"Generally, the leadership and governance of PBHA when it comes to its relationship with the administration of the College, is quite hazy and very confusing for the most part," says Andrew Park '01, a PBHA officer.

. "Folks like [current president Guerrier] or the past president [Joseph M. Garland] are the few able to navigates its murky waters," he adds.

Because the organization includes students, College administrators, professional staff and community leaders, the chain of command is complicated--unlike in other student groups.

"The organizational structure is rather confusing and lines of accountability are fuzzy," Christine C. Chen '00, a former PBHA officer, wrote in an e-mail message. "For example, the executive director of PBHA reports to both the president of PBHA (a student) and the assistant dean. And sometimes there is a conflict of interest."

Another problem stems from the apparent similarity between the student organization of PBHA, created in 1904, and the College's department for public service, Phillips Brooks House (PBH), founded in 1900. PBH gives staff support to both PBHA and other campus service programs like CityStep and HAND.

"People tend to think that the University has the final say in everything we do," says Paul E. Mussman '00, a former PBHA officer.

"A lot of that confusion just comes from the similarity of the names," he says.

Like many students interviewed, Mussman was a student during the struggle for autonomy and is more vocal than most current board members about the student-administration tensions.

"The big problem comes because they're both in the same building and they both have the same name," Mussman says. "You have these two groups that don't trust each other and they both have the same name."

PBHA's Past

The seeds of the conflict over student autonomy at PBHA date back to September 1994, when the Faculty of Arts and Sciences released its Report on the Structure of Harvard College.

To the dismay of campus leaders, the report recommended that a faculty committee be given PBHA oversight powers.

Also recommended was the creation of a new "Assistant Dean of Public Service" post to replace both PBHA's popular Executive Director Greg Johnson '72 and Director of the Office of Public Services Gail Epstein, who administered non-PBHA public service programs such as CityStep and HAND.

Students protested the proposal to Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles, but to no avail.

Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68's selection of Kidd as the new assistant dean in November 1995 exacerbated the growing conflict, as students said their recommendations and input had been ignored.

On December 7 of that year, about 700 students and community leaders rallied in Harvard Yard for PBHA's autonomy and to protest Kidd's appointment.