KSSG Passes Resolution to Increase International Student Aid
by Sayce Falk, News Asst. Editor on April 29, 2010 in HKS News, News
As MPP ’10 Jonathan Faull began school in the fall of 2008, there were only a few signs that the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression was about to erupt. Because he hadn’t received a great deal of aid from HKS, Faull had lined up other funding sources, including a private scholarship and a loan through a Kennedy School-associated program known as CitiAssist.
For most students entering the Kennedy School, the timing of the crisis could not have come at a more fortuitous moment – two years of intellectual stimulation within the ivory towers of the world’s most prestigious university as friends and colleagues were laid off in droves. The tuition costs would be high, but at least they were stable. Compared to those faced with unemployment and sudden decisions about how to care for children or pay the bills on a drastically lower budget, the anticipated safety of school was an inviting idea.
But Faull was coming from South Africa – an open economy with a floating currency – and the downturn in the global economy meant that his carefully laid financial plans now lay in ruins. From late August to November of 2008, the rand fell more than 31 percent, from 7.75 to the dollar to more than 10.
“The money we had put aside to come here,” said Anna York, an MPP’10 from Australia who faced a similar situation, “was, in some cases, worth up to a third less than it had been a day before.”
Making matters worse, the financial recession pulled the rug out from under CitiAssist, a six-year old joint venture between Citigroup and HKS. The program allowed Harvard University and Citigroup to jointly underwrite loans to Harvard graduate students; it also allowed international students to obtain a loan without an American co-signer, a key requirement of virtually all other American financial institutions.
After CitiAssist folded, HKS administrators stepped in with a new program run through the Harvard University Employees Credit Union, holding the maximum loanable amount to $10,000 for international students without a co-signer. In its session earlier this month, the KSSG passed a motion urging the HKS administration to double the maximum amount of the loan, to $20,000.
“We want credit union loans to cover at least 30% of [international students’] tuition,” said Dave Baumwoll, MPP ’10 and KSSG President. “We want to enhance the financial options for international students. If you’re here, the Kennedy School should be able to find ways to allow you to stay here.”
“Ideally I would have liked to take up more than double [the 10,000 maximum],” said Faull, “but I’ve had to essentially loan against my parents’ mortgage in South Africa to cover my tuition costs.”
Other graduate schools on campus allow international students to take out loans covering their entire tuition burden, while the current $10,000 limit only covers about 10-15% of HKS’ anticipated annual expense. In addition to the benefits of dollar-denominated debt and generally lower interest rates than private lenders offer, Credit Union loans also qualify as part of HKS’ Loan Repayment Assistance Program, which assists graduates who go into public service by defraying part of the costs of their student loans.
“It is definitely a consideration that HKS students have lower expected incomes than HBS or HLS,” said Stephanie Streletz, Associate Director of Student Financial Services. “The Harvard Credit Union’s loan program is a wonderful addition, but we deem it as gap funding, not a primary resource for students.” Administrators also expressed concerns over the inability of the school to collect on students who default on their loans, as well as the higher likelihood of international student default, given the exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and many developing country currencies.
“We may need to consider taking on additional risk,” said Chris Fortunato, the new Dean of Students, “[but] if we do cover it, where do we pull the funding away from?”
HKS administration is currently discussing the issue of student aid, though administrators refuse to discuss the level or growth of the HKS endowment. A number of current international students received increased financial aid for their second year, though the administration has not said whether that aid came as a result of student government pressure.
Though the short-term crisis has passed, the KSSG’s resolution is part of its effort to institutionalize some of the solutions that students and administrators used last spring. In the meantime, the consequences of the lack of funding linger on. “I am interviewing for some management consulting positions,” said Faull, “which I would have never considered doing before coming to the Kennedy School.”
