Word: iops
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...November 30th, we vied to be the next student president and vice-president of the Institute of Politics (IOP). The animating premise of our campaign was this line from the speech we delivered on election night...
...long we’ve asked ourselves why so many people stay away from the IOP without understanding the most obvious answer: for the typical Harvard student, even a politically engaged student, the IOP is something foreign, something intimidating, something impenetrable...
...That the IOP offers opportunities to undergraduates unparalleled anywhere in the world has become almost a cliché—and make no mistake, it is certainly a truism: that’s what drew us to the IOP in the first place. But the unfortunate reality is that a small minority of students gets the lion’s share of the benefits. Far too often the IOP becomes less a source of empowerment for students passionate about social change, and more an elitist fraternity for political junkies—a reality that profanes the Kennedy name...
...refuse to believe this is all that the IOP can be. We sought to transform the IOP’s relationship to Harvard students by reorienting its relationship with student political groups. Right now, the IOP stands, more or less, as one political group among many: there’s the Harvard College Democrats (Dems), the Harvard College Republicans (HRC), Student Labor Action Movement, Harvard Right to Life, Harvard Progressive Advocacy Group, various other issue-based and ethnic groups—and then there’s the IOP. And while some overlap exists between the IOP and members...
This represents a complete failure, an outright mockery, of the IOP’s mission: Often the students who care most about politics on this campus are staying farthest away from the Institute of Politics. And the IOP is not just another student organization; we have a full-time staff, a former Governor as our Director, a nearly $100 million endowment, Ted Kennedy on our Board, and the prestige to get keynote speakers with five-figure appearance fees begging for the chance to speak for free...