University Splits HIID Between Graduate Schools

Almost two months after Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67 announced his decision to dissolve the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID), administrators are reaching consensus on how to divvy up the institute's many programs.

Most will go to the Kennedy School Of Government (KSG), although the Graduate School of Education (GSE) and the School of Public Health (SPH) are each hoping to take over one program specific to the school's mission.

Since its founding in 1974, HIID has always maintained a healthy independence from the individual schools--reporting instead to the provost's office--and acted as a means to centralize the University's programs in foreign policy consulting, focusing on four areas: environment, macroeconomics, public finance, and health, education, and welfare.

Now, Fineberg says, it is not independence but integration that will best serve Harvard's needs. At the recommendation of a University task force that carried out a six-month review of the institute, he decided to pair each program with the school closely affiliated to it.

The task force report says changes in the field of international development and the growth of HIID brought the institute further and further from its original purpose and form, prompting them to consider reorganizing.

In recent years the institute has been troubled by claims of mismanagement and a Justice Department investigation of Professor of Economics Andrei Schleifer '82 and his former colleague on HIID's Russian project, Jonathan Hay. Both were accused of using their knowledge of the Russian economy to help private investors.

When Jeffrey D. Sachs '76 resigned as HIID director last spring, the University took the opportunity to reconsider the institute's mission.

Certainly, change will not come overnight, and KSG officials warn that it will take several years to fully integrate HIID's programs into the school.

The K School's Part

Two weeks ago Dean of the Kennedy School Joseph S. Nye agreed to take on the majority of the HIID programs, as the task force had recommended. He said he came to the decision after many discussions with his staff and the provost's office.

"We agree that taking on some of HIID's functions will complement our existing development activities," Nye wrote in a memorandum circulated on March 1 announcing the decision.

KSG plans to establish a new faculty oversight committee for overseas projects, an idea under consideration for some time and an overseas project support office to coordinate the new programs, as well as some of the pre-existing ones.

He pointed to the school's recently established Center for International

Development (CID) and masters degree program in international development as programs already existing that will benefit from closer ties to HIID programs. Former HIID director Sachs is the current director of CID.

KSG will integrate the programs it acquires into its centers and classes, dispersing them evenly around the school.

"It is not going to exist as a new or separate center at the Kennedy

School," says Frederick Schauer, academic dean and Stanton professor at KSG. "Nor are we putting the bulk of it into one center."

Schauer says that, although CID and HIID are similar in focus, the programs will not all be automatically transferred to CID.

"By ensuring that the projects and personnel the Kennedy School takes on become closely associated with existing Kennedy School faculty, staff, teaching programs, and research centers, we emphasize the importance of these activities to so many facets of the Kennedy School enterprise," Nye wrote.

All Around Campus

Two of Harvard's other schools are also hoping to receive a share of HIID.

SPH is "keenly interested" in acquiring the 10-member group of HIID which focuses on health policy consulting, according to Robin C. Herman, director of communications at the School of Public Health.

Currently this HIID health group carries out projects such as researching child health diseases that are particularly prevalent in developing countries and looks at the impact AIDS has on developing countries.

"We're in active discussions with the health group and are hopeful they will join us," Herman says. "We're trying to refine arrangements and academic positions of senior members of the group."

Herman says increasing the school's focus on public health in foreign countries has been an important goal of SPH Dean Barry R. Bloom. Although the school already has connections with foreign health issues, such as through its Department of Population and International Health, the addition of former HIID program would enable the school to meet its goal of increasing the focus on public health in foreign countries.

She calls the HIID health group a "natural" fit with SPH.

Additionally, GSE is eyeing the three-member group of HIID employees who focus on education policy consulting, according to Joel C. Monell, dean for administration and academic services and faculty member at the education school.

"They aren't strangers to us," Monell says. "They are people we know and think highly of."

GSE already has a small program in international education, so just as at SPH, the inclusion of the former HIID programs will not move the school into new areas but only serve as an extension of current programs.

Working Out the Details

While the two schools receiving smaller contingents of HIID staff have fairly specific plans for how to integrate the programs and staff, the Kennedy School has yet to reach this level.

"We're now in the decision making mode about people and projects," Schauer says. He is responsible for deciding which HIID development professionals will be transferred to KSG.

Schauer says that plans are too tentative to even offer estimates of the number of employees or programs that the Kennedy School will acquire from HIID. Financial details of the transition have also yet to be finalized, although the HIID task force report said the institute's assets, worth $24.8 million in June 1999, would be transferred to the schools acquiring HIID programs.

Nye said he wants to make firm arrangements by mid-April. Current plans call for HIID to be officially cease existence on July 1, the start of Harvard's fiscal year 2001.

Shauer says it will take several years for KSG to fully integrate HIID programs and personnel.

He adds that HIID has outstanding contracts for specific programs that KSG will oversee, even if the school does not plan to continue them.

"There are commitments and of course Harvard will honor these," says Schauer.

Several current HIID administrators, including the institute's acting director, declined to comment on the transition

But Richard B. Pagett, acting director of HIID, told The Crimson in January that many HIID employees would rather the programs be kept together.

"Most people are quite uncomfortable with the ideas of having the functions distributed throughout the University, but realize that this could be a unique and positive way to institutionalize these functions," Pagett said.