HKS Hosts Black Policy Conference
by Lena Benson on April 29, 2010 in HKS News, News
April 16th and 17th marked the 6th Annual Black Policy Conference at HKS. This year’s theme was “A Call to Action: Empowering the Individual and Mobilizing the Collective,” and keynote speakers included Angela Glover Blackwell, CEO and founder of PolicyLink and Anthony Williams, former Mayor of Washington, D.C. and HKS Lecturer in Public Management. This year’s conference co-chairs, Rasheba Johnson and Naima Green, both MPP ‘10s, aimed to inspire participants to not only discuss how policies are currently effecting black communities but also to use opportunities provided by this conference to take steps towards developing a strategic plan of action. Such opportunities included a community organizing workshop, a networking reception, and numerous panels to choose from on topics not traditionally featured at HKS or Harvard conferences.
Such panels included “Prisoner Re-entry: Building Bridges Between Ex-Offenders and Their Communities” and “Investing in Human Capital in the South: Strategies to Cultivate Young Black Leaders”. Aly Spencer, MPP ‘11 and co-founder of the HKS Southern Caucus, attended the panel on the South and remarked, “The panel was a good reminder that when we think about the South we aren’t just talking about Atlanta and Charlotte and New Orleans. The panelists emphasized the breadth and depth of the lingering problems in the region and the dramatic surge in leadership that will be needed to address them. I left feeling really challenged to ask what I am doing and what I can do.”
This year, the conference organizers also pushed the entire HKS community to recognize that topics highlighted at the Black Policy Conference are policies that affect us all, not just black students or people working in black communities. E-mails, flyers, and one-on-one conversations leading up to the event encouraged students to consider that leaders should understand the needs of diverse constituent groups, since many polices in the US disproportionately impact communities of color.
“We are extremely pleased with how the conference turned out. It is still a young tradition, but each year the aspirations for it grow and we are very fortunate to have so much support from the administration, our classmates, and alums in putting it together”, said Johnson. Many members of the African and Africa-American Diaspora Collaborative (AADC), Harvard Journal of African-American Public Policy, and The Community Development Project spent months assisting with the conference by sponsoring panels, publicizing the event, and organizing logistics.
The conference was founded in 2004 by Nicole Campbell, MPP ’05, and now serves not only as an opportunity to highlight the impact of numerous policy issues on black communities, but also as a much anticipated annual event that brings together diverse students from graduate and undergraduate institutions all over Boston. Many alumni like Campbell also return to HKS each year specifically for the conference, seeing it as an opportunity to reconnect and give back.
Clean Energy Solutions Speed Haiti’s Recovery
by Ilana Kessler on April 29, 2010 in News
In December 2009, EarthSpark International was a fledgling social enterprise, soon to open its first Clean Energy Store in rural Haiti, with the goal of making electricity available and affordable for all Haitians. A month later, Haiti’s earthquake catapulted EarthSpark and its co-founder, Dan Schnitzer, into prominence. Today, they are major players in planning Haiti’s energy future.
Even before the earthquake, Haiti hardly had energy infrastructure. Electricity was barely available outside the capital, and within the capital, it was only available part of the time. Most Haitians made do with wood fuel and kerosene lighting. As Schnitzer describes the current effort, “This isn’t rebuilding – it’s starting from nothing.” Indeed, as Haiti rebuilds, many Haitians are receiving electricity for the first time.
EarthSpark advocates adopted small-scale, decentralized solar energy production in Haiti rather than building a traditional electric grid. “The first few kilowatt-hours of electricity consumed by families have the biggest impact on quality of life,” explains Schnitzer. “For Haiti, a small solar light or system can improve lives drastically – far more cost-effectively and reliably than a centralized electricity grid plagued by unreliability and high costs.”
EarthSpark is putting this decentralized solar electricity model into practice by building a series of Clean Energy Stores, owned and operated by local entrepreneurs or co-operatives, in small cities across Haiti. Rural Haitians can take out affordable microloans at the stores to pay for small solar lighting systems and other clean energy technologies.
In addition to its goal of bringing lighting and other clean energy products to rural Haiti, EarthSpark intends to create a national clean energy supply chain, with the support of the Clinton Global Initiative and the Haitian government. By adopting the energy micro-lending model pioneered by organizations like SEEDS in Sri Lanka and Faulu in Kenya, EarthSpark hopes to encourage other entrepreneurs to sell clean energy products around the country.
