Student Groups Booted From Thayer Offices

Associate Dean of the College David P. Illingworth ’71 said yesterday he intends to relocate the offices of the International Relations Council (IRC), the Harvard Model Congress (HMC) and the Harvard Model Congress Europe (HMCE) in order to expand the office space of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations.

Under the plan, the offices of the IRC, HMC and HMCE would be significantly downsized—but the president of the IRC said he does not understand why.

“IRC and HMC are going to move. I’m going to listen to what they have to say, [but] it’s got to be pretty compelling, because right now the Foundation’s argument is most compelling,” Illingworth said. “It is a group that appears to me to have been overcrowded for a very long time.”

Illingworth said he plans to meet with IRC, HMC and HMCE members today or Thursday to discuss their possible relocation.

IRC President Michael J. Gilbert ’02 questioned, however, why his group must downsize their already crowded office space so the Harvard Foundation can expand.

“We support the Harvard Foundation, but we’re confused by why the administration needs to move 12 student groups in order to benefit one group that is not student-run,” said Gilbert, who learned of the possibility of relocation last Thursday when he met with Susan T. Cooke, the College’s coordinator of student activities.

Illingworth contends that the Foundation is a “hybrid organization, not really administration and not purely student-run” that is “an official part of Harvard.”

Last night, Gilbert sent an e-mail to IRC directors informing them of the move.

IRC, Harvard’s largest student-run organization, which includes the Harvard Model UN, Harvard National Model UN, Harvard International Review, Harvard Program in International Education, Harvard Model Security Council and Harvard Intercollegiate Model UN Team, would move from its 1,200-square-foot location in the basement of Thayer Hall to the current offices of the Harvard Foundation and HMC, also located in Thayer. Its new offices will comprise a total of 800 square feet.

HMCE and HMC—which oversees government simulation programs for high school students, Harvard Model Senate for first-years and the Harvard Political Education Program—will in turn move from their 318-square-foot, two-room office in Thayer to a new location, possibly a smaller one-room vacant office in the basement of Holworthy.

The relocations will ultimately allow the Harvard Foundation, which oversees 40 student organizations, holds meetings and seminars in its office and has a staff of 15 interns and assistants, to almost triple its space by moving into the current IRC office.

“We know that we’re supposed to move into a bigger space because so many people pass through here,” said Monica Brooker, a Harvard Foundation staff assistant.

Gilbert said Cooke informed him that Illingworth and S. Allen Counter, Jr., the director of the Harvard Foundation, had been “talking intensely this past year” about the Foundation’s relocation.

Gilbert said he was disappointed that the IRC was not included in these discussions.

“Our input, in terms of how much space we need, was never sought. It’s very confusing to me,” he said.

HMC members will meet with Cooke today to give her a tour of their office, showing how they use their current allotted space.

Helen C. Gilbert ’02, co-president of HMC, sounded optimistic.

“I think that we’re lucky because there are so many student organizations that don’t have offices,” she said. “But I hope that if we do have to move to a smaller office, we won’t have to cut operations.”

If HMC and HMCE move to Holworthy, they plan to use a partition to separate their two offices in a single room.

Adam J. Hornstein ’03, director of HMC San Francisco, expressed his concern about an HMC relocation.

“Besides praying we don’t get moved, we’re more or less hoping to show Susan Cooke that it just isn’t feasible for us to move,” he said.

Steven C. Wu ’02, managing editor of the International Review, emphasized the problems that will arise for his publication with a smaller office space.

“We have to make sure our magazine gets people editing it, and we need a lot of space for that. We may be moving to a smaller space and that will be tough,” Wu said.

Gilbert noted that in its current space, IRC uses closets and hallways for offices and different IRC organizations often fight over the space they need.

Illingworth said, however, that he recognized the difficulty in pleasing everyone.

“I am certainly willing to talk to any students who want to talk about this,” he said. “This is what I hope is a temporary solution. Everyone gets something, but they don’t exactly get what they want.”

Counter did not respond to a call for comment.