Students Seek Public Focus

When what is now the Harvard Kennedy School was founded seven decades ago, its chief donor sought a school to educate future leaders in government.

To this day, the School’s mission statement charges it “to train enlightened public leaders and to generate the ideas that provide the answers to our most challenging public problems.”

But as increasing numbers of graduates enter the private sector—because of debt concerns or pressure from corporate recruiting—some students have concluded the School has fallen short of its lofty aim.

In 2007, 41 percent of HKS graduates entered the private sector, the highest level in over a decade, and some students say the figure reflects a failing on the part of administrators to promote public sector careers.

“That statistic, 41 percent, points to a larger problem at the School,” says Douglas A. Levine, a 2008 Kennedy School graduate.

Last spring, he and other alarmed peers mobilized students, faculty, and administrators to address what they say is a distressing discrepancy between the Kennedy School’s mission and its reality.

And while last year saw the number of graduates entering the private sector drop to 35 percent, many students say more needs to be done.

But while students have sought changes to promote the school’s mission of public services, they say administrators have not taken the issue seriously.

“I think good intentions are there,” says Alicia S. Kaskela, co-chair of the Student Public Service Collaborative. “But I don’t think they’ve really been borne out in practice.”

‘ZERO COMMUNICATION’

While students say they believe the Kennedy School, and especially its current dean, David T. Ellwood ’75, is committed to public service, they remain concerned that the school is ignoring a recent trend away from the public sector.

This February, the Kennedy School Student Government passed a resolution calling for the school to promote public service, a move that conveyed student resentment at what many considered the administration’s unilateral decision to eliminate the position of Director of Public Service.

“There was zero communication from the administration,” said Student Government President Benjamin M. Polk at the time. “It illustrated this lack of engagement between student leaders and major decisions at the Kennedy School that I think students need to have some sort of representation in.”

The resolution also asked that Ellwood reconvene the Dean’s Committee on Public Service, a group of student leaders, faculty members, and top-level administrators that first assembled in spring 2008.

Spearheaded by 2008 HKS graduate Jeffrey R. Ginsburg, the committee aimed to meet every semester to strengthen the Kennedy School’s culture of public service.

But the committee only met once, a statistic which Ginsburg calls alarming. “My understanding was that there was a plan,” he says. “The Dean had committed to me and the group that it was going to meet on a regular basis.”

Students say the resolution surprised the administration, which appeared to be unaware of the strong student sentiments surrounding the issue.

“I think the Dean was really taken aback,” says Jessica K. Reitz, a co-chair of the Student Public Service Collaborative, a student organization that arose from the Dean’s Committee on Public Service.

Ellwood could not be reached for comment for this article.

In response, administrators met with student leaders, reaffirming their commitment to public service and allaying some student concerns. Now, students say they hope the administration will follow the meetings with action.

LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND STATISTICS

But despite widespread concern among students over recent percentages of graduates going to the private sector, administrators say the statistics have been blown out of proportion.

“I don’t believe there is a cause for concern,” says Sandy Hessler, director of the Office of Career Advancement. She says that of the 35 percent of 2008 graduates who entered the private sector, about a third entered a public-private partnership, which would suggest that closer to three-fourths of students actually entered public service careers.

Even last year’s decline in private sector employment—from 41 percent in 2007 to 35 percent—may not reflect a real change, but rather result from a higher student response rate to post-graduation surveys in 2008, casting doubt on the accuracy of the numbers that have fueled the debate.

Still, Director of Degree Programs Joseph McCarthy says the numbers are somewhat concerning.

“When that percentage [of students entering the private sector] begins to rise above one-third of our graduates, it makes me a little uneasy,” he says. “But it does fluctuate from time to time.”

McCarthy adds that he thinks public service can also be done from a private sector platform. But some students disagree.

“We had a skepticism that some huge portion of people going into private sector would be working on public problems,” Ginsburg says. “And even if they were working on it, it wasn’t their mission to serve the public sector.”

But administrators say their response to the issue of public sector employment has been adequate and reflects their desire to continue the school’s mission to train public leaders.

“We’re always looking and keeping track to make sure we’re doing everything we can to support students who want to go into the public sector,” says Sarah E. Wald, chief of staff for the Dean’s Office at the Kennedy School.

CAUSE AND EFFECT

A February survey of the HKS student body found that 79 percent of students intended to go into public service after graduation. Though this number is high, it suggests that a considerable portion of students at the school of public service still plan to enter the private sector.

But while students largely agree the School has a public service problem, they remain divided as to how to best combat it.

Some say the school’s curricular focus no longer reflects its mission.

“The focus in the school internally is not really public service,” says Muhamed H. Almaliky, a Student Government member.

But others cite financial factors as the primary driver.

“Students were almost being forced, I think, to go into the private sector because they had such a debt burden when they graduated,” says Douglas A. Levine, who graduated from HKS in 2008.

Ellwood has focused extensively on increasing financial aid for HKS students, which he said in a February interview had doubled from an annual total of $11 million when his tenure began in 2004 to a projected $21 million this year.

But according to Reitz, research conducted by the Dean’s Committee on Public Service found no strong connection between debt load and the sector a HKS student enters upon graduation. She adds that many students with greater than $100,000 in debt still enter the public sector.

The availability of positions in government also affects student career choices according to McCarthy, who predicts an uptick in graduates entering the public sector this year due to what he dubbed “the Obama effect.”

He says reduced availability of private sector jobs due to the economic crisis could also push students toward the public sector.

Seizing on these economic and social forces, the Office of Career Advancement has stepped up its efforts to promote public service, according to Hessler, the Office’s director. Since last fall, it has brought in more career discussion panels and career fairs related to public service. Hessler says it has strengthened its connections with the World Bank, the United Nations, the U.S. government, and public sector consulting firms.

Students have established a fall and spring “Day of Service” each semester, a day of volunteering in which Ellwood and some faculty have participated. And the Student Public Service Collaborative is pushing for more financial aid, although students say they realize this will be difficult in the current financial climate.

But despite such changes, Ginsburg says substantial progress may be a long time coming.

“The goal is not something you’re going to accomplish in one semester or one year,” he says. “It’s trying to establish something more systemic and fundamental than you can accomplish in just a few meetings.”

—Staff writer Niha S. Jain can be reached at nsjain@fas.harvard.edu.