Xinyi & Andrew

Our Priorities

What we want to change

Three pillars — Opportunity & Access, Community & Support, and Clarity & Accountability — and the concrete commitments underneath each one, drawn directly from what students have raised.

Xinyi and Andrew at the Harvard Kennedy School sign

Live, and accountable

Every priority is backed by a tracked issue.

Every issue is logged, and will be validated, assigned an owner, and tracked from raised to outcome. You can see the working list yourself — nothing behind the pillars below is just a promise.

Open the live issue tracker

How an issue moves

  1. 1
    Raised
  2. 2
    Validated
  3. 3
    Owner identified
  4. 4
    Engaged
  5. 5
    Decision / pilot
  6. 6
    Outcome

Pillar 1

Opportunity & Access

Academic and career opportunity should be easier to reach — from the day you pick courses to the day you step into a role in public service.

Course access & enrollment

  • Modernize course enrollment and re-examine the bidding system.
  • Allow earlier enrollment with meaningful course previews before decisions are due.
  • Grow course capacity as demand rises, and cut avoidable scheduling conflicts.
  • Review the late MC/MPA cross-registration timeline.
  • Build a consolidated, searchable advisor directory with bios.
  • Add shorter-format and modular course options alongside semester-long ones.

Career & recruiting support

  • Strengthen recruiting support for all students, with real attention to the barriers international students face.
  • Give clear guidance on visas, CPT, OPT, and post-graduation work.
  • Surface more fellowships, internships, and early-career public-service pathways.
  • Deepen alumni engagement and host practitioner events with policymakers and NGOs.
  • Grow entrepreneurship support for students building their own ventures.

Pillar 2

Community & Support

HKS should support the day-to-day realities of students and their families — and feel like a genuinely connected community.

Family, dual-degree & jointees support

  • Explore an optional family health-access fee so spouses and dependents can use the student health unit.
  • Close support gaps for student parents and families navigating HKS.
  • Back dual-degree “dualies” and jointees who have to stay anchored in two programs at once.
  • Pilot low-cost lending programs — tools and light-therapy lamps.

Cross-program connections & pride

  • Grow mingling across MPP, MPA, MPA/ID, and MC/MPA — and with HLS and HBS.
  • Open up student input into speaker programming and structured debates.
  • Support traditions and gatherings that build community beyond the classroom.
  • Create visible symbols of HKS pride — like a photo sign outside the building — and celebrate student milestones.

Everyday campus quick wins

  • Add Forum fridge capacity, fix L150 audio, and put more charging outlets in common areas.
  • Improve the quality of food at HKS events and open up more study and collaboration space.

Pillar 3

Clarity & Accountability

Students should be able to see where a concern goes, who owns it, and what happened — with straight answers on money and housing.

Housing & financial guidance

  • Bring transparency to the housing lottery.
  • Make financial aid, fellowship, and emergency-funding guidance clearer — especially for international students.
  • Push for a competitive HKS Yellow Ribbon contribution for veterans (today $7,500, versus $20,000 at HBS).
  • Give international students orientation resources for housing, healthcare, and work rules.

Track raised vs. resolved

  • Run a visible Student Issues Tracker: raised → validated → owner → engaged → decision → outcome.
  • Route every concern to the office that actually owns it.
  • Make the difference between “we raised it” and “something happened” clear — including why some issues can’t be resolved.
  • Hold regular forums to raise concerns directly with administrators.

Technology that cuts barriers

  • Pilot AI thematic summaries of course-eval comments, filtered for abusive content.
  • Expand text-to-speech / read-aloud for readings, like Stanford’s Speechify.
  • Centralize advisor, course, and student-facing info in one place.
  • Build a lasting HKS digital identity — an alumni email option after graduation.
Xinyi and Andrew standing behind the engraved Harvard Kennedy School sign wall outside campus
Ready to get to work

Straight from students. Carried to the people who can act.

These priorities come from conversations across HKS — and we'll keep listening.

These will change — with your help.

Our final platform will be shaped by what students actually tell us matters.

Tell us what to prioritize