Harvard's student activists and their alumni mentors gathered last night for a three-hour dinner and panel discussion at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The event, which drew about 50 undergraduates, teaching fellows, and graduate students, was co-sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences' Standing Committee on Public Service and the Kennedy School's Hauser Center for Non-Profit Organization. The evening featured a panel of experts who gathered to discuss student activism on campus and in postgraduate vocational life.

Moderated by Marshall L. Ganz '64-'92, who teaches political organizing at the Kennedy School, the panel included Leverett Professor of Mathematics Benedict H. Gross '71; Susan C. Eaton '79, a Radcliffe research associate; Kamil E. Redmond '99 and Sewell Chan '98, a former Crimson executive editor.

Professor of Government and of Sociology Theda Skocpol, who chairs the Standing Committee, attended the dinner.

Skocpol said she found points the panel raised concerning the constraints students face in choosing their careers intriguing.

"It was interesting to hear the discussion about...[students] not [being] entirely free."

One of the evening's recurring themes was the pre-professionalism of today's undergraduates compared to the progressive idealism of their counterparts in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Panelists each addressed questions about "how to get students to care," "how to weave common threads [among various activist groups]," and "[whether we are] in an activist period right now."

Chan stressed the importance of "harness[ing] the uses of the information age and its technology" in an era of numerous "salient issues" and "unprecedented diversity on campus."

"The challenge is how to engage people critically," Chan said.

Redmond also addressed the issue of campus diversity. During the panel discussion, she expressed concern that the same core group of about "10 students" is responsible for all of the progressive activity on campus today.

Ganz, Eaton and Grass were able to offer retrospective commentary on under-graduate activism.

Eaton remembered coming to Harvard with high hopes for equal interaction between male and female students, only to discover that Harvard men dismissed Radcliffe women as "girls who don't shave their armpits."

Offering words of advice for those assembled, Eaton suggested "marrying an activist if you are an activist" because of the potential for cooperation and mutual learning.

Gross also reminisced about his undergraduate years. He recalled the 1969 student uprising, suggesting that his generation focused on "abstract political issues on which...[they] could have little impact."