Rogers said she hopes to work as an advocate for sustainable energy after graduation.

Without LRAP, she said, she would have to “take a job that doesn’t align with my principles and my goals.”

‘MISSION DRIFT’

In his e-mail to students Thursday, Nye said he was “impressed by the eloquent arguments in favor of continuing our LRAP program, because they demonstrated your strong commitment to public service, a commitment which I share.”

KSG spokesperson Jesus Mena said that Nye’s policies in his eight years as dean have significantly increased the percentage of the school’s students who pursue public sector careers.

In June 1996, during Nye’s first year as dean, 45 percent of students in the school’s master’s of public policy (MPP) program took private sector jobs after graduation. According to Mena, Nye “was alarmed that we were suffering ‘mission drift.’”

In 1999, Nye decided to offer LRAP benefits to graduates earning less than $50,000 a year. Previously, LRAP only granted aid to alums who made under $32,000 a year.

In the last half-decade, the program’s budget has increased from $44,000 to approximately $200,000 today.

Whereas 11 graduates received LRAP benefits in 1999, 65 alums collect aid from the program this year.

By last June, the number of MPP graduates entering the private sector had fallen to 20 percent.

According to Mena, 58 percent of the 2003 MPP graduating class took government jobs, and 22 percent went to work for nonprofit organizations.

“We no longer worry about ‘mission drift,’” Mena wrote in an e-mail to The Crimson. “Our challenge now, appropriately, is affording to hold on to these gains.”

‘LACK OF TRANSPARENCY’

Despite the program’s success, some say that it has not gone far enough.

Bridger E. McGaw ’97, a marshal for the MPP class of 2004, said Nye has displayed “an egregious lack of understanding of the financial burden that students who go into public service face when they graduate.”