IOP Will Reach Out To Students

Famous people visit Harvard every day, but many students never see them. This year the Institute of Politics (IOP), hopes to give more students that opportunity.

Its Student Advisory Council (SAC) voted last week to establish a new outreach committee to strengthen student involvement. Over 100 active IOP members elected E. Clarke Tucker ’03 as the committee’s first chair in a special election Tuesday evening.

The committee will extend the IOP’s interaction with undergraduates by creating a broad publicity strategy, building relationships with student groups, and improving the institute’s website.

“We want to extend the outreach considerably to the houses and community,” IOP Director David Pryor said. “We’re not just trying to invite people to the IOP. We’re going to where they live. We’re very excited about it.”

The IOP sponsors about 10 events each week, but Tucker said he feels that many students do not know about the opportunities. He hopes to host more events in houses and the Yard and to advertise all of them online, giving the IOP more exposure to all undergraduates.

He envisions the “IOP coming to campus, in addition to the campus coming to the IOP.”

SAC President Rob F. McCarthy ’02 proposed the idea for a committee that would combine these tasks. Outreach will pick up the responsibilities of answering e-mails and phones, but it will also develop new ways to reach out. For the first time, he says, the IOP will have a group dedicated to improving its publicity and outreach.

“What can we do better? How can we better attract students?” he asked.

With its own staff, endowment and building, the IOP has the resources to join with other organizations to host dinners with political luminaries, arrange student-professional conferences and provide undergraduate internships.

The IOP supported the Harvard AIDS Coalition in hosting an AIDS week last April, for example, and a forum on the terrorist attacks drew hundreds yesterday afternoon. By expanding publicity, Tucker hopes to bring even more students to the IOP.

The outreach committee will have its first meeting next week, and all interested undergraduates are welcome.

“There is no doubt in my mind that there needed to be a home for outreach at the IOP,” Tucker said. “Now there will be a group of people dedicated to letting the campus know about all of the resources it has to offer.”