Shifting Plans
Since the earthquake, EarthSpark has briefly set aside its Clean Energy Store model to focus on meeting the immediate need for lighting around Port-au-Prince. EarthSpark is working to raise $300,000, enough to buy 20,000 LED lamps to distribute for free around Port-au-Prince. The need is particularly acute now because kerosene prices have risen where fuel is available at all.
As Schnitzer points out, relying on kerosene in makeshift tent cities is a severe fire hazard. The more LED lamps that EarthSpark can bring to Port-au-Prince, the sooner the displaced people will have access to safe and dependable lighting, which can help to prevent crime, restart small businesses, and provide families with a sense of normalcy.
Looking forward, rather than reconstructing the previous inefficient, low-capacity electrical grid around Port-au-Prince, Schnitzer recommends that Haiti invite Independent Power Producers to develop small-scale solar power units in cities and towns around the country. Under this strategy, rather than large power plants and electric grids run by a utility, private power companies would own and operate solar production facilities in each community.
Small local companies, or non-profit community-run cooperatives, would be in charge of selling and distributing the electricity. If successful, this strategy would provide both electricity and economic opportunity to many more Haitians. But it does mean that private companies must be willing to invest in infrastructure projects, traditionally considered a risky prospect in Haiti.
While implementing a nationwide strategy for Haiti’s energy future is vital for economic development, many Haitians will remain without electricity in the near future. That is why the small-scale model of EarthSpark’s Clean Energy Stores is so important – it can quickly and cheaply bring lighting into poor households. EarthSpark is yet another example of how partnerships across the public, private, and non-profit sectors can generate a profit for businesses while providing a transformative social good.
However, EarthSpark’s model is still unproven to date. The first shipment of solar lighting products was lost in the earthquake, before it reached the Clean Energy Store. Likewise, while EarthSpark has gained high-profile supporters – including Haiti’s ambassador to the U.S. and NGOs like the Clinton Global Initiative – the debate over Haiti’s energy infrastructure is still in its early stages. In order to make a major impact on Haiti’s rebuilding process, Schnitzer will need to use his high-level access to persuade policy-makers to actually adopt his ideas.
The Clean Energy Stores’ community-based energy lending model and Schnitzer’s proposal for decentralized solar power production have applications beyond Haiti. Developing countries, particularly in the tropics, where sun is plentiful, should monitor the progress of clean energy development in Haiti. If EarthSpark’s innovations are successful, they could transform the way developing countries think about delivering energy, and make affordable energy access possible for every citizen.
Time to Create a DNA Testing Law for Prisoners
by Carmen Burbano on April 29, 2010 in HKS News, News
For some people, Marshall Ganz’s Organizing: People, Power, and Change class is the high point of their HKS experience, providing a practical opportunity to answer the HKS call: “ask what you can do.” For others, it is a nightmare of self-doubt and imminent failure with the capacity to consume time like no other class at HKS. For most, it is both.
For one group of HKS students, however, Organizing provided something unexpected: the discovery that in ‘liberal’ Massachusetts, innocent men and women are at risk of imprisonment because they lack statutory access to basic rights.
Matt Bieber, MPP ’11 and President of the HKS Innocence Group, explained: “Massachusetts needs a post-conviction DNA access law. That’s a mouthful, I know. But it’s far from being a dry legal issue – it’s a matter of justice.”
Bieber pointed to the case of Dennis Maher, who in 2003 was freed from a Massachusetts prison after serving 19 years for three rapes he didn’t commit. As Maher wrote in The Patriot Ledger on Jan. 25, “I requested DNA testing for years. The judge in my case blocked DNA testing, and I spent an extra six years in prison waiting for him to retire. Finally, the testing was conducted because the judge had retired and the prosecutor agreed to it. He didn’t have to, since there was no law on the books to make it clear that I had a right to DNA testing.”
47 states have post-conviction DNA access laws, but Massachusetts isn’t one of them. The other outliers are Oklahoma and Alaska. “While these laws vary state to state, the idea is similar everywhere – to use DNA evidence to eliminate as much of the guesswork as possible in criminal proceedings, ” explained Bieber.
