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Harvard College Dean of Students Thomas Dunne said “a handful of incidents” should not change how the College manages student organizations in a Wednesday interview with The Crimson.
“We should not let anecdotal incidents dictate what we can learn with data,” Dunne said. “So, not getting distracted by a particular event with all the trappings of ‘Oh, this is a salacious story, let’s now make policy based on this one incident, or just a handful of incidents.’”
Dunne’s comments on managing student organizations follow two incidents of internal financial controversy in student groups since 2023.
The Crimson reported last week that a student sued the International Relations Council after being temporarily removed because of a secret financial stress test in which $170,000 were redirected to an unofficial bank account last semester.
Last March, an investigation by The Crimson into the Harvard Undergraduate Foreign Policy Initiative revealed a $30,000 transfer of club funds into the former president’s private bank account.
The DSO grants Harvard’s independent student organizations full control over their finances, though clubs can apply for grants through the Harvard Undergraduate Association. At Princeton — where Dunne served as deputy dean of students for more than 20 years — student organizations manage their finances with the help of administrators.
Dunne said this centralized system at Princeton worked well in “managing risk,” adding that the process of centralization — which he oversaw — was motivated by “tax reporting responsibilities.”
“We were able to develop systems where I think the groups were able to function and do their work without interruption,” Dunne said.
But shifting to a centralized model is “not a goal” for Harvard, according to Dunne.
“There’s a responsibility there that I do think promotes a certain type of learning,” Dunne said of independent student financial management. “I don’t want to be too hasty with depriving most student groups with that learning to eliminate these ad hoc cases.”
Dunne said the autonomy Harvard’s student organizations currently have enables the development of valuable transferable skills.
“You’re in it, and you’re running these conferences, you’re running these things. And it’s not until you’re in your post-Harvard life that you’re like, ‘Oh my god, I did these things that were really complicated, and I was doing it as a sophomore with no sleep and doing problem sets,’” Dunne said.
“I definitely don’t want to be casual about how important that is with student learning,” he added.
Dunne also discussed the ongoing pause on recognizing new student organizations for the 2023-24 academic year as the DSO audits the student organization landscape. In an October interview with The Crimson, Dunne said the freeze is “really smart” for the long term health of clubs.
On Wednesday, Dunne said he expects the recognition process to become more streamlined following the audit’s conclusion.
“It’s an opportunity for the process to be more intentional and fit the current needs of students at Harvard,” Dunne said.
“There’s also clearly resource capacity issues that we have to pay attention to,” he added. “When you look at the numbers of 470 registered student organizations, that doesn’t include club sports, religious organizations.”
In reconsidering the process of club recognition, Dunne said he hopes to focus on groups with “emergent, active” ideas, while also maintaining some of the College’s oldest clubs.
“My preference is to get recognition and resources to groups that have passionate ideas that are here,” Dunne said. “We also have to make sure we’re caring for some of the venerable groups that have been here for centuries.”
—Staff writer Azusa M. Lippit can be reached at azusa.lippit@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @azusalippit or on Threads @azusalippit.
