NEWS
THE HARVARD CRIMSON APRIL 21, 2023
LETTER FROM PAGE 1
INSTITUTE OF POLITICS
Harvard IOP Director’s Internship Applicants Left Waiting Amid Delays WAITING ON RESULTS. Many students are still waiting for IOP Director’s Internship decisions after the program’s deadline. BY THOMAS J. METE CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
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any Harvard College students opened their emails Sunday in hopes of learning whether they had been accepted to the Harvard Institute of Politics’ competitive Director’s Internship program. Instead, a number of the program’s applicants have yet to hear back even after the program’s stated decision deadline, student leaders said, while some who have been accepted are unsure if they can afford their summer expenses through the program’s stipend. “As the executive team, we have received many messages from students concerned about the confusion, lack of communication, and inconsistencies with this year’s Director’s Internship rollout,” IOP President Amen H. Gashaw ’24 said in an interview Monday. “All host decisions will be shared with students before April 16, 2023,” the Director’s Internship application website reads in bold. The IOP Director’s Internship is a 10-week summer program that matches more than 200 students with internships in politics, government, and public service. Interns work 35 to 40 hours per week in an unpaid role and receive a stipend of $5,000 — or $5,500 in high-cost areas — from the IOP. During the pandemic, U.S. inflation rates reached levels not seen since in decades. Still, the Director’s Internship stipend has remained at its pre-pandemic base sum, even after IOP student leadership and internship hopefuls have raised concerns with IOP Director Setti D. Warren. “We recognize that rising prices have made cost of living difficult to sustain for many students, especially in cities where public service positions are concentrated, including DC and NY,”
Gashaw wrote in a statement Thursday. Warren reaffirmed his commitment to exploring options to meet the financial needs of students in an April 6 statement to The Crimson. “I am committed to changes necessary to ease financial burden and increase opportunity and I welcome conversations with student leaders to continually reevaluate and strengthen the program,” Warren wrote. “Making these summer internship opportunities accessible, regardless of financial circumstance, is core to the impact of this program. We strive to support as many students as possible with robust funding both through the Director’s Internship and the Summer Stipend programs,” he added. On Wednesday, four days before the Director’s Internship deadline, the IOP announced students would be able to apply for up to an additional $1,000 of funding through the Priscilla Chan Summer Service Stipend if they are on need-based financial aid from the College.
A stipend helps if I get the job because many internships in the political world are so unfortunately unpaid. Nghia L. Nguyen ’26 IOP Director’s Intern
IOP Vice President Pratyush Mallick ’25 raised concerns about the short turnaround between this announcement and the stipend’s Sunday application deadline. Mallick noted that the application required a 750-word statement. “It came so late, and it required an additional application. That was the tough part,” Mallick said in an interview. “What I wish had happened is we could have transferred applications to whoever reviews Priscilla Chan and then gone through the supple-
Administrators from the Dean of Students Office said in an interview with The Crimson earlier this month that they are conducting an audit of independent student organizations in conjunction with Harvard’s risk management office. The audit comes after a twomonth Crimson investigation found that the Harvard Undergraduate Foreign Policy Initiative was missing thousands of dollars after the departure of its former president. The audit was not prompted by the leadership dispute, according to Harvard spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo. Khurana said there are many resources available to student leaders, adding that he hopes students “take advantage” of guides put out by the College’s administration. “As we receive input from our students, as we hear from our leadership, we’re always in the process of improving our processes,” Khurana said. sellers.hill@thecrimson.com nia.orakwue@thecrimson.com
sellers.hill@thecrimson.com nia.orakwue@thecrimson.com
The Harvard Institute of Politics’ competitive Director’s Internship program provides accepted undergraduates working in unpaid summer internships with a stipend of $5,000 or $5,500. ZADOC I. N. GEE—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
mentary funding process.” As summer approaches, Gashaw said many Director’s Internship applicants remain confused about their internship prospects, which she attributed to disorganization within the internship program.