Several bills to create a post-conviction DNA access law have come before the Massachusetts State Legislature in recent years, but none of them has been passed. There is no clear philosophical objection: nobody wants to see innocent people in prison. And the chorus of support for a post-conviction DNA access law in Massachusetts is beginning to grow. In 2009, a Boston Bar Association task force – comprised of police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, former judges, and other stakeholders – issued a public call for lawmakers to move on the issue. Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis has chimed in with his support.
There may, however, be financial obstacles to overcome. In order to ensure that post-conviction DNA testing can take place, relevant evidence has to be preserved. This raises some questions: exactly which evidence should be stored? For how long? And should local municipalities pay to preserve evidence, or should it be the state’s responsibility?
“There are some legitimately tricky questions here,” said Bieber. “But this month, a group of legislators, law enforcement officials, and other stakeholders are trying to work out a compromise on these issues. If they’re successful, post-conviction DNA access legislation has a shot at passing this year.”
This is where Marshall Ganz’s Organizing class comes in. Bieber and his team are keeping out of the back-room bargaining on the questions of finance and focusing their efforts instead on the principle that everyone deserves proper access to justice. “Even if the financial issues get resolved,” said Bieber, “Legislators need an added push to get this bill out of committee and onto the floor of the legislature.”
The HKS Innocence Group is mobilizing supporters within the school and across the Harvard campus to act as concerned citizens and to make their views known. So far, the response has been positive.
The organizers’ tactic? To get fellow students to call legislators on the State Judiciary Committee urging them to do everything they can to bring the bill to a vote. 150 calls have been made already, but the Group is aiming for 300 before the end of the semester.
“We are looking for HKS students – U.S. citizens, Massachusetts voters, and foreign nationals – who are prepared to take a few minutes over the next week to make phone calls,” said Bieber. “This is urgent: if we don’t get that bill out of committee in the next few weeks, more people will suffer the same injustice as Dennis Maher.”
Ode to Mothers
by Jacob Stefanik, Opinions Editor on April 29, 2010 in Opinion
As Mother’s Day is around the corner it is worth noting that the 192nd most used word in English is “mother”. According to Oxford, the English language comprises over a quarter of a million distinct words. If you were to include technical and regional vocabulary words, inflections, and distinct senses, the number would approach a million. Considering that English is the official language in 53 countries and is the most commonly taught foreign language in the rest (given Americans’ inability to learn another), coming in at a 192nd is no small feat.
A Gallop Poll conducted in 2001 found that nine out of ten Americans have a positive relationship with their mothers. Only the notion of school recess received a higher positive response, when Gallup surveyed 1,951 principals last year about its impact on general well-being. But that’s like competing with rainbows, puppy dogs, or Dan Levy teaching statistics.
Asked how they would characterize the relationship with their mother – from very positive, somewhat positive, neither positive nor negative, somewhat negative, or very negative – an astounding 76 percent described it as “very positive.” That’s a higher positive approval rating than Obama during the peak of his popularity as President (68 percent) and even surpasses the standard-bearer John F. Kennedy after his initial period in office (72 percent).
And it is another “mother”, Mother Teresa that is, who received the most votes in Gallup’s heralded “Most Admired” poll. When asked to name “one of the people you admire most from this century,” Mother Teresa beat out the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Einstein, and Mahatma Gandhi in two randomly selected national samples – one with and without prompting of names. (For the MPP1s preparing for the econometrics final, the survey had a 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects was 3 percentage points). Perhaps it is no coincidence that someone who embodied the characteristic that most people cite about their mothers – that of sacrifice – surpassed all others by wide margins.
As students at one of the world’s premier higher education institutions we are faced with a plethora of public policy issues to close the gender gaps in health, education, and politics and thereby improve the lives of women around the world. Indeed, tackling the plight of mothers suffering from HIV/AIDS in the Democratic Republic of Congo or the single mother trying to keep a roof over her family’s house in Detroit, are desperately needed. Yet in discussing tangentially the importance of service vis-à-vis copious amounts of case studies and talks laced with great platitudes, we often forget about the woman at home who made it possible. The one who, according to several HKS students: worked two jobs to put you through college, who challenged you, who ensured you always had the best food on your table, who raised you in a refugee camp with unwavering passion to provide you the chance to succeed, and who did all of this while asking for little in return.
