“There have been a lot of people involved in the IOP and there is a good discussion of ideas in part prompted by elections,” says Erin B. Ashwell ’02, former member-at-large and chair of various projects. “I think that people, especially the freshmen and sophomore classes, have some really vibrant ideas and people are willing to commit more time to their IOP activities.”

The IOP has also pursued other means of generating interest in its mission. In an effort to raise awareness about the Institute’s mission and activities, IOP students now register incoming classes to vote.

Pryor also takes pride in staff efforts to meet student concerns. Pryor recalls a student expressing an interest in learning more about prisons. In response the staff invited a former prison guard-turned-author to become an IOP fellow.

“We have a really great group of fellows coming in February,” says Pryor, who will be leaving the IOP at the end of the spring semester. “We have tried to reflect or mirror what the students want to know about.”

Improving Relations

Some of the unhappiness at the time of SAC’s dissolution stemmed from poor student-staff communication.

“Everyone agreed there was a problem with student-staff relations. I think students took an unfair share of the blame,” McCarthy says. “The improvements that SAC was trying to make, was making, weren’t happening quickly enough, so the staff decided to start from scratch. “Many students were upset because they perceived the restructuring as a personal attack. Just as there had been miscommunication before, there was a lot of miscommunication during the dissolution,” McCarthy says.

McCarthy says the current improvement in relations is the most important outcome of the restructuring. Students have begun attending staff meetings, and staff members sit in on student meetings. The IOP also now holds Friday afternoon socials during which students and staff can mingle.

Caroline E. Adler ’04 says she has always found the staff very open, though she has noticed increased efforts to have student and staff interaction. She participated in a staff-student retreat at which students and staff brainstormed together.

Pryor says though there were hurt feelings over the dissolution, the changes were only possible because of strong student support. McCarthy, who was also a member of the old SAC guard, led the interim government and then was elected as the first president under the new structure. Pryor says he believes the restructuring process also gave students a taste of how politics and democracy operate.

“I think we, the staff, and the students learned a lot about governing ourselves,” he says.

“I think the staff is really looking at the students now as legitimate representatives of the student body’s interests, and there is a good atmosphere of wanting to do substantive work,” Ashwell says.

In addition to trying to attract more individual students to their various offerings, the IOP has tried to work more closely with other student groups. The new grants board has a $25,000 annual fund earmarked for the politically minded projects of other student groups.

“One of the benefits of the IOP in having a staff and endowment is that it doesn’t have to struggle like other student groups,” McCarthy says. “We had an image problem on the campus. As a direct result of the restructuring and efforts to outreach to the campus, the IOP has a better image among other student groups.”

But Adler says that some people outside the IOP still see it as competitive and intense.

“I think that maybe one improvement could be its perception on campus,” Adler says. “We want the IOP to be a resource.”

Newly elected IOP President E. Clarke Tucker ’03 says outside perceptions of the IOP have changed since he first became involved.

“I think my freshman year people perceived it as a place where people go to network,” he says. “[But now], with open elections and focusing on issues in addition to politics, I think more students have come to understand the IOP is a very open place whose mission is to help students any way it can.”

—Staff writer Nalina Sombuntham can be reached at sombunth@fas.harvard.edu.