Morning After And HSA

While House Masters prepared to draft a group statement on unofficial cohabitation between sexes, other factions this week took pot shots at both pre-and post-coital contraceptives.

A report by Ralph Nader's Health Research Group condemned the use of the "morning after" contraceptive as a possible cause of breast and vaginal cancer, especially in women with a family history of these diseases.

The morning after pill--a group of synthetic estrogens effective when taken within 72 hours of intercourse--is administered by University Health Services to between 35 and 45 Radcliffe students each year. The compound used by UHS--diethylstilphosterol--differs slightly from that investigated by Nader, diethylstilbesterol (DES).

Dr. Warren E. Wacker, director of UHS, said that no research has either confirmed or denied the pill's harmful effects, and that the UHS would continue to prescribe the drug.

For those who follow the "be prepared" motto, the week brought bad news. On Thursday, the Harvard Student Agencies' Board of Directors voted against the organization's sale of conditions in the Freshman Union.

Ultimately, Dusenberry's statements did nothing to disprove the students' contention that the Department's tenure, decision process fails to take into consideration, as a crucial variable, what students want taught and who they want to teach it.

Many speakers at the Wednesday meeting stressed their desire to have the Department teach radical economics--which, in the Marxist tradition, considers the relation of social and political institutions and class structure to economic behavior--as an alternative approach to economics.

Monday's student-Faculty meeting is unlikely to be a turning-point in the Bowles affair. Given the desire of Faculty and students to give away for vacation, the turn-out is likely to be small.

But the issues the Bowles decision raise are not new in the Economics Department and are unlikely to die after Monday's meeting.