And as Kidd tried to carry out the reorganization planned for PBHA, the adversarial relationship between the students and Lewis’ office worsened.

“It was on the edge of a knife for three years,” the student says.

But Kidd said she remembered the unique structure of PBHA as she continued in her post.

“One thing you learn when you come to Harvard is that Harvard’s model of public service is student-run. And you accept that or you don’t come here,” Kidd said in 2000.

Gradually, as the members of PBHA at the time of the brouhaha graduated, the pressure on Kidd mostly—though not completely—dissipated.

“It’s in the back of people’s minds; it’s not yet completely gone,” says Public Service Network Director Meg B. Swift ’93, one of the two people who have assumed Kidd’s former duties at PBH. “I think it’s faded into the background.”

KIDD IN THE HALL

When Kidd packed up her PBH office and moved about 500 feet across the Yard to University Hall, she brought along with her the management skills and higher-education experience that had won her the PBH position in the first place. But she left behind much of the controversy that had beset her previous posts.

This year, Kidd took on supervision of the Office for the Arts at Harvard (OFA), the Office of Career Services (OCS), the Harvard Foundation and the Ann Radcliffe Trust in addition to continuing to supervise PBH. Lewis oversaw these organizations during his deanship.

Kidd’s computerized schedule is covered with multi-colored blocks representing her meetings with University Hall colleagues, representatives from offices she supervises and students.

Kidd was appointed to keep the student affairs facet of the College administration running smoothly while Gross focused on the curricular review. She said at the beginning of the year that her top priorities were increasing the frequency of Committee on College Life (CCL) meetings, where student extracurricular groups and policies are discussed, and bringing a more collaborative spirit to her office.

Kidd said last year that the infrequency of CCL meetings precluded effective and efficient monitoring of student group matters.

A year later, the CCL has met six times—triple the frequency of last year—and now has a policy of disseminating materials a week before meetings so members can consider issues in advance.

That change came after a controversial decision to approve H Bomb Magazine, a publication focusing on sex that includes nude photographs of undergraduates.

For that issue—the most contentious the CCL has faced this year and one about which Kidd received “thousands of [phone] calls”—the committee was able to peruse possible content and information about the magazine only the morning of the meeting.