CityStep Serious

Sabrina T. Peck '84, founder and director of CityStep, says that indifference on the part of the fund's administrators indicates that "they're not taking this thing seriously."

A dance-theater program designed to bring about 25 undergraduates into the Cambridge public school system to teach the performing arts, CityStep received $3500 of its $20,000-budget from the endowment. Because non-profit programs like CityStep are always in need of funds, she says, a few dollars added here and there "is the difference between crippling us and putting us on our feet."

Epps says that the fund's administrators withheld some funding because "the committeee is prudent, and didnt want to spend it all in one year."

Fox says that this fund could not be invested any differently than Harvard's other endowment funds. "You can't pick and choose between claimants" who say they are deserving of a little more than other investors, he adds. "You can make that argument about anything with equal force."

Fox also says that it was erroneous to believe that the endowment money was intended to facilitate new groups receiving university funding.

Acknowledging that much of the money from the new fund was going to support programs Harvard had previously supported, Fox says that the fund "will always be there" and will expedite fundraising for social service agencies by "by putting a large chunk of money in one place."

But Peck maintains that the fund "has inspired new communty service projects" nonetheless. If no new money is made available, she says "the proliferation of new groups will dwindle [each group's share] to a pittance."

There are also questions over whether money from this fund was earmarked for what are called direct services--paying for students who are actually working within the community--or to pay for support services which cover the administrative and clerical overhead of such programs.

In-House Bias?

The committee's single largest grant went to the Public Service Program, which Harvard set up in 1982 as an alternative avenue for student involvement in community affairs. More than $18,000 went to PSP, which sponsors the House and Neighborhood Development (HAND) program, primarily for personnel costs.

"Unfortunately, the bulk of our grant has gone to salary," Gump says. "It's a shame it has to be that way, but you need someone at a paid position to coordinate programs, and no department has picked us up into their budget."

"The fund itself is a great idea," he says. "By and large, it can solve so many public service and community needs. But there are still a few kinks in it." One of the fund's quirks, Gump says, is that almost half of all the money from this year's endowment went toward salaries for himself and his assistant in University Hall.

"If the money is for community service programs, that should be the case and that should be made clear," says Barton. "My impression was that the money would be for programming and direct services."

City Councilor David E. Sullivan says that "the question does need to be asked" whether the money from the endowment should "fund existing institutions whose overhead is covered rather than to set up whole new bureaucracies.