Have You Heard of Woodbridge?

Last week, the Woodbridge Society elected its leadership for the new year. With its fresh guard comes the chance to revitalize the Societya necessary step if Woodbridge has any intention of fulfilling its own mandate on this campus.

Though it represents almost 10 percent of the student body, Harvards omnibus international student organization seems to have all but vanished from the scene. Suffering from organizational paralysis, Woodbridge was patently absent from the Southeast Asian tsunami relief effortthe most significant international event in recent months. While other organizations sang and danced their way to dollars, Woodbridgean international organization with a natural role to play in alleviating the damages of an international disasterdid absolutely nothing.

It is also not immediately evident what Woodbridge did for the rest of the year. The Society used to hold the occasional social eventthat is, until its Social Chair flew off to Europe in January. While the position sat empty for two whole months, no attempt was made to reappoint someone to fill the void. Instead, the entire board membership split the responsibility of arranging social events between themselves. Responsibility without accountability is a recipe for inaction, and true to this logic, Woodbridges supposed festivities were mediocre non-events. While in previous years, more planning used to go into the Societys activities to make them actual cultural events with poetry and music, this years barazasWoodbridge lingo for open househave been mere food fests.

Woodbridges inactivity is particularly rueful because of the important contribution it ought to make to the Harvard campus. The Society has an inherent quality that should enable it to contribute to campus life in a great way, one that has thus far been neglected by its leadership: internationalism. Many American students at Harvard are curious about their international counterparts; the Society has made no attempt to engage them with its activities. The number of American students who have attended any Woodbridge events this year has languished in the teens. These happy few came without invitation, and were given no reason to return. This is unacceptable for an organization whose very constitution advocates a shared understanding amongst the international and American students at Harvard College.

The sad thing is that, at its best, the Woodbridge Society can be rather impressive. A few days before fall term starts, it runs the Freshmen International Program (FIP), an orientation program for international students. FIP does a remarkable job getting complex information about visas, Boston, and mental health across to frazzled foreign first-years. For many students, it provides a first taste of Harvard, and fortunately its a good one. As soon as the school year starts, however, Woodbridge takes its leave from the lives of its FIP charges.

This in itself is not enough. If Woodbridge is to remain in any way essential, it needs to get back to basicsand get active. If, as its constitution states, Woodbridges raison dtre is the support and enhancement of the international community at Harvard, then it needs to sponsor more eventsdances, cultural lectures and concertsto this end. The newly elected leaders of Woodbridge must make more of an attempt to facilitate interaction between American students and their international peers.

Finally, Woodbridge ought to consider lobbying for the unique concerns of its membership. It is often extremely difficult, for example, for international students to pay the fees required to obtain an American visa. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences has agreed to reimburse the $100 visa fee for graduate students in the scientific and technical disciplines; Woodbridge should lobby to extend this consideration to undergraduates.

Harvards international student community represents a big world reduced to only 650 students. Each brings a distinctive flavor to this College, and the Woodbridge Society could bring them together in a savory stew. The current state of the Society, however, squanders this potential. If Woodbridge fails to halt its own slow decay, it will condemn itself to organizational irrelevance.

So, have you heard of the Woodbridge Society? Someday, I hope that you will.

Sahil K. Mahtani 08, a Crimson editorial comper, lives in Lionel Hall.