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.
During the summer, the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations will move from its current location in the Charles Hotel to the Belfer building. The move is part of a long-term strategic plan, driven largely by HKS Executive Dean John Haigh, to bring student-focused research centers onto the main campus. Though the move has been in the works for years, it has only recently come to the attention of student leaders.
Since its inception in 1997, the Hauser Center has been dedicated to the study of nonprofit organizations and civil society. Numerous HKS professors are affiliated with the Center, and the Center also houses a number of visiting and research fellows.
The new structural plan replaces the current Town Hall space with a Hauser Center conference room. In addition, other space on the first few floors of Belfer – including the computer cluster area directly above Town Hall – will make room for more administrative and office space for the Center. The mailboxes currently located in Town Hall will be removed during the summer but will not be re-installed elsewhere, leaving students without individual mailboxes.
The student reaction to this plan, which was kept remarkably quiet for years, has been largely negative. KSSG President Ben Polk (MPP’09) is one of many people concerned about the implications of the move for student study and meeting space.
“It could very well be the case that when there is an event in the Forum, students will have literally no space to meet or study,” Polk said. “That just doesn’t seem right to me.”
Another casualty of the Hauser Center move will be the Office for Career Advancement, which will be moving from its current location in Belfer, most likely to 124 Mount Auburn Street. These developments, on the heels of a relocation of the HKS Registrar from the Belfer building to 124 Mount Auburn last year, have students frustrated.
“I can’t understand how the interests of the Hauser Center in being on the ‘main campus,’ or in saving on rent by not being in the Charles Hotel, outweighs the obvious importance of having a career office in a space that is easily accessible to students,” said Anna Hall (MPP ’09). “Why can’t the Hauser Center move to Mt. Auburn? Surely they can’t build a more effective student-focused career center by moving it further away from students!”
Polk believes the way in which the move was handled is indicative of a much larger – and more serious – issue at HKS. “Time and time again, students are simply not treated as stakeholders in the decision making process,” Polk said. “The plan to renovate Town Hall has been in the works for a long time, but we were not even told about it – we heard rumors and even then had to push for answers. Besides not being fair, this way of operating is bad for the institution in the long run because it perpetuates an ‘us versus them’ mentality rather than a true partnership.”
Dave Baumwoll (MPP’10), an MPP1 Class Representative, is equally upset about the move. “I think it’s completely unacceptable that a change of this magnitude did not include any input from students,” Baumwoll said. “This move is obviously going to affect the day-to-day lives of students. After 4 p.m., where are students supposed to go?”
Though he was critical of the process and the consequences, Baumwoll was quick to point out that many HKS administrators and staff members are now trying to make the move work as well as possible for students. He said that Hauser Center Executive Director Aviva Luz Argote, for example, is working to make the conference room that will replace Town Hall available to students as a study space whenever possible.
Polk and Baumwoll also said that the Kennedy School Student Government (KSSG) will be releasing a resolution addressing this issue later this week. “We want the HKS community and administration to know exactly how students feel about this whole thing,” Baumwoll said.
Click here for a more opinionated take on the issues mentioned above from KSSG Executive Vice President Marcos Santiago.
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