Harvard Law Scraps Public-Service Initiative

Despite owning the largest endowment among American universities, Harvard University has taken some financial hits over the past year, from cutting hot breakfasts to shutting down an important on-campus service over the summer. And the Cambridge, Mass., school made another painful cut yesterday.

Harvard Law School suspended its Public Service Initiative and decreased per-student funding for summer public-interest work, the Harvard Crimson reports. The law school will, however, increase loan repayment assistance for graduates, the report says.

According to the Crimson, the Public Service Initiative waived the expenses of a law student's third year if the student completed five years of work in public service after graduation. The program will be offered to current students, but incoming students will not have a chance to participate. Harvard created a committee to review the initiative and come up with a new program by next March.

Students said they were disappointed but understood the decision. Some expressed concern about the cuts for summer public-interest work, which the school shortened from 10 weeks of funding to eight weeks.

"This probably won't adversely affect students with a genuine interest in public-interest law," Harvard law student Dominique Winters tells the Crimson. "I would do this regardless of whether I had funding."

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