# HKS students will help out city of Boston Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino met with students in Linda Bilmes’ advanced budgeting and financial management course at HKS to encourage them to use their skills to help the Hub weather its current financial storm. This spring her students will undertake consulting projects in partnership with members of the city’s budget office to help navigate the fiscal challenges the city now faces. December 11, 2008 **Gazette Online – The Harvard University Gazette** **December 11, 2008** **HKS students will help out city of Boston** *By Colleen Walsh* *Harvard News Office* When the mayor of Somerville needed help with his city’s fiscal crisis in 2004, he looked to Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) for assistance. Four years later, in today’s economic downturn, the city of Boston is turning to the institution for aid. Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino met with students in Linda Bilmes’ advanced budgeting and financial management course at HKS to encourage them to use their skills to help the Hub weather its current financial storm. This spring her students will undertake consulting projects in partnership with members of the city’s budget office to help navigate the fiscal challenges the city now faces. “Today this work has become even more important, given the current financial crisis at the state and national levels,” Menino told the students. The mayor said he liked working with students on city projects in part because of their much‑needed perspective. The idea ultimately bloomed into a small field course in Somerville, where about 60 students signed up, recalled Bilmes. “We ended up working with them over the course of a year, and contributing to that city’s whole turnaround.” The collaboration actually grew out of a casual remark from the mayor during a municipal finance conference sponsored by Harvard’s Institute of Politics and the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston last spring. Menino was part of a panel, “Navigating the Fiscal Crisis,” with other mayors looking for new ideas and approaches. The panel suggested the possibility of more direct cooperation with students. The notion appealed both to Menino and to Bilmes, who was teaching a workshop at the conference, and who has directed a number of HKS field projects that send students directly into city and town halls. “It’s going to be a term that this city has never seen before,” said Menino, adding, “We want you to balance our books as we continue to be a great city. We want you to be part of the solution. That’s the part that I like the best.” “What you do is you bring your expertise, your knowledge. You might not think you have it, but the problem we have is that for the last eight or nine years, we’ve done things the same way and it doesn’t work. We need new eyes and new ideas and \[people\] coming at it from a different perspective.” All around the country, strapped cities and towns may be looking to academic experts and students for help as state and local governments struggle with tightening budgets and additional burdens placed on them by the faltering economy. The partnership has assembled an outstanding team at City Hall, including representatives from the mayor’s office and finance departments, and Bilmes said she looked forward to working with them. “Mayor Menino recognizes the value of partnering with the University, not only for the city but for the students as well, who learn to work on real‑world problems and receive experience.” Over the years, the advanced budgeting students have worked with local cities and towns all over the country, from Somerville to San José, helping with everything from performance‑based budgeting to applications for FEMA funding, Bilmes said. The work is often expanded into summer internships. “This course provides a pipeline for young people to go into public service,” said Bilmes. “Many of the students who have taken this course have taken jobs in cities around the country.” Bilmes said she hopes the class’s work with Boston could be the pilot for similar student projects in other municipalities, and could help build a model for city–university collaborations on public service and finance. Bilmes is no stranger to budget analysis. The HKS lecturer in public policy and former assistant secretary for management and budget for the U.S. Department of Commerce co‑authored, with Nobel Prize‑winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, “The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict,” a best‑seller. Her latest book, “The People Factor: Strengthening America by Investing in Public Service,” co‑written with W. Scott Gould, will be published in January. In the spring, the Boston projects will be team‑taught by Bilmes and Carolyn Wood HKS assistant dean, in which small teams of students work with a local community on a variety of budgeting issues. Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, whose goal is to help improve the region’s civic life and local government by developing connections among scholars, students, area officials, and civic leaders. In the coming months Bilmes will work with Lisa Signori, director of administration and finance for the city of Boston, to match student projects in financial management and budgeting that will be most beneficial to the city. Back in class, Menino encouraged students not only to work with the city, but to consider a career in government. “It’s not about the monetary value; it’s about what you do for the people every day. It’s about how you learn and you understand that crunching the numbers is really about helping people. That’s what it’s all about,” he said. As she wrapped up the course’s final lecture for the semester, Bilmes echoed the mayor’s sentiments for the aspiring public servants, reminding them that crunching the numbers is helping people. “I urge you to use this budget knowledge for the common good,” she said, adding that they should follow the Kennedy School’s founding principle and “try to make the world a better place.” Harvard News Office Photo Requests · Previous Issues · Contact Us © 2008 The President and Fellows of Harvard College --- Attachments- [ picture\_as\_pdf HKS students will help out city of Boston.pdf ](/sites/g/files/omnuum12421/files/2026-02/HKS%20students%20will%20help%20out%20city%20of%20Boston.pdf) --- Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)