The inherent tragedy would be to simply take these sacrifices for granted. As such, for those who are fortunate to still have your mother around, don’t let a Hallmark hijacked holiday encompass the expression of your 76 percent approval. Indeed, it was Mother Teresa who left home at the age of 18 to embark on one of the most exemplary careers in public service, never to see her mother again. So here’s to my Mother, and all the rest, who embody what service and sacrifice truly are.
The Self-Extinction of Well-Educated Women
by Jeb Breiding on April 29, 2010 in Opinion
Stanford’s Carl Djerassi, now 85 years old, discovered the birth control pill in the early 1960s. With his discovery, for the first time, women could reliably regulate child birth, freeing them up to pursue educations and careers.
For many, the past generation has witnessed the flowering of the women’s emancipation movement made possible by Dejerassi’s transforming invention. So it was surprising to learn that he recently issued a remorseful commentary calling the demographic deterioration in western civilization a “catastrophe” brought on by the pill’s invention and the resulting ‘’gradual divorce between sex and reproduction.’’
Economists, unlike Djerassi, have been thrilled with the invention of the pill. Women made up less than 20 percent of the work force at the turn of the 20th century – they now make up 46 percent of all workers. Their wages have grown at double the rate of men’s during the past generation. While gaps remain, they are narrowing.
Djerassi does, however, feel that the winds of change currently favor women as the economy continues to migrate towards jobs where brains matter more than brawn. Women complain rightly about centuries of exploitation, yet, to a strict economist, women are not exploited enough. Indeed, it will be the closure of income gaps and the achievement of positions commensurate with a woman’s ability that will contribute even more to our future economic growth and prosperity.
Yet education, status and income does not equate to power. Women are severely underrepresented at the top of organizations. Only 2 percent of the bosses of Fortune 500 companies and 5 percent of those in the FTSE 100 are women.
The irony remains that despite massive improvement during the past generation, to most women, work still represents necessity rather than liberation. Raising a family and pursuing a career is still a greater challenge for women than for men and it remains very difficult for women to ‘have their cake and eat it too.’
To make matters worse, the higher the degree of education and the loftier the position, the less likely women are able to find partners. Today, 55 percent of women 30-45 years old with university degrees are single, and among those who are married, 40 percent do not have children. Of women in senior management positions, 75 percent do not have children even though a majority desires to have them.
The source of this growing problem is more likely to be found in genes than in society. Males compete for women because the more females they inseminate, the more genes they will leave behind. This is at the heart of Darwin’s evolutionary and Freud’s psychological (libido) methodology. Females, in the main, have been happy to let males get on with this, and concentrate on picking the winners. Harvard Professor Jane Mansbridge, a longstanding proponent of women’s rights believes that is because of genetics that women are hard wired for ‘status’, while men are hard wired for ‘reproduction’. Studies by Professor Ricardo Hausmann show that women, irrespective of nationality and ethnicity, strongly prefer marrying ‘up’.
Therefore, while the women’s emancipation movement has succeeded in many ways, it hasn’t come cheaply. Since the invention of birth control pills, marriage as an institution has been in something of a free fall. Divorce rates in the U.S. are now among the highest in the world and only surpassed by countries such as Sweden.
Today, women 30-50 are the result of everything their mothers and grandmothers have fought for. They can vote, study, drink alone in a bar, choose whether and when to have children, go to university and pursue highflying careers.
But society faces a choice: Do we excite the hopes and dreams of female youth, and then leave them all dressed up with no place to go precisely at the moment when their talents have flowered and should be unleashed? Do we work together to raise humanity to a higher plane, to their, and our, enormous and mutual benefit. Or do we simply risk losing the entire treasure that has resulted from collective women’s emancipation efforts as the world’s most capable women fail to pass on their superior genes?
Ellen Carol Dubois, a pioneer of the women’s movement, got it right when she casted her famous words cast in 1903: ‘If you do not lift them up, they will pull you down.’
