Our Innocents Abroad

The following is an excerpt from an article in the November 23, 1958 issue of "Ogonek," a Russian magazine comparable in format and circulation to "Life." The translation is by Kent Geiger. The rest of the article will appear in its entirely next week in the CRIMSON.

Two buses with 35 American guests arrived at the chief vestibule to the Lomonosov MGU (Moscow University). Some 40 of our students had gathered in the hall. "Why so few?" asks Kent Geiger, a professor in Sociology at Harvard, in a dissatisfied way.

"It is vacation time now," is his answer. "Visit us again in the fall or winter. Then there will be more students."

The students of all countries quickly find a common language. They are interested in curricula, student organizations, scholarships.

"Who in America can study in the universities?" our students ask.

"Everybody!" said John Armstrong, a graduate student at Harvard University, without blinking an eye.

"For example, what percent at Harvard are from middle-class families?"

John thinks about this for a minute, and his colleagues clap their hands. This is an expression of approval for a well-put question.

"Johnny, I wanted to study at Harvard too, and I couldn't," one of the members of the delegation flings at Armstrong.

"What is the tuition for study in the institutions of higher learning in the U.S.A.?"

"They vary," answers John Mudd, another Harvardian.

"It would be better to say what it is at Harvard!" again sounds the ironic voice of the same student.

"Twelve hundred dollars a year."

And John Mudd lapses into confused silence. Sociology professor Kent Geiger comes to the aid of his Harvard colleague. The sense of his explanation comes briefly to the following: "Harvard is Harvard."

Ted Alexander, a Negro student in the Geography department at Columbia University, speaks up.

"I am a representative of Negro students, but, as you see, I can study in Columbia University," he says proudly.

"Who then are your parents?" the Soviet students ask Ted.

Ted answers that his father owns an insurance company.

"How many Negro students altogether are studying in Columbia University and how many at Harvard?" they ask Ted.

Ted begins to count something on his fingers, then having lost his aplomb, his face breaks into a smile, he waves his arms and begins himself to applaud the question.

The conversation between the Soviet and American students lasted until midnight