Students need to ask themselves why they are not going to the policy events. White also questions why students at the Kennedy School didn t think it was appropriate to have Governor Ventura or political activist Beatty at the Forum. It s almost elitist to say that they don t meet our criteria, and that we only want academics to come - especially since Ventura is an elected official. As evidenced by the tremendous publicity before the Prisons and Sentencing Forum, when student groups are directly involved in organizing Forum events, they go out of their way to publicize the event. In fact, when student groups want to organize events, they are often pressured by the Forum office to bring in crowds.
Publicity is about getting people to people to care.
Another often-raised concern about the Forum is whether it should reflect concerns of KSG students, rather than Harvard undergrads. The Forum is part of the Institute of Politics, which caters to the undergraduate population, but is housed at the Kennedy School. Because the Forum Advisory Committee has at least six spots for students of Harvard College and only one KSG representative, there seems room for more involvement of KSG students in the planning of events. In the future, the Forum also plans to work more closely with the recently revitalized KSSG Forum Committee, which is meant to serve as a link between the student body at KSG and the Forum office. According to co-chair Cassandra Flenker, students can go to the KSSG Forum Committee with event ideas and the committee will then present the ideas to the Forum office.