Empowering the Urban Voter
by Evan Hutchison on April 29, 2010 in Opinion
Soccer moms, tea partiers, swing voters, NASCAR Dads - American politics today is dominated by amorphous, pollster produced paradigms of who we are as a polity. These represent derivations of issue driven, temporal surveys - not underlying political realities. The reality is that, by and large, we are an urban nation. Seventy percent of Americans live in census defined urban areas. 86 percent of our country’s GDP is generated in urban areas. Yet there is little talk of the needs and desires of this great majority of the U.S. populace. The urban voter is ignored. There is no well defined, national vision of urban politics.
There are deep structural reasons for this. At the federal level, the violation of the one person, one vote principle embodied in the Senate gives disproportionate influence to rural states in Congress. An obsession with God, Guns and Gays on both sides of the aisle largely leaves out cities; these are non-issues in most urban areas. The majority of federal transfers are filtered down to cities through state legislatures, then cities have to gain state authorization for spend those funds.
On the state level, the very nature of the city as the creature of the state leaves urban areas at the mercy of state legislatures and executives. Under this arrangement, the ability of cities to raise revenues, implement transportation projects and basically do anything of substance is subject to state authorization. State authorities and development corporations, constituted of boards appointed by governors, have the ability to declare areas as blighted, exercise eminent domain and give massive tax breaks to private sector actors with little or no oversight from municipal governments and civic associations.
How do we change this situation? First, those of us who consider themselves Democrats and progressives have to recognize that some of the most corrupt city governments and state legislatures are dominated by Democrats. Case in point: Sheldon Silver, the Democratic Majority Leader of the New York State Assembly. Silver has repeatedly undercut the interests of the city in order to sustain statewide power. As chair of the rules committee, he didn’t even allow congestion pricing package to get to the floor for a vote. Congestion pricing would have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants and toll revenues on East River bridges while cutting congestion in his very own district.
Second, we need to take a page from Newt Gingrich and define a contract with the city by identifying the structural and policy changes that all cities need. The first clause of that contract should be the creation of urban caucuses in state legislatures that are dedicated to undoing decades of gerrymandering that have diluted the power of cities in Congress. The same state legislatures must give more autonomy to cities, so innovative policies like congestion pricing have half a chance of going ahead.
Third, once we have identified those politicians that fail their cities, we need to launch insurgent primary challenges by running candidates at every level that embrace the contract with the city and fight for its realization in city councils, state legislatures and Congress. Then, maybe, we’ll start to hear about “The Urban Voter” on CNN and FOX.
Gender Imbalances at the Kennedy School
by Lauren Murphy and Heather Milkiewicz on April 29, 2010 in Opinion
Gender – what does it mean to you at HKS? Is it a common variable included in regressions, a box included on applications, a buzz word, a ‘women’s’ event, or a dimension that you feel the HKS pedagogy seems to be lacking?
Given the school’s pride in having a diverse student body and its emphasis on shaping future leaders, one would think there would be sufficient inclusion of an important dimension such as gender within coursework. However, entering their final semester, MPP2s Lauren Murphy and Azadeh Pourzand found that there is not and felt something must be done to improve the current situation at HKS. Were they the exception or the rule?
In order to gauge student sentiment, a survey was sent to a random sample of students from each degree program, and it uncovered hopeful results. First, respondents revealed that gender-related topics are not being integrated sufficiently into either the curriculum or the classroom experience on the whole. In particular, when asked how often gender issues were incorporated into class discussion, 87 percent of respondents said rarely or sometimes.
Among specific complaints, some of the most common were the lack of female protagonists in cases and readings – such as examples of women leaders – particularly in leadership and politics classes. Others include the need for mainstreaming gender dimensions within all policy analysis and mindful integration of gender issues, not merely token offerings. The survey results also show a disparity among the various degree programs’ core curriculums. For instance, the MPA/ID core seems to most effectively incorporate gender dimensions.
Results surrounding classroom interactions between students and teachers are consistent with previous research. In particular, respondents attributed a gender imbalance in class discussions to both lower participation by women and a lack of encouragement to women on the part of the professor. In addition, the low number of female faculty at HKS is a frequently reported problem – only 24 percent of tenured faculty are women.
