IOP regulars say that these policy groups will not only fill a hole in the institute’s array of programs, but will also help to alleviate complaints that the IOP makes students do too much grunt work.

They say incoming students are sometimes frustrated with spending too much time on organization and not enough on discourse.

Students on one of the IOP’s many committees—for instance, the ARCO Forum committee—may spend the bulk of their time planning events.

One former study groups liaison says he will not continue with the IOP this year because of the preponderance of “grunt work.”

“I didn’t really feel like I got much out of it,” he says. “They mentioned at the beginning of the year that they had a big problem with people dropping out at the end of their freshman and sophomore years, but they didn’t do anything to combat it.”

IOP leaders agree that the work can be tedious.

“They’re all good activities for the campus,” Warren says, “but it can become almost secretarial. The politics can get underplayed.”

The former liaison says he enjoyed attending the study groups, but not organizing them.

With the policy groups, the IOP hopes to create more cohesion between the issues students are interested in and the events they plan.

“The first thing they’re hit with is a discussion about Social Security or the draft,” Warren says of the initiative to create policy groups. “Then, logically, they can go set up events so anyone else can come. Right now we’re missing that first door.”

Learning to Cooperate

While students say the IOP’s 15 professional staffers, who help plan logistics and recruit speakers, are good resources, their existence creates a unique situation at Harvard—an undergraduate student group that is controlled by adults.

Tucker and others characterize relations between the professional staff and students as working “beautifully” right now.

Graff says that while the staffers have “contacts and resources beyond the pale of our abilities” they nevertheless “foster student initiative with their suggestions.”

The former study groups liaison, however, says he felt that while the staffers were both friendly and helpful, their presence curtailed student input.