In November 2000, then-director David H. Pryor disbanded the IOP’s self-selecting SAC to institute open elections for the student governing board.
Now, more than two years after this change, students said the IOP’s new focus on outreach will increase the sense of community for the student members.
“Internally, we will see more student involvement and a better feeling of community because we will all have this common purpose of improving political engagement on a broader level,” Buttigieg said.
Students said the IOP will be careful, even as it tries to organize involvement in politics across college campuses, not to monopolize the political scene.
“The idea is not to create other institutes. We are just talking about projects that can reach out to other campuses,” said Caroline E. Adler ’04, an IOP member-at-large.
IOP members said they hope that more national outreach can help them fulfill the IOP’s initial purpose.
“We need to inspire young people into believing that the government has an impact into their lives,” Glickman said.
—Staff writer Faryl Ury can be reached at ury@fas.harvard.edu.