The good news is that the faculty members who do a good job of addressing gender have an impressionable impact on their students. When asked to name a professor who “weaves gender issues into his/her coursework with great effectiveness,” students most often named Kellerman, Pande, Mandell, Zellecke, King, Heifetz, Mansbridge, and Gonzalez. Kudos to these and other faculty members who are leading the way – let’s hope more will follow their example.
Additionally, a majority of respondents expressed a desire for change in next year’s curriculum. 77 percent said they preferred both mainstreaming gender issues into all classes and/or additional classes with a focus on gender issues.
Change must start with student-driven action and lobbying professors. So how can we translate the impetus for a positive change into concrete action? There are a wealth of resources and faculty working on gender issues at HKS who can be enlisted in the effort, such as the Women and Public Policy Center (WAPP).
Increasing the number of case studies including a relevant gender dimension or a successful woman leader is a place to start. Cases have to be faculty driven, so find a faculty member and use your summer internship to write a great case! In addition, you can gather a group of students and ask to speak with a professor about changes you’d like to see in the classroom. Encourage faculty interested in improving their teaching to contact Lee Warren, HKS Director of Pedagogy, at lee_warren@hks.harvard.edu.
More immediately, today we are kicking off a week-long sticker campaign, “Women Speak Out,” encouraging both students and faculty to be more cognizant of the complex gender dynamics that exist within the classroom and throughout HKS. Both men and women are encouraged to pick up a sticker in the Forum. We hope that this campaign will serve as a simple reminder for all of HKS to become more aware of the interaction of students and professors in the classroom as well as the issue of gender integration within current coursework.
Just as HKS seeks to push the frontier on many political and development issues, it must do more to address topics that are either ignored or seen as controversial to the population at large. So let’s start to openly acknowledge gendered issues inside the classroom. Let’s write case studies featuring women. Let’s change the dynamics and discussions within HKS so we can better affect change outside. It is our job as students to make a concerted effort to ask for this focus from our faculty, staff and administrators. It starts with you.
The Revival of the Word “Nazi”
by Pierre Thielboerger on April 29, 2010 in Opinion
Are you very tidy? Then maybe you are a bit of an “Order Nazi”. Or you like to remind people to stick to the rules? Then you can easily become the “Nazi of the day”. Or you tend to dominate discussions with your peers? Well, I guess, you shouldn’t “Nazi around” your mates that much. And if you like the sitcom “Seinfield”, you will know its famous “soup-Nazi”.
The word “Nazi” is back. Not in its original sense, of course. A new version has entered our everyday language. We hear it in conversations with friends, in the Forum, sometimes even in the classroom from teachers. So what’s the big deal about it? Certainly using it doesn’t mean accusing someone of being an actual Nazi. It’s just a way to say: don’t be so strict. A funny way to say that, but, is it really funny?
I believe it is not. In fact it is not only unfunny, it is disrespectful and dangerous.
Let’s think it through step by step. Why is it not funny? For something to be funny, someone must find it funny. How do we ever know that? We don’t. But if nobody smiles, if nobody chuckles, if nobody laughs – we don’t consider something funny, do we?
So, who in this school laughs about something strict or stringent being called “Nazi”? I don’t know. But I do know who does not laugh: the large Jewish community at HKS, and the German students – of which I am one.
Would you find it funny if we started using the word “slave” in our everyday language? No, you would not. Already writing it here, or reading it, makes us feel uncomfortable. One of the reasons why we don’t use the word “slave” for a servant is that slavery in its modern forms does exist until today. But the same thing is true for the word “Nazi”: Genocidal murder is still real in the world of today.
So, I hope you agree: the use of the word “Nazi” is not funny. But is it really dangerous?
Sometimes, the more we use a word, the less it actually means. Think of swear words in everyday language. In the 19th century, blasphemy was a serious offence in countries around the world. People would have been shocked at the average HKS student exclaiming “oh my god” at their latest bad grade, the prices of the salad bar or Cambridge’s bad weather. Now, that expression is an everyday part of our language. Something we say without reflection. “Nazi” is on its way to becoming the same thing. Something that banalizes a historical tragedy; something that is just a trivial statement, something that people say but do not think about. The more we use the word to refer to trivial circumstances, the less its impact when we actually discuss the Nazis and their crimes.
