And a September 12 memo from PBHA to Dean of the College Lewis suggests a larger project: bringing together students, recent alumni, staff, Lewis, Administrative Dean Nancy L. Maull, President Rudenstine and seven current and former members of the PBH Association Committee to discuss the future of public service.
The memo cautions that the discussions will not "derail an existing process"--i.e., the search committee's deliberations--but rather to ensure that opinions from very different perspectives have been fully heard and discussed in a group setting."
It adds that "those who may be newest to PBH and public service are often placed in decision-making situations without realizing the incredible knowledge to be gained by consulting those who know and have built Harvard public service to its nationally renowned status."
But Johnson cautioned that structural changes will not fall into place overnight.
"This is not something that can be accomplished in the next six months," he said. "This is something that has to be an ongoing discussion. The new assistant dean should participate "in that discussion."
And that discussion is likely to grow more heated, as administrators and student leaders continue to differ over the future of the College's public service structure.
Hopefully, Pan said, administrative differences will not impede PBHA's real mission--providing student-run service to more than 1,000 members of the greater Boston community.
"I wonder if that doesn't get missed sometimes," Pan says. "Because obviously that is an ongoing story and it doesn't make the headlines sometimes but that is really the type of organization we are."
"We don't want to be in the headlines for battling the University," he adds.