All student groups approached the IOP, says McLaughlin, when they found a political event tangential to their mission. But recently, McLaughin says, student leadership at the IOP has not made the institute open to other student groups to use as a resource.

"We need to reform what we are about," McLaughlin says. "Students should be less concerned with internal structure and hierarchy, and more with how we can move forward and take advantage of these opportunities. It is incredibly important that we reach out to more people."

But McLaughlin is part of the staff that students now say has only worsened the problem, by reducing student control of the organization.

Former SAC member Robert F. McCarthy '02 says that SAC--well aware of its problems--had put forth its own efforts to eliminate the exclusivity that held back the IOP.

"Attendance numbers have gone down, and there seems to be less loyalty to the IOP, but that's not because we don't reach out to students," he says.

McCarthy says efforts to incorporate the interests of students on campus paid off this semester, when study group attendance rose.

McCarthy attributes decreasing numbers of students involved in the IOP to an increasing number of student groups on campus. He says that SAC has often discussed methods to increase involvement.