"The person we appoint needs to report directly to the [PBHA] board," Han says. "We need to hire a person with special competence and skills in public service, someone to represent our organization in the public eye."

But Kidd criticizes the students, saying they will only accept a leader who catters to their whims.

"Students have a resistance to taking advice from anyone...unless they choose someone with no backbone," Kidd says.

Students say the purpose of the board is to give many different communities a stake in the future of public service at Harvard.

"It sends a message that we take the idea of accountability very seriously, and it sends a message to the students," says Eric D. Dawson '97, last year's vice president of PBHA.

Kidd's Appointment

The Report on the Structure of Harvard College recommends enacting the College's vision of public service in part by appointing an assistant dean of public service in order to create a clear line of accountability for these programs.

In November, Lewis appointed Kidd over the strong objections of the students who sat on the search committee.

Many in the PBHA community say Kidd's appointment is a sign of the administration's desire to control public service by hiring someone whose first loyalty is to the University and its budget.

Students had overwhelmingly favored retaining Greg Johnson '72, the longtime executive director of PBH.

"The purpose of selecting Kidd was more fiscal than administrative," says Vincent Pan '95-'96, a former president of PBHA.

"[The report] ostensibly aimed to figure out how to better public service at Harvard, but actually it was a way of eliminating Greg Johnson and concentrating power in the Dean's office," King says.

The decision to hire Kidd also led to the elimination of the position of Gail L. Epstein, director of public service program for Harvard College and coordinator of the HAND program.

At the time, the decision was opposed by many current and past members of HAND, including Steigerwald.

"As long as students believe that HAND's unique programs will be destroyed by the abrupt removal of Gail...I believe the students," Steigerwald says.