K-School on Gay Recruitment: No Thanks, Just a Thought

The debate over diversity took a new twist at the Kennedy School of Government this year, when an advisory committee issued a report calling upon the administration to take steps to increase gay, lesbian and bisexual representation in the school's faculty, student body and curriculum.

The report, issued by the Committee on Issues of Sexual Orientation earlier this spring, sparked a lively debate about gay issues in the press and at the school.

After the Boston Globe originally ran the story under the headline "Kennedy School to Recruit Gay Students and Faculty," the school issued a statement emphasizing that the school does not "recruit or admit students, staff or faculty on the basis of sexual-orientation."

Although some observers suggested that the administration was distancing itself from the report, Kennedy School spokesperson Steven R. Singer says that the administration welcomed the committee's report and was only distancing itself from the Globe's erroneous article, which interpreted the advisory report as an official policy change.

While the Kennedy School is trying to make its environment and admissions process as inclusive as possible, singer says, it is in no way using sexual orientation as a factor in admission.

"We very much want to remove any barriers that might make gays and lesbians feel uncomfortable or unwelcome, but we are not trying specifically to increase percentages," Singer says.

In order to make sure prospective gay applicants feel welcome, the Kennedy School has agreed to expand its mailings of application materials to include gay and lesbian groups, according to Singer.

In addition, Singer says the administration has consented to several minor changes in next year's catalogue in order to indicate to prospective applicants that gay and lesbian students are welcome and that there is an active gay community at Harvard and in Boston.

And Bradley R. Carlson, a student member of the committee which issued the report, says that the committee is not advocating affirmative action. Rather, he says, they want to ensure that gay and lesbian applicants are not subject to discrimination by routing all applications from openly homosexual candidates through Lisa Webb, the associate director of two-year programs.

According to Singer, the Admissions Committee has decided against tracking all openly gay or lesbian applications through Webb on the principle that it is the responsibility of all committee members to be open-minded.

"The school and the Admissions Committee do not want to be in the business of segmenting the applicant pool," Singer says. "The entire committee works very hard to be sensitive to the full range of the applicant pool."

Although Carlson says the administration at first seemed to distance itself from the committee's recommendations on gay recruitment after the Globe article, he adds that the press coverage ultimately helped the gay community solve one of its most serious problems: invisibility.

"The press coverage had very positive effects overall," he says.

"Most importantly, it gave us visibility, and it got people thinking about our issues."

In April, one of the school's "town meetings" was devoted to a panel discussion on the issues raised by the report. In addition, this year's diversity reception for new admits included a gay speaker for the first time. Carlson says that both events made students more aware of the concerns of the gay community.

The gay community is also gaining visibility in the classroom, according to Carlson. In its report, the Committee on Issues of Sexual Orientation criticized the school's lack of openly gay or lesbian faculty and the fact that gay issues are seldom mentioned in classes except in the context of AIDS.

"While the Committee welcomes and encourages open discussions on the AIDS crisis and the disproportionate effect it has had on the gay community, students should not be forced to associate homosexuality exclusively with a catastrophic illness," the report reads. "Other issues equally relevant to lesbians and gay men include family, education, housing, and national security policy, urban economics, the press and elective politics."

The school has made some progress in the inclusion of homosexual issues in the curriculum since the report's release, according to Carlson. In April, the committee met with the representatives of the Case Program to discuss the possibility of creating new case studies devoted to issues that particularly affect the gay community.

While no specific case studies are planned yet, Carlson says that the debate sparked by the report has called professors' attention to gay issues, and many of them are beginning to incorporate gay issues informally into their courses.

"I'm very hopeful that we'll be able to get some cases developed soon," Carlson says.

In addition, the report called on Dean Robert D. Putnam to officially condemn, the discriminatory policies of some groups that recruit at the Kennedy School. Such a statement would be aimed at the military--which excludes gays and lesbians from services--and employers (including government agencies) that use discriminatory standards in granting security clearances.

"Large numbers of government agencies recruit at the Kennedy School," says Robert Spencer, a member of the Committee on Issues of Sexual Orientation. "We thought that because of that relationship, the Kennedy School had a responsibility to communicate its disagreement with these practices."

In response to this issue, the Kennedy School Student Government (KSSG) unanimously passed a resolution in February urging the school administration to communicate in writing their disagreement with career recruitment policies that may discriminate against gays and lesbians, according to Spencer, who authored the resolution.

The administration has not yet acted upon the resolution.

In addition, Kennedy School student Jason Bromberg started an initiative that would require all organizations that recruit at the school's career service office to sign a non-discrimination statement. According to Bromberg, similar policies are used by other educational institutions, including the Harvard Law School, does not damage new democratic institutions.