Throughout the application period, the Director’s Internship program has repeatedly pushed back application deadlines for internships. Thirteen of the program’s internships now feature Wednesday application deadlines, three days after the program’s stated Sunday decision deadline. The Director’s Internship program has run three rounds of applications this semester in addition to these extensions. According to three IOP student leaders, the changes to the applica-
tion timeline were unplanned but were the result of a lack of coordination and clear deadlines between the IOP and organizations hosting summer interns. Gashaw said the program should prioritize greater transparency and accessibility to applicants. “I think one thing we want to account for moving forward is that any supplement opportunities we offer are available to every single applicant,” Gashaw said. Among prospective IOP Director’s interns, some remain unsure how they will afford the costs associated with their internship even with the stipend. “The $5,500 stipend is definitely not enough to live in such an expensive city,” said Nghia L. Nguyen ’26, who will be based in London as part of the program. Adelaide E. Parker ’26, a student seeking to participate in the program, said the current stipend fails to cover the costs of housing and groceries in light of inflation-caused price increases. “I definitely don’t think that the stipend is enough to cover expenses, especially if you’re living in D.C., which is where most of these jobs are,” Parker said. Interns are expected to work 35 to 40 hours per week for 10 weeks, in some cases putting the $5,500 stipend below equivalent compensation under the min-
Council on Academic Freedom is a separate initiative from the group facilitated by Khurana. As of Tuesday evening, Khurana had not joined the group, which was publicly announced last Wednesday. “Today, there are many ideas that we accept as uncontroversial, but we have to remember most of those ideas were once seen as heterodox,” Khurana said. “We should also have humility in that what we believe to be true today may prove to be more contingent, complex, or not even true in the future,” he added. Khurana also addressed the following topics: Leverett House ‘Swatting’
Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana affirmed the value of the free exchange of ideas in an interview Tuesday. MARINA QU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
AND NIA L. ORAKWUE CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana reiterated his commitment to free academic exchange in an interview Tuesday. Last week, The Crimson reported that for nearly two years, Khurana has facilitated an “Intellectual Vitality Committee” comprised of Harvard undergraduates, faculty, and alumni. The group has quietly convened to discuss what they see as a lack of free idea exchange at the College. Khurana said the group has
discussed how to equip instructors to facilitate constructive debate in the classroom. “Open dialogue and the ability to express oneself is at the foundation of democracy and academic freedom,” Khurana said. “A lot of what we have discussed is how do we strengthen active listening — how to think about skill building among teaching faculty for facilitating controversial or challenging dialogue.” Khurana said that while several members of the committee have called on the College to release a statement in support of free inquiry, he thinks free idea exchange demands greater ac-
tion. “If intellectual vitality was as simple as releasing a statement, that would be more easily achieved, but I think that idea belongs in the kindergarten of social thought,” Khurana said. “What we’re talking about is capacity building for democracy, capacity building for a diverse community, to recognize that we can be hard on the problem and easy on each other.” More than 80 Harvard faculty members are members of the newly formed Harvard Council on Academic Freedom, a group dedicated to promoting values of free speech and inquiry. The
Khurana expressed concern and support for four undergraduates who were the victims of a recent “swatting” attack in Leverett House earlier this month. “I am so sorry that what happened, happened,” Khurana said. “It was a terrible event, and I’m upset — frankly outraged — that something like this happens on our campus, that it happens in universities, in schools all around this country.” Khurana said the College’s response — which was criticized by some students — was informed by prioritizing student wellbeing. The College did not release a statement on the attack for more than 48 hours, a delay that drew criticism from students. Khurana declined to comment on how the University specifically supported the affected
