Last winter, as an active member of the Harvard College Greens, I was presented with an exciting opportunity: four candidates vying for the Green Party’s presidential nomination were interested in taking part in what was to become the first debate amongst Green Presidential candidates in American history. Naive as I was, I presumed that such an event would mesh perfectly with the mission of the Institute of Politics (IOP), namely, “engag[ing] young people, particularly undergraduates, in politics and public service.” It didn’t take long for me to realize that such an event was not considered by the IOP to be in any way related to its mission. Apparently, the Institute’s directors believe that their mission is to engage young people in certain kinds of politics, or more specifically, Democratic Party politics. Indeed, the IOP was dead-set against hosting the Green candidates’ debate until I threatened to write a letter to this newspaper, describing the IOP’s longstanding mistreatment of the Harvard College Greens.

Once the IOP was faced with a reminder of its exclusion of the Greens from various events in the past, they agreed to host the Presidential Debate. Nonetheless, I was warned that there wouldn’t be very high attendance, and the IOP would be forced to invest a great deal of money in opening up the JFK Jr. Forum to host the event, a significant cost for such an “insignificant” event. Much to the IOP’s surprise, however, the debate was attended by more than 200 excited spectators despite the fact that it occurred during intersession. Members of the IOP staff who had doubted interest in the debate came to me during the event and remarked how successful they considered the event to have been. They were impressed by the community interest in Green politics and noted that they hoped to continue working with the Harvard College Greens in the future.

Though I graduated this past spring, I have remained here in Cambridge very much engaged in politics. I am currently managing former Harvard undergraduate Carolina Johnson’s ‘04 campaign for State Representative here in the 25th Middlesex District (which includes all of Harvard University’s Cambridge campus). I have also remained in touch with my friends who are still active in the Harvard College Greens, and I even received an e-mail from the IOP inviting the Greens to co-sponsor an event about third parties this September. I was pleased to see that the IOP had not forgotten the Greens, and I forwarded the e-mail to a currently active member of the Harvard Greens. The Greens later sent the IOP a reply noting that they were, indeed, interested in co-sponsoring the event, and that they looked forward to working together with the IOP in the future, perhaps by co-sponsoring a debate between the two candidates for State Representative in the 25th Middlesex District, Green Carolina Johnson and Democrat incumbent Alice Wolf.

The Greens did not receive a reply. A week later, the Greens sent another e-mail making a clear and detailed request that the IOP consider hosting or co-sponsoring a debate between Wolf and Johnson. This e-mail, dated September 27th also has yet to receive a reply. The Greens were in touch with me throughout this process because I had been chiefly responsible for contact with the IOP during my time as an undergraduate. But it did not seem to me that it would be appropriate for me to get personally involved, since I have graduated and also because of my role in Ms. Johnson’s campaign.

Recent events, however, have pushed me to become more involved in the IOP’s complete failure to respond to the Greens’ repeated requests. I learned on October 13 that the IOP will be co-sponsoring an event featuring Representative Wolf, entitled “Students Matter for Cambridge.” I was dismayed by the IOP’s decision to co-sponsor this event in light of the organization’s failure to so much as reply to the Greens’ request for an event featuring both candidates, and I was disgusted by the event’s hypocritical title, “Students Matter for Cambridge.” Indeed, as I see it, the IOP must not believe that students matter for Cambridge. Students engaged in local politics have asked that a healthy debate about issues of importance in Cambridge be brought onto campus. They have asked for the chance to hear from a student-candidate in a public forum. And they have been ignored. This disregard for the Greens’ work in the community is not just poor form on the IOP’s part, it is actually detrimental to the IOP’s mission of engaging students in politics, because it leads students to believe that their personal engagement in politics is not valued or legitimate. If the IOP truly hopes to live up to its mission of engaging students in public service, it must meet students where they are, accepting the political views and interests of all students and working to foster each student’s own interests. What the IOP shouldn’t do is push students to believe that only one political viewpoint is valid.

Stephen H. Milder ‘04 is the campaign manager for Green candidate Carolina Johnson.