And even more importantly, the everyday use of the word is not only inflationary, it is simply wrong. What Nazis were, what they stood for, is not “strict”. Not primarily. History obliges us to remember what the Nazis were, and what they were not.
So, the inconsiderate use of the word “Nazi” is also dangerous. But maybe the price of taking this danger is worth paying? Maybe banning a word is more dangerous than allowing its inappropriate use? In the history of mankind, more harm has been done by censure than silly language.
Indeed, historians and politicians fight on this issue. Is it never acceptable to compare a genocide to the Holocaust? A populist politician to Joseph Goebbels? A fascist ideology to the Nazis?
This is a difficult question. It means balancing freedom of speech against respect for the victims of the Nazis. It is a question that we can’t answer here. Luckily, it is also one that we don’t need to answer. Because using the word “Nazi” as an everyday word is something different. It is not forbidding someone’s judgment. It is not forbidding an opinion. It is forbidding sloppiness. It is asking for consideration and thinking. At this school, this should not be too much to ask.
The Democratic Caucus at Harvard Kennedy School
by Mary Smith on April 29, 2010 in Dems v. Reps, Opinion
The world feels like it has changed drastically since the dawn of this new millennia, but in fact, the United States faces some of the same challenges that we have for generations. The quote here from George Kennan is more than half a century old and was in response to post-WWII changes and pressures. We may be in a new era of international relations, but we can learn from the accomplishments and the mistakes of our predecessors.
As Americans, we feel that the current world we live in is a frightening place, with two wars and an omnipresent threat of terrorism. Many Americans’ natural inclination is to revert to positions of power – a defense mechanism to ensure to safety of the country. Yet, historically we have seen great success by pursuing diplomacy that is entrenched with the principles of democracy and prosperity.
Americans themselves believe in certain core principles, even when frightened by the future that they face. These values include democracy, fairness, and the well-being of others. We cannot lose sight of these ideals, even in the face of a precarious world balance. American diplomacy must strive to maintain these principles at all times, even when tradeoffs exist. These are not idealistic slogans; they are values that can play an integral role in improving our world.
Acting upon these values does not make the United States weak. In fact, it actually may make us stronger. We have seen how when we lose sight of these values, our policies can undermine our standing in the world. At times in our past, the United States has supported dictators, authoritarian regimes, or turned a blind eye to human rights violations. These policies have frequently worsened the United States’ international position, especially in the long term. To take but one example, look at how our support of the authoritarian shah of Iran turned out for the United States.
I feel my fellow MPP1s would have much to say on this topic, considering their recent completion of the Spring Exercise on US-China relations. Encouraging democracy and an open-society in China is likely to be beneficial for both the Americans as well as the Chinese. Trying to strong arm the Chinese into doing our bidding will likely prove ineffective. Yet, if the American diplomatic community promotes a policy of democracy and fairness, we will likely see excellent outcomes for the United States, the Chinese people, and the rest of the world community.
We cannot simply frame this debate as George Kennan did here – it is not as simple as merely stating that these objectives are unreal, that power is the only successful tool, and that there is no room for idealism. Strong American diplomacy will include a full-range of techniques and options, but all of these must be grounded in the principles of why we are doing what we are doing. We will likely face diplomatic situations in the future that require tradeoffs, but if we take American ideals off of the table entirely, we are devaluing our country.
As many of us look towards our own futures and careers, I take immense pride in knowing that the future of American foreign policy and our diplomatic partners abroad rests in many of my fellow classmates. The people I have met at this school are smart, capable, and guided by principles. We may have learned some of those hard skills in our classes, but I believe my fellow Kennedy students are grounded in idealism. We were all drawn to this school in the first place because of our dedication to improving the world through public service. I have faith that the people that I have met here at the Kennedy School will strive to create a world with lasting international peace, freedom, and an open and fair society for all people.