Open Letter Demands Change Harvard Undergraduate Black Community Leaders Co-Chair Brian A. Cromwell Jr. ’23, who helped write the letter, said the victims of the swatting were consulted throughout the drafting of the letter. “I feel like this letter really brought a lot of aspects of all the Black Harvard community together,” Cromwell said Tuesday. “I think it kind of speaks to the demands and how really everyone feels like these are very reasonable and necessary things to be asked for.” The letter also criticized an “inexcusable” delay in University communication after the incident. Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana and HUPD Chief Victor A. Clay issued College-wide statements on the evening of April 5, roughly 66 hours after the swatting incident. Ebony Joy Johnson — the president of the Black Graduate Student Alliance, which co-signed the letter — criticized the “administration’s failure to adequately address the swatting incident” in an emailed statement. “It also does not sit well with my soul that there is silence around this incident. It is not acknowledged campus-wide and was only addressed at the college, leaving the broader Harvard community unaware of what actually took place on our campus grounds,” Johnson wrote. Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote in a statement that the University takes its responsibility to campus safety and wellbeing “very seriously.” “University leaders have expressed their concern over the deeply troubling nature of the swatting incident that occurred on April 3, and the fear and anxiety it has caused in our community,” Newton wrote. Two of the letter’s demands specifically concern HUPD, criticizing a “lack of transparency” and calling on the University to “immediately require HUPD to make its protocols and police reports available to students directly involved in police incidents.” In an emailed statement Wednesday, HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano wrote that the investigation into the swatting is still active. “HUPD’s investigation into the April 3 swatting incident is ongoing, and we are continuing to engage with the FBI on the investigation. HUPD, along with the University and the College, is continuing to review both the incident and Harvard’s response to it,” he wrote. Newton wrote that the University, College, and HUPD are working to “identify learnings that can be incorporated into the protocols that guide first responders, the University and our Schools when incidents like this happen.” The letter also called for changes to the University’s mental health procedures around experiences of “racial trauma.” “To help tend to the trauma they experienced from the swatting incident, the four Black students affected were forced to reach out to Harvard Counseling and Mental Health Service themselves in order to receive mental health support,” the letter reads. “When the University is aware of incidents of racial trauma, particularly those inflicted by the University itself, CAMHS should be notified by the University with the student’s contact information so they are equipped to contact the students involved in a proactive and timely manner,” it adds. Newton declined to comment on the letter’s claim that students sought support from CAMHS themselves when Harvard did not initially reach out. In addition, the letter demanded a University-wide, in-person town hall with top Harvard leaders including President Lawrence S. Bacow, President-elect Claudine Gay, and Khurana. Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, a Ph.D. candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School, helped organize graduate students behind the statement. “The letter really is to honor the victims’ experience and to ensure that what they experienced doesn’t happen again,” OpokuAgyeman said. “At bare minimum, the letter definitely asks for a conversation, and so we’ll see how that conversation unfolds,” she added.
imum wage in cities like New York, where 40 hours of work per week across 10 weeks would net a minimum of $6,000. “If I end up doing a Director’s Internship job, I definitely will have to either do tutoring work on the side or contribute some of my own money to housing,” Parker said. In an interview, IOP Treasurer Carter G. Demaray ’25 said Director’s Internship funding is “an issue,” adding that he hopes the IOP will meet the “good standard” set by the Phillips Brooks House Association, which offers a $6,000 fellowship stipend. “Our team is united in striving to better support students in public service internships, and doing so is the very reason the Director’s Internship program exists,” Gashaw said, referencing the IOP Student Advisory Committee’s efforts. Two IOP student leaders indicated that the stipend will likely not increase this summer, but they said discussions with Warren remain ongoing. Nguyen said overall, he is still relieved that the Director’s Internship offers a stipend. “A stipend helps if I get the job because many internships in the political world are so unfortunately unpaid,” Nguyen said. thomas.mete@thecrimson.com
Harvard College Dean Khurana Affirms Importance of Free Idea Exchange
BY J. SELLERS HILL
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students, citing their privacy. “In our responses, we can always do better, and we want to make sure that our students feel that they’re supported in all the ways they need to be and that we’re able to effectively work together as a team to give them that full support that we want to,” Khurana said. Independent Student Organization Audit
