

"I don't feel Judith really has a good grasp of how PBHA runs," Han says.

"They have hired a fundraising marionette," says Timothy P. McCarthy '93, who coordinated HAND his senior year.

Kidd's personal style of leadership also seems to be unpopular with students at PBH.

"We gave her a very fair chance," Han says. "But she's made it very difficult for us to believe she is working with us in a good faith effort."

But Kidd says that she has worked well with the students.

"Individually working with the students has always been excellent," she says.

Broken Promises

PBHA officials say the administration's desire to centralize power to control public service programs has caused them to break written promises to Johnson and Epstein.

The students say Knowles promised to retain Epstein and Johnson until after a full review of their positions could be conducted in a memo Knowles wrote in November 1994 to then-dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57.

"[T]he assistant dean will be able to assess, during the academic year 1995-1996, the internal structure and strengths of the staff...before making changes consistent with the maintenance of the current overall size of the staff," Knowles wrote in that memo.

Kidd says she plans to conduct a comprehensive review next year, after the controversy surrounding her appointment has settled down.

But students say such a review should come before the dismissals of Johnson and Epstein.

"It was my impression that the Director of Office of Public Service and the Director of PBH were to be included in such a review," Ehrlich says.

Some students have even suggested that Knowles never had any intention of keeping his promise.

"The thing you have to understand is that...administrators lie," Pan says.

"Throughout the year I was president, there was such a pattern of lying and disingenuousness," King says.

History of Conflict

Relations between the University and PBHA have never been rosy. Past PBHA students have also found themselves fighting against Harvard's interests.

In 1986, a PBHA program called Cambridge Youth Enrichment Project (CYEP), which helped organize tenants to fight against their landlords, became a sticking point between Harvard and the city of Cambridge.

The program was underfunded by the University, a fact that many Cambridge residents resented. The Cambridge City Council then passed a bill denouncing Harvard for its refusal to support PBHA.

In the end, President Derek C. Bok was forced to make a deal with the city of Cambridge in which Harvard agreed to match the city's $16,000 donation to CYEP.

In the late '80s, a PBHA committee called the Committee on Economic Change worked to organize the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW).

PBHA organized meetings for HUCTW in Phillips Brooks House against University officials' wishes.

Liability Insurance

The dispute that PBHA members say caused the University to centralize power over public service was one of liability.

In the summer of 1994, PBHA began impeachment proceedings against Harvetta E. Nero '96, secretary of PBHA's board of directors, for violating the association's driving policy.

Nero was one of several staffers who were involved in accidents that jeopardized the organization's insurance policy.

According to King, Harvard refused to renew insurance coverage of the approximately 18 vans PBHA rents during the summer unless the association's board took prompt action to change the vehicle policy of who could drive its vans.

The PBHA cabinet met in a four-hour emergency session and passed a new policy that required drivers found at fault in an accident in an association van to have their certification revoked until they were recertified.

Nero's problem was one of a series of cases over the years that have pitted PBHA against the administration, a battle that may soon be nearing a resolution.

"I'm very upbeat about the progress of the negotiations," Ehrlich says. "I'm confident we will reach an agreement."Crimson File Photos