"It seems to me if Harvard is spending money it should go to benefit the community and not to pay for administrative overhead," he says.
The amount of new money actually infused into the community has raised additional questions among public service activists. The second largest grant this year went to the Cambridge Youth Enrichment Program (CYEP), a summer camp for "problem children" that has been run for several years by PBH.
The only PBH program to receive a grant from the new fund, the enrichment program had previously received the same amount of funding from President Bok's discretionary fund. In addition, CYEP received $14,000 in funding in 1983, when Bok agreed to match a challenge grant from the City of Cambridge for $7000. In 1984 and 1985, Harvard offered the group $10,000 outright if it did not request funding from the city.
Among the grants the committee also approved this past year include $3000 to Cyclists Fighting Hunger, $2000 toward the Lamont Fellowship, $500 to the Currier House Dance Marathon, and $500 to a new children's theater group.
At one time PSP costs were also covered by the president's discretionary fund. Thus, of the $41,000 doled out from the new $1 million endowment, at least $31,500 replaced funding formerly received from other sources within the university.
Epps says that "the committee felt it had an obligation to fund programs started under [Bok's] initiative," such as PSP and HAND. Both previously received funding from the discretionary fund.
"In the long run," the dean of students says, "the money should go to support direct service programs." But while he says that Gump's salary should not have to come out of this fund, the committee will cover the personnel costs of PSP next year. Epps says there is "a possibility" that the the committee may not do so in the future.
When the committee began to meet to review grant proposals, Epps says, it had no formal criteria for deciding what types of programs to support. The rules for distributing the funds, he says, "were made in the process" of giving out the grants.
The committee was chaired by Fox and five other Harvard officials. But campus volunteers say that if the committee had some student social servants sitting on it, the group would have been better able give out its funds.
"It makes sense that you would want people familiar with public services on the committee," says Barton, who adds that PBH only submitteed a proposal to fund one of its thirty programs.
"It wasn't our decision out of nowhere just to put in one grant--we have a lot of programs that need money," she says. "But we had a meeting with Dean Epps and got the impression that it would be favorable if only one [PBH] group applied."
Epps says that because the committee felt it had an obligation to support some of the president's programs, it did not want PBH activities "to consume the whole $43,000."
Need for Criteria
Most members of social service agencies contacted say they think there needs to be more effective criteria for disbursing the funds. One step in that direction, many say, would be to narrow the allocation of grants to programs that will directly implement their money into the community. Another step in the right direction would be to place an experienced public servant on the committee responsible for approving grants.
"The question of efficiency is a question the Harvard administration has to answer for," says City Councilor Sullivan. "I don't want to be too critical, because obviously any money [Harvard donates] is good. But I haven't seen a whole lot of evidence of benefits in the community."
Here's Where it All Went
Money Doled Out to Community Service Groups This Year
Income is generated from the interest on a new million dollar public service endowment. Public Service Program $18,110 Cambridge Youth Enrichment Program $10,000 CityStep $3515 Cyclists Fighting Hunger $3000 Office of Career Services/Lamont Fellowship $2000 Francis de Celle $1500 Currier House Dance Marathon $500 Centro Presente $500 Children's Theater $500 Suzuki Program $500 Money spent this year: $43,000 Funding held over until next year: $2875