What the Administration Isn’t Telling You
by Marcos Santiago on April 29, 2009 in Opinion
I spent quite a bit of time debating whether or not to write this op-ed and risk angering several key decision makers at the school. But I feel strongly that the following student sentiments need to be put out there, and since few others know what’s about to happen at HKS, the responsibility falls to me.
Let me preface this with the sincerest of comments. The vast majority of faculty and administrators at this institution are wonderful individuals who truly care about students and the student experience, at least on a personal level. The “system” and the “bureaucracy,” on the other hand, could hardly be less accommodating to students and their needs.
Perhaps the numerous frustrations experienced as this year’s executive vice president (EVP) of the Kennedy School Student Government (KSSG) pushed me over the edge, or possibly it was my four-month PAE focused on impoverished mining communities and stakeholder theory. Then again, it could be that Town Hall is being gutted this summer to make room for the Hauser Center, and as an advocate for students’ interests, I don’t feel like keeping it to myself. Read more
One Final Squawk
by Carlyn Reichel on April 29, 2009 in Opinion
In trying to decide what this final column should be about, I knew I wanted to reflect on the significance of our time here at HKS. What have been my lessons learned, the growth experiences before being released back into the world as a proper adult - employed (I can only hope), effective, and possessing greater erudition. And the one thing that keeps popping up is not the activity-based costing, the beta coefficients, or the Congress insanity, but the people.
I came to the Kennedy School to find myself - instead I found all of you. I found more of myself too, but the great facilitator of that wasn’t any reading lists or in-class discussion; it was the conversations in the hallways, the hours of loge-lurking in the Forum, the multitudinous pints at Shay’s and Grendel’s and Tommy Doyle’s and…I’ll stop now. Read more
Finding Style From Within
by Jason Cabico on April 29, 2009 in Culture
Last weekend, I had my first al fresco dinner of the year. The evening was warm enough that I could finally pull out a pair of shorts from the container of warm weather clothes hibernating sadly under my bed. As my friend and I sat down at our table, he started going on about how spring had arrived. Despite the summery ensemble I was sporting, I quickly told my friend how wrong he was. True, the weather was pleasant enough for me to study outside during the day in jeans and a t-shirt, but it wasn’t top-off-sunbathe warm. So, for me, sunny day plus t-shirt equaled the beginning of a farmer’s tan, and two-tone appendages are never a good look. Read more
HKS to Overhaul Town Hall, Eliminate Student Space
by Syon Bhanot, News Editor on April 29, 2009 in News
When HKS students return from their summer breaks in the fall of 2009, they will find a very different school than the one they left. Most notably, returning students will find that Belfer’s Town Hall – the site of countless student group meetings, informal interactions, and events – will no longer exist in its current form. Read more
Exploring Healthcare Reform in the U.S.
by The Editors on April 29, 2009 in Features
- Massachusetts’ Health Care System: an Rx for the Country?
- Interview with IOP Fellow Jim Ramstad
- Health as a National Security Issue
Reinstating the ROTC at Harvard
by Mia Zuckerkandel on April 29, 2009 in HKS News
Before a packed crowd at the Forum, which included Dean David Ellwood and U.S. Army General David Petraeus, a Harvard Kennedy School student, Maura Sullivan (MPA/MBA ’09), called on Harvard University to reinstate ROTC, the Reserve Officer Training Corps, which has been effectively banned from campus for 40 years. Read more
Learning by Unlearning
by Fernando Gutierrez-Eddy on April 29, 2009 in Opinion
Many of us can no doubt visualize the cartoon, if not real-life experience, of paying a visit to the mechanic and having a guy in coveralls chuck out a few bits of varying shapes and sizes from under the car’s hood and then, without replacing them, pronounce everything to be fine as he hands over a large - probably also rather greasy - bill. In making this analogous to my experience at Harvard, I will hold off commenting on the cost, which I have found to be an exceptional value for the money in any case. Instead, what I am after is the link with Harvard’s transformative teaching of doing more and better with less. This is one of the finest, most surprising learnings I have picked up during this past year.
I call it the Harvard paradox. Speaking with several mid careers turned up a shared expectation that here at Harvard we would find some almost magical, dare I say god-like, understanding of ourselves and the world. That we would be clothed with an inordinate ability to set forth and realize our grandest aspirations. And, that such understanding would come through the acquisition of new and additional knowledge. The effect has been advanced through an almost opposite and contradictory teaching. Read more
Interview with IOP Fellow Jim Ramstad
by Samina Uddin, Features Editor on April 29, 2009 in Features
This past semester, Congressman Jim Ramstad (R-MN; 1990-2009) was a fellow at HKS’s Institute of Politics (IOP). During his years in Congress, Ramstad was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, Health Subcommittee, and Oversight Subcommittee. He also co-chaired the Addiction Treatment and Recovery Caucus, as well as the Bipartisan Disabilities Caucus, Law Enforcement Caucus, and Medical Technology Caucus.
While at the Kennedy School, Ramstad led a study group at the IOP called The Policy and Politics of Addiction and Mental Illness, which examined the problems of untreated mental illness and addiction in the context of health care reform. The Citizen sat down with Ramstad to discuss different health care reform models and their potential impact on access to care for mentally ill patients, national drug control policy, the veterans’ health system, and his work in Congress on behalf of the mentally ill. Read more
Weaving the Israeli-Palestinian Narrative: A 360 Approach - View 3
by Jake Waxman on April 29, 2009 in Culture
Prior to the Israel trip, a mid-level Israeli diplomat gave our group a brief introduction to his country. He made a concerted attempt to turn our attention away from the regional conflict and instead to his country’s cultural and economic achievements. After a week in Israel, it is apparent that if you come to Israel to try to understand the nature and reality of the people who inhabit the holy land, it is all but impossible to push the conflict to the margins of your mind. As much as many people try to sidestep that frictional reality, everything is influenced, if not defined by the conflict. Read more
Bringing Democracy Back
by Allison Lombardo on April 29, 2009 in Opinion
The happy hour at Stetson’s on U Street in Washington, D.C. has a new feeling of hope. But for those who work on democracy promotion, the discount beers are coupled with a sober purpose.
Democratic systems are more responsive to the marginalized, more likely to respect human rights and be more responsible world stakeholders, yet the Bush administration’s “Freedom Agenda” left an undercurrent of negative connotations and lukewarm feelings about democracy as a U.S. foreign policy priority. It left democracy advocates fighting for air - ashamed about the pushback against democracy promotion and confused about why its champions have been silent. Read more
