Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 approved changes last week which will effectively transfer power from a single Phillips Brooks House (PBH) administrator to the non-student directors of the two public service groups which constitute it.

According to the recommendations of the PBH restructuring committee, the positions of PBH director and associate dean of public service—currently held by Associate Dean of the College Judith H. Kidd—will be eliminated. Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) Executive Director Gene A. Corbin and Public Service Network (PSN) director Meg B. Swift will assume all of Kidd’s responsibilities, but will still report to Kidd regarding departmental decisions.

According to some members of the committee, the changes aim to usher in a more congenial atmosphere between the two groups, while allowing the groups to function independently of one another.

“One of the goals was to make a clearer distinction between PBHA and PSN while fostering a greater sense of collaboration, as opposed to competition, between the two organizations,” Kidd wrote in an e-mail.

The changes will also redistribute power in the College’s public service hierarchy, allotting PBHA a greater say in the general direction of public service on campus, as well as increasing the role of PSN director Swift.

TRANSFERS OF POWER

Before her appointment as acting dean of Harvard College in 2003, Kidd served as assistant dean of public service for seven years. Under the restructuring of PBH, that position no longer exists.

Instead, Corbin and Swift will share her former responsibilities.

Kidd will continue to sit on the PBHA board and its finance committee in accordance with a 1997 agreement made between PBHA and the College.

Corbin, Swift and Kidd will likely meet once a month to discuss the running of PBH, and Kidd will retain veto power over all major decisions. Corbin will report to Kidd regarding fiscal safety and liability for all PBH groups, while Swift will report on general public service issues.

With the changes, Swift’s influence on public service at the College will widen significantly, while Corbin’s domain will remain relatively unchanged. Swift will go from managing a small fraction of Harvard’s public service options to having a say in the general direction of public service at the College.  

“My job will definitely be more challenging in this new capacity,” Swift wrote in an e-mail. “There will be many more areas [in which] I’ll have to be involved ... fundraising, collaboration with PBHA and greater connections throughout the College and University.”

Kidd, who founded PSN when she arrived at the College in 1996, said that she and Swift have enjoyed a close relationship since she appointed Swift as PSN’s second director. But Kidd said that she and Corbin have had comparatively little communication.

“PSN has already been working closely with me over the years and has been far more in the loop concerning PBH, the department, than has PBHA. This was one situation we wished to correct,” Kidd wrote in an e-mail.

 “We hope to make PBHA, the largest public service organization on campus and the major tenant in PBH, more involved in the actual management of department functions and programs that affect all students, regardless of the organization in which they do their public service,” she added.