Senior Reception
4 to 5 PM, Tuesday, June 2, 2009 (immediately following the class picture)
Phillips Brooks Parlor, Harvard Yard
Brief remarks at 4:30 PM followed by the selection of the Class of 2009 Representative
Food and soft drinks will be served. Attire is casual.
Friends and family are welcome to wait for their graduate during the Class Picture at the Phillips Brooks House

Reunion Reception
4 to 5 PM, Saturday, June 6, 2009
Phillips Brooks Parlor, Harvard Yard
Brief Remarks at 4:30 by PBHA President Richard Kelley ’10, Class of 1955 Executive Director Gene Corbin, and Phillips Brooks House Association – Alumni Officer Toby Romer ’94.
Drinks & hors d’oeuvres will be served.

Special thanks to our host committee members: Ayirini Fonseca-Sabune ’04, Ariel Harms ’04-’05, Jason Q. Purnell ’99, Toby Romer ’94, Emily Schmitt ’04, Todd Shaiman ’94, Jessica J. Tang ’04, Elisabeth Tomlinson Tracy ’99, Christine Dang Thuy Anh Tran ’04, Ginger Young ’84

Recently SLAM worked with the Harvard College Democrats to produce a video about the human cost of layoffs:

In an open letter to Harvard University President Drew Faust, co-signed my many organizations including Harvard’s Undergraduate Council SLAM writes:

We write to you as members of the Harvard community because we are concerned with our University’s response to the economic crisis. We recognize that Harvard confronts a difficult challenge with a significant drop in the endowment announced in November 2008. However, Harvard remains the wealthiest university and one of the wealthiest non-profit organizations in the world. In this difficult moment, Harvard faces a choice: we can choose either to use our wealth in order to strengthen our community—students, faculty, and workers together—or to allow greed and fear to divide us and erode our institution of higher learning.

We call upon Harvard in these times to act, not out of a logic of fear, but out of a logic of courage and creativity. In recent months, it appears that Harvard is taking the former path by laying off workers and generating an atmosphere of divisiveness. We reject this approach. Accordingly, we demand that the University suspends layoffs and recalls all workers, full-time and part-time, who have been fired since October 2008.

***

First, Harvard has not demonstrated—through transparent, full disclosure of financial information—why job cuts “cannot be averted now.” Second, even if the need for further budgetary cuts were to be transparently demonstrated, the moral logic that should animate a non-profit institution whose motto is “Truth” can never justify forcing its lowest paid workers to pay for a crisis that confronts us all.

Because this is a crisis that involves the entire Harvard community, we must be involved in formulating a comprehensive response. This response must be grounded in an ethos of shared sacrifice and democratic participation. We insist that this process be opened to the community, and thus request a meeting with the President, the Corporation, University administrators, members of the Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM), and other relevant groups in order to begin working together on creative and alternative solutions.

After over a week, the Harvard administration has still not responded to the letter.

Harvard has justified their actions by the recent decline in its endowment, but it refuses to disclose its full budget to the public and executive salaries remain as high as ever.

As Harvard students, we know that we must use our voice to support the workers in our community through this economic crisis. We ask Harvard to fulfill both its mission of education and public service by supporting its workers when it matters most.

We all expect to make sacrifices during these uncertain times, but by targeting its lowest-paid and often immigrant workers, Harvard sends a clear message that some members of our community are more expendable than others.

Join us in fighting for Harvard to protect its workers. Help us show them that people all over the Country are watching their actions by signing our petition and telling others about our campaign.

Together we have already gotten Harvard to rehire Bedardo Sola, the custodial worker in the video, we need everyones help to make Harvard rehire all the workers who have been laid off and to pledge that the richest University in the world will not add to unemployment during this time of economic crisis, but work towards creative solutions that value all members of the Harvard community including students, workers to faculty, administrators, money managers,a residents of the Cambridge and Allston-Brighton communities and more.

We can only rise together.

Tuesday March 31st @ 5:30pm
Ticknor Lounge, Boylston Hall

Harvard – the world’s richest university – has already started laying off some of its lowest paid employees to cut costs during the financial crisis. Cutting staffing levels by 40% at some work sites.

The City of Cambridge has called on Harvard to save the jobs of its service employees that rely on their income the most.

Join us for a panel where janitors, security guards, clerical workers, and dining hall staff will speak out about the pending layoffs in their workplaces. 

Layoffs are more than just percentage points on a budget, but directly impact hard-working people that are simply trying to provide for their families. Come listen to their stories and show your support for Harvard workers fighting to keep their jobs. 

student.labor.action.movement // slam@hcs.harvard.edu // harvardslam.org

The FAS Committee on Public Service is now accepting nominations for the Creativity
Foundation’s Benjamin Franklin Legacy Prize for Creativity and Service. Sophomores and juniors who have demonstrated a strong commitment to public service while exemplifying creativity and innovation in their service activities are eligible for consideration. Nominations, detailing the commitment and creativity of nominees in public service in a one-page letter, should be e-mailed as an attachment to with “Franklin Creativity and Service Nomination” in the subject or delivered to Room 304 in the Phillips Brooks House. Self-nominations are welcomed and encouraged following the same guidelines. Nominations must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 20.

The Legacy Prizewinner will receive an all-expense paid trip to Washington D.C. on Friday evening, April 24, thru Saturday afternoon, April 25. Activities will include an award ceremony and reception on Friday night while lodging at the Cosmos Club and participating in a Saturday morning roundtable discussion with other Legacy prizewinners and Professor Randall. Prizewinners will also become ongoing members of the Benjamin Franklin Junto that seeks to foster ongoing creativity and communication among leaders in various disciplines.

Please contact Gene Corbin at corbin@fas.harvard.edu with any questions.

Date: Friday, March 6, 2009
Time: 5:30-7:30 PM
Location: Palio D’Asti, 640 Sacramento St, San Francisco, CA 94111
If possible, please RSVP (gracehou@post.harvard.edu and christi.tran@gmail.com), but feel free to come either way!

The Perks of Service: What can Blue and Orange Do for You?

So a few semesters ago, you started volunteering with a PBHA program for all the right reasons – social justice, community partnership, structural change, community need, etc. Good job so far. Phillips would be proud.

But after the third weekend in a row of retreats and meetings and overnights and field trips and going to get the van and driving the van around Boston and going to return the van and manning the front desk and attending trainings and talking with parents and then maybe having some more meetings, you’re getting tired of all this work. For the first time since stepping into our historically tall building, you’re feeling a little selfish: what’s in this for you?

The answer is a lot, oh Student Endowed with Creative Initiative. PBHA has a lot to offer the intrepid undergrad, and here’s a guide to help you milk Richard Kelley and crew for all they’re worth:

1. Free Thai Food – On any given day, there’s a 90 percent chance that at least one group in PBHA will have a meeting during dinner and will have to provide food. For any given meeting, there’s a 90 percent chance that this food will be Thai. For any given Thai order, there’s a 90 percent chance that there will be food left over, which means (math skillz!) that there’s exactly a 72.9 percent chance that any visit to PBH will result in a free plate of Drunken Noodle or Pad See Ew. Those odds are pretty good when the price is free. Plus, when was the last time the staff at Spice agreed to sit down with you and talk about your personal theory of social change?

Phillips Tip: If you ever attend a meeting with PBHA officers, volunteer to order the food! The will be more than happy to let you take over, and this way you can destroy the very slight possibility of dinner being anything but Pad Thai.

2. A Bad Driving Record – Kidding! Actually, I don’t know of any other undergraduate organizations that will teach you how to drive a 12-passenger van and then have you navigate a load of overexcited kids around the one-way streets of Boston. A lot of people say they don’t like driving in the city. If you can successfully drive a PBHA van for a semester without crashing, you can drive a regular car anywhere.

Phillips Tip: Everyone knows that the Green van is the best, but did you know that it accepts mp3 CDs? You can burn several hours of kid-friendly music onto one disc, saving you during those awkward moments when KISS 108, Mix 98.5, and Radio Disney all go to commercials at the same time. ‘Cause you’d never put on Jam’n 94.5 with kids in the car, now, would you?

3. Intellectual Stimulation – Last semester I took a seminar on Ulysses, by James Joyce. Steve Griffin gave me a copy of the book and proceeded to ask me how the class was going at least once a week. During one of the last class meetings, the professor pointed out a single sentence – “The heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit” – that he thought was particularly beautiful. A week later Steve mentioned this line as his own personal favorite. Intense conversation ensued. Ballin’!

Phillips Tip: Steve knows everything. Seriously. He’s the guy with the crazy white hair. Talk to him.

4. A Wardrobe – Quick. Run to your dresser. How many PBHA t-shirts do you own? If the answer is less than 5, you haven’t spent enough time in the building. In some ways, the Phillips Brooks House is like the mall, except that it’s a Social Justice Mall where all of the clothes have acronyms on them. During your time with PBHA, you will hopefully acquire some other articles of clothing in addition to t-shirts. I’ve seen hoodies, track jackets, stocking caps, tote bags, and hospital scrubs. Now, if I can just convince the Chinatown Afterschool directors to make CHTNASP socks this semester, I’ll have a complete outfit.

Phillips Tip: If you want a ton of t-shirts, get hired as full-time SUPport and dedicate a significant amount of time to each of the camps. By the end of the summer, the directors will love you and will express their gratitude through t-shirts. Or you can just see what’s in the basement storage room.

5. Friends – Aww. If you spend enough time doing PBHA work, your other friends might abandon you in frustration – socially unjust, perhaps, but true. So think of PBHA as a friend-making service. Everyone in the building shares some important values with you, and everyone’s probably as nice and friendly of a person as you are. You wear the same clothes (see above), know the same people, and do the same programs. Plus, they can’t complain when you spent most of your life in the Leighton Room, ‘cause they’re there too.

Phillips Tip: If you’re really desperate for human interaction, bring your work to the table in the Conference Room and hang out for a few hours. The awkwardness of walking through the front door, seeing somebody that you know in the conference room, and ignoring them on the way upstairs cannot be overstated.

There are many other benefits to be gained from PBHA (another big one rhymes with “Dudent Stevelopment”), but that’s enough for now, you Selfish Sophomore. Now finish your chicken curry, put your MHASP hoodie on, and go advocate some structural change!

Supports President, and Executive Vice President

The PBHA Executive Director builds and maintains the infrastructure to sustain the organization. By working with the student leaders and members of the Board of Trustees, the Executive Director leads in shaping and carrying out the vision and mission of PBHA, acts as ambassador to the Harvard and Cambridge and Boston communities, seeks out and develops resources for PBHA, oversees the development and implementation of sound financial management practices, supervises the staff, mentors students, oversees safety and risk management, and serves as the institutional mandated reporter.

Through the Risk and Prevention program at Harvard Graduate School of Education, Maria worked with high-risk single mothers at Concilio Hispano in Chelsea. Maria has also worked at the served as a team leader at the Hennigan School in Jamaica Plain, a program director for Roxbury and the South End, and the Boston site Service Director. Maria is as an early founder of the South End/ Lower Roxbury Youth Worker’s alliance, Mission Hill Youth Collaborative, and the United Youth and Youth Workers of Boston. Maria offers expertise in personal and professional decision making, building partnerships, crisis management, program development, reflection, diversity, community relationships, team leadership and management, facilitative leadership, community service learning, and program development.